Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Sixty-eighth session
Summary record of the 1569th meeting*
Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday, 17 November 2017, at 4 p.m.
Chair:Ms. Leinarte
Contents
Provisional agenda for the sixty-ninth session of the Committee
Adoption of the report of the Committee on its sixty-eighth session
Statement by the Chair
Closure of the session
The meeting was called to order at 5.40 p.m.
Provisional agenda for the sixty-ninth session of the Committee
Ms. Manalo drew attention to the provisional agenda for the sixty-ninth session of the Committee.
The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the provisional agenda for the sixty-ninth session.
It was so decided.
Adoption of the report of the Committee on its sixty-eighth session ( CEDAW/C/BFA/CO/7 ; CEDAW/C/GTM/CO/8-9 ; CEDAW/C/ISR/CO/6 ; CEDAW/C/KEN/CO/8 ; CEDAW/C/KWT/CO/5 ; CEDAW/C/MCO/CO/1-3 ; CEDAW/C/NOR/ CO /9 ; CEDAW/C/NRU/CO/1-2 ; CEDAW/C/OMN/ CO /2-3 ; CEDAW/C/PRK/CO/2-4 ; CEDAW/C/PRY/ CO /7 ; CEDAW/C/SGP/ CO /5 ; and CEDAW/C/2017/III/CRP.1.)
Ms. Manalo (Rapporteur) said that she had the honour of introducing the Committee’s draft report, which was contained in document CEDAW/C/2017/III/CRP.1. She drew attention to chapters I to IV. Chapter IV concerned the draft concluding observations on the 12 State party reports that the Committee had considered during its sixty-eighth session.
Ms. Jahan, referring to decision 68/II contained in chapter I of the Committee’s draft report, said that she wished to know why 2 July 2018 had been chosen as the date by which the Government of Myanmar was requested to submit an exceptional report on the situation of Rohingya women and girls in the north of Rakhine state. She proposed that decision 68/II should include a reference to the joint statement of the Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the situation of Rohingya women and children in Myanmar, that the situation in question should be described as “ongoing” and that the State party should be requested to submit the report within a specified time period rather than by a particular date.
Mr. Schneider (Secretary of the Committee) said that 2 July 2018 had been chosen because that was the date on which the seventieth session of the Committee was due to start.
Ms. Schulz, supported by Ms. Haidar, said that she agreed with the proposal to amend the time period for the submission of the exceptional report. However, the rest of the wording of decision 68/II should remain unchanged.
The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt those chapters of the draft report, as amended, and the draft concluding observations on the reports by States parties considered at the session.
It was so decided.
Ms. Manalo (Rapporteur) said that she wished to introduce the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole, which was contained in chapters VI and VII of the draft report.
The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the draft report of the Working Group for inclusion in the Committee’s draft report.
It was so decided.
The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the draft report of the Committee as a whole.
The draft report of the Committee on its sixty-eighth session as a whole was adopted with minor drafting changes.
Statement by the Chair
The Chair said that, during the session, the Committee had considered 12 State party reports, adopted concluding observations on those reports and a list of issues prior to reporting for one State party, held informal meetings with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national human rights institutions and attended several lunchtime briefings organized by NGOs. Thanks were due to the United Nations entities and other intergovernmental bodies that had provided the Committee with detailed information, including the inter-agency group on reporting to the Committee, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She was pleased to note that United Nations country teams had submitted their reports through the inter-agency group and that several such teams had either sent representatives or briefed the Committee via videoconference.
The Committee had adopted its general recommendation No. 36 (2017) on girls’ and women’s right to education and a joint statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. A panel of experts had met to mark the launch of the Committee’s general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19.
The Committee’s working group on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in a changing climate had made good progress in drafting the general recommendation on that topic, which was expected to be adopted at the sixty-ninth session. The first draft of the report on inquiry No. 2014/1 concerning Kyrgyzstan, which the Committee hoped to adopt at the sixty-ninth session, had been completed.
The Committee had achieved satisfactory progress in implementing General Assembly resolution 68/268 on strengthening and enhancing the effective functioning of the human rights treaty body system, notably by extending the scope of its concluding observations to include acknowledgements of the submission of reports by States parties or expressions of regret about the failure to submit reports. The assessment criteria applicable to follow-up information received from States parties had also been refined.
The working group on the Sustainable Development Goals had prepared a briefing of the United Nations Population Fund on Goal indicators 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 relating to women’s sexual and reproductive health. The Chair of the working group had proposed the organization of a side event at the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2018 with a view to highlighting the efforts made by the Committee to reinforce the implementation and promotion of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The work of the rapporteur and alternate rapporteur on follow-up had resulted in the adoption of four follow-up assessments during the session. Furthermore, the Committee had adopted three final decisions on individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol. Members of the Committee had attended a lunch briefing on women and HIV/AIDS hosted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, a reception hosted by the Permanent Representative of Turkey to mark the launch of general recommendation No. 35 and a working breakfast hosted by the Permanent Mission of Lithuania at the International Labour Organization.
Closure of the session
Following an exchange of courtesies, the Chair declared the sixty-eighth session closed.
The meeting rose at 6.05 p.m.