Twenty-seventh session

Summary record of the 561st meeting

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Wednesday, 12 June 2002, at 10 a.m.

Chairperson:Ms. Abaka

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (continued)

Fourth and fifth periodic reports of Denmark

The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (continued)

Fourth and fifth periodic reports of Denmark (CEDAW/C/DEN/4; CEDAW/C/DEN/5, Add.1 and Corr.1; CEDAW/PSWG/2002/II/CRP.1/Add.2 and CEDAW/PSWG/2002/II/CRP.2/Add.1 )

1. The Chairperson invited the members of the delegation of Denmark to take places at the Committee table.

2.Ms. Abel (Denmark) said that the Platform for Action adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women had greatly influenced the Danish Government in the formulation of its policy on gender equality. Through the implementation of the Convention and national follow-up on the Platform for Action, past concerns of the Committee with regard to violence against women, trafficking in women, unemployment and labour market issues had been effectively addressed.

3.With a 75 per cent rate of participation in the labour market and a birth rate of 1.7, Danish women were still able to combine career ambitions with motherhood, thanks to the facilities provided for the care of children and other dependants. Although women still bore the main responsibility, young men were increasingly taking part in family life and parenting. Such changes in family priorities had resulted in the construction of new alliances between young men and women sharing the goal of family-friendly work conditions. The Government had formulated a new set of objectives for the gender equality policy to ensure equal partnership between men and women.

4.Women in Denmark were also occupying higher political office: 44 per cent of public council boards and committees and 38 per cent of the current parliament consisted of women.

5.Since the preparation of the fifth periodic report in May 2000, new legislation on gender equality had been adopted, leading to the creation of a Ministry for Gender Equality, a Knowledge Centre for Gender Equality and a Gender Equality Board. The Ministry was required to issue an annual Perspective and Action Plan, many of whose priorities were linked to the Convention and Platform for Action. Unfortunately, since its inception, the Knowledge Centre had been expected to cease operation as a State-funded organization and to continue as a private foundation associated with a major university. The new law on gender equality had adopted a strategy based on the implementation of a gender perspective in all political decision-making processes, with gender mainstreaming, affirmative action and specific priorities to protect women and men against discrimination. Special focus areas of the Danish Government included the elimination of violence against women and trafficking in women, and a number of steps had been taken to tackle those issues.

6.In spite of the high rate of participation of women in the labour market, the interrelated issues of equal remuneration, a gender-segregated labour market and the reconciliation of work and family life created persisting imbalances which the Government sought to address through existing mechanisms, including legislation, and a range of initiatives to promote labour market flexibility.

7.With regard to ethnic minorities, the Government was making a special effort to integrate women and men from ethnic minorities into the labour market, and a recent law had raised the age limit for family reunification from 18 to 24 years in order to curb the practice of forced marriages.

8.In terms of women and development, a strategic framework for the promotion of gender mainstreaming and women’s rights had been tested. Consequently, a substantial fund had been established to encourage innovative methods in the fight against poverty and to promote gender equality.

9.Ms. Lykke Thomsen (Denmark), speaking on behalf of the Greenland Home Rule Government, said that the framework and conditions for equality had continued to improve through legislation which reflected changes in Greenlandic society. New legislation was being formulated to replace older laws that predated the formation of the Home Rule Government. A proposed bill sought to highlight the responsibilities and obligations of public services with respect to equal treatment of men and women, and gender equality in employment. It would include elements of mainstreaming and affirmative action and emphasize the commitment of the Greenland parliament. The Home Rule Government was also sensitive to the need for balance to be achieved between family and working life, and was actively participating in Nordic cooperation efforts to deal with violence against women.

10.The most recent data on employment collected in 1996 showed that two thirds of government and municipal employees, predominantly in the health, education and social affairs sectors, were women. Although men held the majority of higher paying jobs, within the Government itself six out of twelve deputy ministers were women.

11.Education and capacity-building were essential to securing equal opportunity in the labour market. Encouraging statistics for the period 2000-2001 showed that increasing numbers of women were pursuing studies at all levels.

