* Adopted by the pre-sessional working group on 6 March 2020.

List of issues and questions in relation to the eighth periodic report of Senegal *

Legislative framework and discriminatory laws

1.Under the Constitution, all forms of discrimination, in particular discrimination based on sex, are prohibited and gender equality and equity are guaranteed; it is stated that men and women are equal before the law. Please provide information on the measures taken to comply with the Constitution, with a view to ensuring that all discriminatory provisions are repealed, as recommended by the Committee in its previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/SEN/CO/3-7, para. 9). In accordance with the State party’s obligations under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention and in line with target 5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, and indicator 5.1.1, please specify the timeline for the completion of the process of harmonizing legislation and policies on equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex in all areas covered by the Convention, as well as the measures taken or envisaged by the State party to promote, enforce and monitor such legislation.

Definition of discrimination against women

2.In the light of the previous recommendations of the Committee (ibid., para. 11), please report on the measures taken to introduce into legislation an explicit definition of discrimination against women, including intersecting forms of discrimination, direct and indirect discrimination and discrimination in the public and private spheres, as well as provisions guaranteeing equal rights for women and men, in accordance with article 1 of the Convention, and their full implementation, including at the local level.

Access to justice

3.Please inform the Committee of measures taken, especially in rural and peri‑urban areas, to remove sociocultural barriers, such as legal illiteracy, stigmatization of victims and stigmatization of women fighting for their rights, that women may face in gaining access to justice, as well as to address other difficulties in gaining access to justice and the lack of accessible infrastructure. Please advise on measures taken to increase the number of female police officers. Please provide information, including statistical data, on measures taken to guarantee that women have effective access to free legal aid and support. Please explain which measures have been taken to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement personnel, as well as local, traditional and religious leaders, with regard to women’s rights and gender equality.

National machinery for the advancement of women

4.Please clarify the status, time-bound goals and targets of the second national strategy for gender equity and equality, covering the period 2016–2026 (A/HRC/40/5, para. 11), and its implementation plan (paras. 54 and 56), in addition to the human, technical and financial resources allocated for their effective implementation across all sectors and levels throughout the State party. Please provide updated information on the activities undertaken by the Directorate for Gender Equity and Equality and their impact and the steps envisaged to progressively increase the proportion of national funding allocated to the Directorate. Please provide updated information on the development of a national gender equality index (para. 59) and detailed information on the areas of gender equality covered, the indicators chosen to monitor developments in gender equality, accountability mechanisms, gender-sensitive budgeting and the scheduled publication of the information.

National human rights institution

5.Please inform the Committee about efforts undertaken to ensure that the Senegalese Human Rights Committee complies with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), in the light of the State party’s commitments to compliance, made during the universal periodic review, so as to regain its A status accreditation by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (A/HRC/40/5, para. 58).

Temporary special measures

6.Please provide information on temporary special measures, in line with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures, applied during the reporting period through national policies and programmes, including with regard to access to land and higher education, in particular accommodation for girls in the light of the increased feminization of poverty and unemployment.

Stereotypes and harmful practices

7.Please provide updated statistics and data on the prevalence of female genital mutilation and child marriage in the State party, the number of prosecutions and convictions and the penalties imposed on perpetrators of such mutilation (para. 60). Please provide information on the national strategy and action plan for the period 2019–2023 for the elimination of female circumcision, including on planned measures targeting traditional and religious leaders, education actors, health-care providers, social workers, magistrates and police officers, and on the annual allocation of budget lines to support the strategy. Please provide updated information on the reform of the Criminal Code in order to criminalize the practice of female circumcision and extend the statute of limitations to the victim’s age of majority to allow her to file a complaint, as recommended by magistrates (para. 66). Please also provide information on the measures taken to tackle sexist attitudes and behaviour, in line with article 5 of the Convention.

Gender-based violence against women

8.Please provide data on gender-based violence against women, disaggregated by age, type of offence and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, as well as on the numbers of cases registered, cases pending with prosecutorial offices, cases prosecuted, cases tried, convictions and acquittals, and cases in which compensation was provided to the victim, as well as information on the sentences imposed on perpetrators. Please elaborate on the root causes of gender-based violence against women identified in the study conducted by the Study and Research Group on Gender Studies in 2016 (para. 69) and describe how the State party is addressing them in its first national action plan to combat gender-based violence, covering the period 2017–2021. Please include information on preventive mechanisms, training for police officers and magistrates, awareness-raising for families and shelters that provide health care to victims. Please provide information on plans to amend the Criminal Code with a view to specifically criminalizing economic and psychological forms of domestic violence.

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

9.Please provide information on the prevalence of trafficking in women and girls in the State party, including the number of cases investigated and prosecuted, the number of convictions and the sentences imposed on the perpetrators. Please indicate the steps taken to incorporate a clear definition of trafficking in persons into national legislation, in accordance with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Please report on measures in place to identify, screen, protect and assist women and girls who are victims of trafficking and women and girls who are in prostitution.

Participation in political and public life

10.Please provide information on measures taken to promote the equal representation of women in political and public life at the national, provincial and local levels, including in decision-making positions in the Government, the parliament, the judiciary and the civil and foreign services. Please also inform the Committee about measures taken to ensure the implementation of Act No. 2010–11 of 28 May 2010 on parity between women and men in entirely or partially elective bodies and whether a mechanism has been established to monitor the implementation of the law.