12.Ms. Winther Poulsen (Denmark), representing the Faroe Ministry for Health and Social Affairs, said that in 1994 the Faroese parliament had passed legislation on Equality between Men and Women in the Faroe Islands to strengthen gender equality in the fields of labour, education and culture. However, there were no formal statistics on compliance with this law. More recently an act on maternity leave, introducing publicly funded maternity leave, had been adopted in 2001 and was considered an important milestone for women in the labour market. There was still room for improvement, however, in the representation of women in political life and in high-ranking executive positions.

13.Other measures adopted since 1990 include the establishment of a crisis centre and the development of a Nordic programme on women and violence. No criminal cases on prostitution had been brought before the courts and there had been no instances of trafficking in women. Until recently, little public attention had been paid to the problem of incest, but the authorities had begun to pursue such cases.

14.In conclusion, she assured the Committee that the Ministry for Gender Equality in the Faroe Islands would provide a more thorough report on gender equality when Denmark submitted its sixth periodic report in 2004.

15.The Chairperson thanked the delegation for its reports and extensive responses to queries posed by the Committee. It was particularly gratifying to note the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the process of preparing the periodic reports submitted by the Government of Denmark, and also to note that the Convention was being implemented in tandem with the Platform for Action.

16.Speaking in her personal capacity, she said that Denmark in particular had been a model in terms of issues relating to the advancement of women, and developments in Denmark were therefore of extreme interest. The Committee trusted that constructive dialogue with Denmark would provide impetus to other States parties who were striving to achieve equality between men and women.

17.Mr. Melander welcomed the involvement of representatives from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and said he looked forward to further information on the implementation of the Convention in those areas.

18.He had the impression that Denmark was made up of two societies, the first group of which consisted of Danish citizens and migrants from other Western European countries, and for whom the issue of discrimination was viewed as a minor problem. On the other hand, the second group appeared to consist of refugees and asylum-seekers, against whom it appeared the media had adopted a hostile stance. He questioned the steps taken to discourage asylum-seekers and to repatriate refugees, and asked whether it could be considered humane to force women to return to their countries of origin where they might risk facing individuals or a system which had previously victimized them.

19.He noted the closure of the Knowledge Centre and the abolition of the Board for Ethnic Equality, and he asked for an explanation of those decisions.

20.Ms. Corti said that she feared that some of the steps taken under the new Government elected in November 2001 were throwing past achievements into reverse. In particular, she wondered why the Knowledge Centre for Gender Equality was closing despite its accomplishments, which had included studies on the situation of immigrant and ethnic-minority women.

21.She echoed Mr. Melander’s request for more detail on the situation of women migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. She wondered what the terms governing the granting and renewal of residence permits for such individuals were, what the country’s integration policy was, and whether the recent legislation to combat forced marriage was enough.

22.Ms. Goonesekere applauded the fact that Denmark’s periodic report had been accompanied by reactions from non-governmental organizations. She had been struck by the fact that the country’s previous periodic reports, and the reports currently before the Committee, indicated that the Danish Constitution contained no specific provisions banning discrimination against women, and no way to enforce non-discrimination. The issue was instead addressed through special laws. She suspected that that approach might be detrimental to the commitments Denmark had assumed under the Convention and carry practical consequences, since the information supplied suggested that equality was far advanced in the public sector, but there had been little said regarding the private sector. There were clearly gaps in the degrees of equality achieved. For instance, despite the large number of women academics, only 6 per cent of professors in the country were women. Incorporating the Convention into Danish law might help to improve that situation.

23.She welcomed the introduction of a new bill to combat trafficking in women, but was surprised that it provided for a maximum prison term of only eight years. Since trafficking in women could be qualified as a contemporary form of slavery, that seemed too little. The report had also mentioned violence against foreign women, and she saw a possible link with trafficking.

24.The country’s emphasis on equal rights for women when formulating development policy was laudable, reflecting the belief in women’s rights to good health care and education. However, the Committee had seen in the past that the international financial institutions’ macroeconomic requirements tended to hurt women the most, and not enough effort was made to assess those policies’ impact on women. She asked if steps had been taken to make Denmark’s development aid policy gender sensitive.

25.Ms. Shin also welcomed the inclusion of the non-governmental organizations’ reactions with the Danish periodic report, seeing it as a sign of confidence and transparency.

26.The report had covered violence against women by connecting it with article 12 of the Convention, which dealt with health, but she considered it more appropriate to consider the issue in connection with article 5, which dealt with gender stereotypes. She applauded the national plan of action to combat violence against women, the Government’s belief that the phenomenon was a symptom of male domination (and that hidden prejudice therefore needed to be addressed) and the Government’s view that policies targeting perpetrators were needed (the use of restraining orders and mandatory counselling, for example). However, the plans to change mental attitudes needed to ask why the perpetrators committed offences, and how that behaviour could be corrected. Although the pre-session working group had asked for more information, the delegation had provided few statistics on the number of perpetrators tried and convicted.

27.She asked if women had been exposed to new forms of violence in a society driven by information technology, how Denmark had been affected by the worldwide development of Internet pornography and spam, and whether any new forms of online harassment of women had been observed. She asked if any countermeasures had been taken.

28.Ms. Tavares da Silva recalled the coverage of article 5 of the Convention, pointing out that Denmark’s periodic report contained a great deal on gender equality and the priority policy areas for that goal, but much less on changing attitudes, for example through information campaigns in the media and schools. In the information it gave regarding action under various articles of the Convention, the periodic report tended to list measures but give few details of results. In connection with article 6 of the Convention, she noted the Minister for Gender Equality’s desire to strengthen cooperation with ethnic-minority women, but found little further detail. In connection with articles 6 and 9, the report had mentioned the Committee on the Integration and Legal Position of Foreign Women in Denmark. It had presented its second operating report in 1998 and proposed a number of measures, but there was no indication of programmes under way by the end of 1999. The survey of women and children from ethnic minorities in crisis centres undertaken by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1996 had yielded findings in 1999, but the periodic report failed to say how those findings had been acted on. She made a similar observation on the Cross-Sectional Children’s Committee entrusted with producing an action plan to combat sexual abuse (incest).

29.She praised the new bill and plan of action to combat trafficking in women, but was worried at the periodic report’s assertion that trafficking was punishable under certain circumstances. She asked under what circumstances trafficking was not punishable, as it involved the buying and selling of human beings and a violation of human rights. As with other issues, the periodic report listed a number of initiatives, but indicated no results from them. Some information had been provided orally, but she hoped that Denmark’s next report would provide more.

30.Noting that there were many ministries involved in promoting women’s issues, she wondered if there were any arrangements for coordination between them.

31.Ms. Abel (Denmark) suggested that the answers to the Committee’s questions should be grouped together to save time.

32.Ms. Clausen (Denmark) responding toMr. Melander’s questions about the situation of immigrant women, said that where repatriation was concerned, the Danish Aliens Act would have an influence. It had just been amended, and the amendment would enter into force on 1 July 2002. In the specific situation of Bosnian and Kosovar women who had arrived in the 1990s, the existing rules, dating from 1983, applied. Many of those women had refugee status conferred under the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees. Many others had de facto refugee status granted outside the 1951 Convention. She stressed that the Aliens Act was gender neutral and applied in identical fashion to men and women.

33.With regard to repatriation of women who had been raped and risked having to face their attackers, those with refugee status under the 1951 Convention would be protected from being returned. Those with de facto refugee status would also be protected from being returned if the authorities deemed that such action would be improper. The situation after 1 July 2002 would be that the 1951 Convention applied as before, but de facto refugee status no longer existed. That did not mean that refugee status could only be acquired under the Convention, as a new “protected-person” status would be introduced. The amended Aliens Act would still ensure that Denmark adhered to its international obligations (such as those under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) by providing that individuals in danger of facing the death penalty, torture or inhuman treatment or punishment would not be repatriated. Asylum-seekers who had entered Denmark with a considerable subjective fear of torture or rape, but whose countries of origin were no longer in the same situation, would not be guaranteed a residence permit, but might still be entitled to refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention, or indeed to protected-person status if the domestic authorities in that country were unable to protect the potential victim.

34.Residence permits were granted to both men and women on equal terms for family reunification purposes. The amendment to the Aliens Act would introduce changes which would be reflected in the next periodic report. The law to prevent forced marriage was not in fact a law, but another amendment to the Aliens Act. The Government was against the practice, and had increased the age for family reunification following marriage to 24 years from 18 years, on the grounds that older individuals were better placed to resist family and cultural pressure to marry. Like all other legislation, it was gender-neutral.