Education

11.Please provide data, disaggregated by sex and region, on the dropout rates at all levels of education and specify the measures taken to address the causes among girls and to encourage girls to return to school. Please report on measures taken to implement a zero-tolerance policy with regard to sexual violence and sexual harassment at and on the way to and from school and ensure that perpetrators, including teachers, are punished appropriately. Please describe steps taken to increase the number of female teachers at all levels of education and the number of women in decision-making positions in the education system. Please indicate measures taken at all levels of education to review textbooks and school curricula and remove gender stereotypes.

Employment

12.Please provide statistical data on the participation of women in the labour market, disaggregated by location (urban or rural). Please specify the steps taken to identify and address the root causes of and curb unemployment among women. Please elaborate on the measures, including quotas and incentives for employers, taken to promote the employment of women in the formal economy, to ensure equal pay for work of equal value and to address horizontal and vertical segregation in the labour market. Please also report on measures to allow access to social security for women in the informal sector and on plans to address the conditions of domestic workers and ratify the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), of the International Labour Organization. Please describe any measures that exist to protect maternity in line with the Labour Code, by which Convention No. 183 was incorporated into national legislation. Please also report on measures to support working parents, including women, in line with the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), of the International Labour Organization, and plans to ratify it.

Health

13.Please indicate the number of doctors and midwives available in the State party in proportion to the number of women of childbearing age, in particular in rural and remote areas. Please provide information on the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in the State party, disaggregated by age and region, and on the impact of the measures taken to reduce that prevalence. Please also provide information on the incidence in the State party of unsafe abortion and its impact on women’s health, including maternal mortality. The State party indicates in its report that it adopted a decree implementing the Reproductive Health Act to supplement that legislation (para. 135). Please provide information concerning the decree and describe how it addresses discrimination against women.

14.Please provide information on the provision of free antiretroviral treatment to women and men living with HIV and, in order to prevent mother-to-child transmission, to pregnant women, and barriers in access thereto.

Climate change and natural disasters

15.Please provide information about the measures taken to integrate disaster risk reduction into development processes and to counter the adverse impact of climate change. Please indicate whether the State party plans to incorporate a gender perspective and include women in national strategies on disaster management and relief and recovery, in line with the Committee’s general recommendation No. 37 (2018) on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change. Please indicate any measures taken to provide food and support to women and girls in the Sahel.

Economic empowerment of women

16.Please provide information about poverty rates affecting women, disaggregated by age and location (urban or rural). Please also provide information about access by women to family benefits and financial credit, together with measures taken to reduce poverty and stimulate economic activity by women, including disadvantaged women and women with disabilities. Please provide information on programmes to support and stimulate women’s entrepreneurship and access to bank loans, credit and tax benefits and promote their transition from informal to formal employment.

Rural women

17.Please provide information on the measures taken to overcome legal and sociocultural barriers that restrict access for women to land, such as inheritance rights and limited access to decision-making processes concerning the use of land. Please elaborate on the impact of the emergency community development programme launched in 2015 (para. 124). Please provide information on the measures taken to expand access by rural women to microfinance and microcredit at low interest rates. Please also advise whether the programme includes capacity-building and technology and infrastructure aspects to reduce the difficulties faced by rural women and whether older women can benefit from social security.

Disadvantaged groups of women

18.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/SEN/CO/3-7, para. 35), please provide updated information on measures taken to reduce overcrowding and improve access to health care in all places in which women are deprived of their liberty and encourage the use of alternative measures to detention, especially for pregnant women and women with children.

19.Please provide up-to-date data, disaggregated by relevant factors, on the enjoyment by disadvantaged groups of women, including women and girls with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, intersex persons and older women, of their rights and of access to basic services and accessible infrastructure, for example schools, workplaces and public spaces, and on measures to tackle the intersecting forms of discrimination and violence that such persons face.

Marriage and family relations

20.The State party indicates that proposals were made to amend laws that were considered discriminatory towards women in relation to the age of marriage, paternal authority, causes of divorce, residence of the household, responsibility for the household and prohibition of inquiries into paternity (para. 134). Please describe how the discriminatory provisions would be repealed through those proposals and indicate the time frame for adoption. In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/SEN/3-7, para. 39), please provide information on the steps taken to review discriminatory provisions of the Family Code relating to the father’s name being granted to the child (art. 3), polygamy (art. 116), discrimination in the consequences of breach of marriage (arts. 116 and 133) and discrimination against Muslim women with regard to their right to inheritance (art. 637), in order to bring them fully into conformity with articles 2 and 16 of the Convention.

21.In the light of the previous recommendations of the Committee (CEDAW/C/SEN/CO/3-7, para. 39), please provide information on steps taken:

(a)To eliminate the persistent practice of polygamy, in line with article 16 of the Convention, and to organize awareness-raising programmes;

(b)To eliminate child marriage and levirate marriage;

(c)To carry out awareness-raising and education programmes directed at women and men, in cooperation with civil society, on the elimination of discrimination against women in marriage and family relations;

(d)To adopt measures to protect the rights of women in unregistered marriages, to pass legislation to protect the rights of women upon the dissolution of unregistered or polygamous marriages and to encourage the registration of all marriages.