35.Raising the age for reunification was not the only means of combating forced marriage, however. Government measures to assist young people had also been put in place, and the Ministry for Refugees, Immigration and Integration and European Affairs had funds to use for integrated measures against domestic violence and forced marriages. A seminar entitled “Between tradition and changes” had been arranged to discuss forced marriage with experts. Government support was provided for organizations such as “Broen” (“bridge”), which assisted women who had been obliged to leave their families to avoid a forced marriage, by providing housing with other women in the same situation. Integration facilities derived from the Integration Act of 1 January 1999, which introduced a three-year programme of training in the Danish language and society, with an emphasis on easing access to the labour market. In autumn of 2002, there would be an evaluation of the Act’s first three years of existence. It was anticipated that the language training arrangements would be altered to further emphasize the link between that training and access to the labour market. Training would include information on gender equality.

36.Women holding residence permits deriving from their marriage were protected by law from having those permits revoked if they left that marriage because of exposure to violence. The authorities had used those provisions a number of times. The few instances of revocation of residence permits had arisen where there was doubt over the proof of domestic violence. Though it was sometimes argued that the burden of proof was harsh, it was easy to use police or doctor’s reports to support such claims. The aliens’ authorities realized that awareness of those provisions was vital, so they had produced a pamphlet on the subject which was available to the Committee in English.

37.Ms. Abel (Denmark) emphasized that the issue of violence against ethnic-minority women had top priority in the national plan of action to combat violence against women. The Ministry for Gender Equality and the Ministry for Refugees, Immigration and Integration and European Affairs would be asking the advice of non-governmental organizations to help to find solutions to the problem of forced marriages.

38.Ms. Lehmann Nielsen (Denmark), responding to Mr. Melander’s comment on the abolition of the Board for Ethnic Equality, said that an act published only two weeks previously had established a Centre for International Studies and Human Rights composed of two institutes: an institute for international studies, and a human rights institute to promote research on human rights in peacetime and in times of armed conflict. Its remit included assisting victims of discrimination with their cases. The latter institute would deal with ethnic equality, with the advantage of being able to address individual complaints. Two seats on its board were reserved for members of ethnic minorities.

39.Ms. Abel (Denmark) emphasized that although the Knowledge Centre for Gender Equality was no longer a State-funded body, it continued to exist as a private foundation attached to a major university. There were a large number of institutes and departments dealing with gender issues. One of the Knowledge Centre’s activities had been to underpin gender mainstreaming, but it had not been the only body to do so; there were others. The fact that the Knowledge Centre no longer existed in its previous form did not mean that there were no more independent institutes dealing with gender equality. Its new status in fact gave it more independence than it had had before, and Denmark had a tradition of men’s and women’s organizations acting as watchdogs. The loss of the Knowledge Centre’s board, with its representation of women’s organizations, did not mean that such organizations no longer had a voice. The Ministry for Gender Equality was planning to establish an advisory network. The women’s organizations which had been on the Knowledge Centre’s board would be represented in that network, and would in fact have more direct influence than before.

40.Responding to Ms. Corti’s question about the motives of the men’s organizations that had been set up, she said that although those organizations were in a better position to provide an answer, gender equality in Denmark was not regarded as a struggle for women alone. Dialogue was needed, and the men’s organizations did not fight the women’s organizations, they often worked with them. The only source of conflict was custody of children.

41.Ms. Axelsson (Denmark) said that the Constitution of 1953 had no specific equality provisions, but equal treatment for men and women was embodied in it. International human rights conventions could be applied and invoked by the courts, and were relevant sources of law in Denmark.

42.In answer to the questions on trafficking, she said that a new law had recently been adopted establishing a maximum sentence of eight years for trafficking in human beings, which met Denmark’s obligations under the European Union Council Framework Decision on Trafficking in Human Beings. The Danish Penal Code, however, allowed the maximum penalty to be increased by one half, or up to 12 years, in aggravated circumstances, for instance, where the life of the victims had been endangered. Denmark was a member of the Task Force on Organized Crime in the Baltic Sea Region and had participated in seminars specifically on trafficking in women which had emphasized the need for those countries to strengthen their operational cooperation. The Nordic Ministries of Justice had also cooperated in an information campaign on trafficking which had been initiated by Sweden.

43.The Government action plan on violence against women made it clear that domestic violence was unacceptable. The focus had expanded to include the perpetrators of the violence, and mandatory treatment for abusers was sometimes offered as a condition for a suspended sentence. Treatment was also offered in the prisons. The Government was improving its system of national statistics and would include updated statistics in that area in its next report.

44.Ms. Appel (Denmark) said that violence was an expression of male dominance. As women had become more economically independent, they could leave a violent situation because they could support themselves and their families. The action plan placed more emphasis on the perpetrators in an effort to end the cycle of violence. The Government had a three-pronged strategy towards trafficking: protection, prevention and prosecution, and in the context of the Nordic-Baltic information campaign, focus had been shifted to demand in receiving countries. During the Danish Presidency of the European Union, it would sponsor a conference for members and third countries that would focus on protection.

45.Several different ministries were involved in combating pornography. The Penal Code, administered by the Ministry of Justice, criminalized the possession of child pornography and distribution of pornography to persons under the age of 16. Discussions were taking place to attempt to define “offensive” in terms of public display. The Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs, through the consumer ombudsman, had asked shopkeepers to refrain from displaying pornography where it was readily visible to children. The Ministry of Culture dealt with the media and established rating codes for films and television. The Internet had indeed made pornography more difficult to regulate, yet some thought that filters to prevent offensive web sites from being displayed might actually do more harm than good, as they might result in unintended censorship. Research was being conducted on the effects of pornography on the perception of gender roles among children.

46.Finally, with regard to the follow-up on incest, two knowledge centres had been established under the Ministry of Social Affairs, one of which provided treatment to abused children.

47.Ms. Lehmann Nielsen (Denmark) said that Denmark’s development cooperation strategy emphasized women through its focus on four core areas: the link between poverty reduction and the advancement of women; women’s human rights, including land rights; health and education; and access to microcredit.

48.The Chairperson, speaking in her personal capacity, said that she remained concerned that the Knowledge Centre for Gender Equality would no longer receive State funding, as she feared that it would have to devote energy to income-generating activities that would detract from the assistance it had provided to developing countries. Furthermore, in her view, raising the age of marriage for family reunion of immigrants from 18 to 24 years in an attempt to prevent forced marriage, while leaving the age of marriage at 18 years for Danish citizens, constituted discrimination against immigrants.

49.Ms. Schöpp-Schilling said that she would like to see more emphasis on the results of the policies and programmes discussed in future reports. She would like to hear an explanation of why the Convention had not been specifically included among those international conventions to be incorporated into domestic law after the review conducted in 1999. It would be helpful to know how many women had been on the Incorporation Committee, whether a case had been made for the Convention, and if the Ministry for Equality was likely to take up the matter again. The Beijing Platform for Action was a policy document, but its areas of concern were linked to articles of the Convention, which was the legal instrument for their implementation. She wondered if the legislation coming out of the sectoral ministries made reference to the Convention.

50.The gender neutrality of the Aliens Act could actually pose a problem, as gender mainstreaming required a comprehensive view of the impact of actions on women, and some women required specific treatment. Finally, she asked if the Centre for International Studies and Human Rights accepted complaints regarding sex discrimination.

51.Ms. González inquired whether the lack of data on violence against women, including domestic violence, indicated that women did not report cases of violence against them or that such cases did not exist. She commended the Government for launching the national action plan to combat violence against women, as well as for contemplating an action plan on trafficking in women.

52.In addition, she would like to know whether information was available on the incidence of pederasty with both boys and girls, what punishments were applied to perpetrators and whether their punishments were different from those applied to persons who committed incest with children.

53.Ms. Mancini said that she would like to know why the Knowledge Center for Gender Equality had been closed, how much staff and budget was allocated to the Ministry for Gender Equality, and what was the relationship between gender research institutes at universities and university gender studies divisions.

54.It would also be helpful to know what the outcome of the three-year umbrella mainstreaming project of the Nordic Council of Ministers had been, and what measures the Government was taking to respond to the reported resurgence of negative female stereotypes and prejudices against women.

55.Ms. Raday said that she would like further information on the gender-neutral emphasis of anti-discrimination policy in the employment sector, particularly in view of the poor participation of women in that sector. The Constitution, and the Equal Treatment Act both apparently had gender-neutral provisions. She would like to know why Denmark had no concrete plan or policy to eliminate discrimination in sectors showing low participation by women. Why, moreover, in the view of the Government, were women well represented in political life but poorly represented in the public sector and in management positions?

56.She also wondered why unwed fathers were not awarded custody of their children, as a matter of principle, and why shared custody for unwed fathers was not considered an option.

57.Ms. Feng Cui noted that the fifth periodic report stated that the Penal Code had been amended to improve the life of prostitutes. She would like to know what improvements had been made. It also stated that the law on pimping had been changed; it would be useful to know how it had changed. In addition, it said that a prostitute could legally reside with a man if he was not living off her income to a degree that amounted to exploitation. What was that degree? She would like to know if it was possible, in the view of Denmark, to measure the degree of exploitation. In order to protect women engaged in prostitution, punishments against pimping must be stiffened, not diminished.

58.The fifth periodic report also stated that trafficking in women was punishable under certain circumstances. She would like to know whether that meant that trafficking in women was not punishable under other circumstances. Non-governmental organizations had taken an active interest in that issue; the position of the Government, however, was unclear. The Ministry for Gender Equality had established a working group. But trafficking in women was a law enforcement issue, not a gender-equality issue: it would be useful to know what measures the Ministry of Justice, the Public Prosecutor and the police department had taken. Information would be welcome on how many women were trafficked, how many such women were Danish and how many were foreigners, how many prosecutions had been carried out against traffickers and what punishments were applied.

59.Ms. Achmad said she commended the Government of Denmark for its clear commitment to achieving gender equality, and joined with the views expressed by other Committee members. She welcomed the emphasis on research and inquired whether studies were being conducted to identify the root causes of gender discrimination. The research, however, seemed to be directed towards preventing discrimination in the future: she would like to know if similar research was being conducted with regard to persons already victimized. The State party must ensure equal treatment of men and women, and that could not be done without an analysis of their relative positions. The Convention was seeking substantive equality, which could only be achieved through structural change supported by research.

60.It was important to point out that the Convention and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were two very different kinds of documents: one was legally binding and the other was only morally obligatory.

61.Ms. Acar inquired how the contemplated revision of the residency requirement for immigrants would affect the status of immigrant women trapped in violent marriages and not eligible for residency on their own. She did not see the relationship between the prevention of forced marriages and the raising of the reunification age for foreign families from 18 to 24.

62.She pointed out that non-governmental organizations representing ethnic communities were often patriarchal, and therefore did not represent women’s interests. In the interests of sensitivity to ethnic communities, the Government of Denmark might not be advancing women’s rights.

63.Lastly, she said that she would like to know whether any honour killings had been committed in Denmark, how such crimes were handled by law enforcement personnel and by the courts and whether the victims were foreign women or Danish women in relationships with foreign men.

64.Ms. Lykke Thomsen (Denmark) said that more information would be included on the situation of women in Greenland and the Faroe Islands in the next report. In the meantime, she would circulate some printed matter about those countries to the members of the Committee.

65.Ms. Axelsson (Denmark) said that in 1999 the Ministry of Justice had appointed a committee to consider the incorporation of human rights conventions into Danish domestic law, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading or Inhuman Treatment or Punishment, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Committee’s mandate specified that it should examine other human rights instruments as well, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It had concluded its work in 2001 and had produced a voluminous report in Danish, with a summary in English appended.

66.The committee had determined that the Convention was essential to the protection of human rights but had agreed not to recommend its incorporation at that time. It had argued that Denmark should start by limiting itself to three instruments, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in order to test their performance in domestic law. It had also argued that the procedure for hearing individual complaints under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had not yet gone into effect, and that therefore the Committee had had no opportunity to clarify the scope of the responsibility of States parties or of individual rights. It had stated that it looked forward to the compilation of the relevant jurisprudence and that it would be useful to see how the domestic courts of other States parties interpreted the Convention. Finally, it was aware that the situation was evolving, and might recommend incorporation at a later stage.

The meeting rose at 1.05 p.m.