Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Eighty-ninth session

Summary record of the 2107th meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday, 18 October 2024, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Peláez Narváez

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Ninth periodic report of Cuba (continued)

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Ninth periodic report of Cuba (continued) (CEDAW/C/CUB/9; CEDAW/C/CUB/Q/9; CEDAW/C/CUB/RQ/9)

At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Cuba joined the meeting.

The Chair invited the delegation of Cuba to continue replying to Committee members’ questions.

Articles 7–9

A representative of Cuba said that the Constitution regulated the grounds on which Cuban nationality could be acquired. Article 36 established that Cuban citizens could acquire another nationality without losing their Cuban nationality, although while in Cuba, they could not avail themselves of their foreign citizenship. The Constitution also established that Cuban nationals could not be deprived of their nationality except on legally established grounds and that Cuban nationality could be recovered upon compliance with the requirements and formalities set out in law. The right to recover citizenship could be exercised only once, irrespective of the reason why it had originally been lost.

Applications to renounce Cuban citizenship could be submitted only from abroad and only by persons who had another nationality, thus preventing statelessness. In July 2024, the Migration Act and the Citizenship Act had been adopted, but they had not yet entered into force, as their implementing regulations were still being finalized. Once in force, those Acts would strengthen the legal provisions on nationality contained in the Constitution.

Ms. Mikko said that it was still not clear whether follow-up mechanisms had been established to assess the progress made in increasing the number of women executives, or whether any women held executive posts in the engineering, transportation or sugar industries. She would welcome information on the nature of the six parliamentary standing committees that were chaired by women.

Ms. Bonifaz Alfonzo said that it was still not clear whether there was a mechanism that Cuban nationals living abroad could use to renounce their nationality, whether Cuban citizens generally gave up their nationality of their own volition or were forced to do so by the State and whether there were any remedies against decisions depriving people of their Cuban nationality.

A representative of Cuba said that measures were taken to increase the number of women executives in industries where they were currently underrepresented, such as construction, transport, engineering and mining. When a woman and a man with similar qualifications and experience were eligible for a post, the woman’s application was prioritized in the majority of cases. The posts of First Deputy Minister of Transport and First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mining were currently held by women. Measures were taken at all levels of the education system to encourage girls to study the sciences so that they could work in areas where women were underrepresented.

A representative of Cuba said that the mechanisms by which Cuban nationality was renounced or withdrawn were regulated by law. Citizens could be deprived of their Cuban nationality only in certain circumstances, such as if they belonged to an armed group that threatened the territorial integrity or the political and economic interests of the State. In such situations, the relevant authority carried out an in-depth examination to determine whether the legal requirements were met, whether the person held another nationality and whether he or she was living in Cuba. Procedures for the recovery of citizenship were set out in law. The President decided whether a citizen should be deprived of his or her nationality.

Articles 10–14

Ms. Akia said that she wished to know when the Government would implement a sex education programme with a view to reducing early pregnancy rates and breaking down gender stereotypes that discriminated against women in the education sector. She wondered how the Government worked around the economic blockade imposed by the United States of America in its efforts to support the right to education for women with disabilities, rural women and black women. It would be useful to have disaggregated data on the number of women with disabilities, women of African descent and rural women enrolled in tertiary and vocational education courses. What was done to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities to accessible educational infrastructure and materials?

The Committee would be interested to know how the Government dealt with the challenges faced in ensuring access to reliable electricity and Internet connectivity for rural women, women with disabilities and women of African descent, so as to facilitate their access to education. It would be interesting to learn whether the Government had a comprehensive law on sexual and gender-based violence in schools, including cyberviolence and bullying and, if not, whether it intended to develop one. She wished to know what other measures were taken to eliminate all forms of abuse and harassment, including sexual abuse and bullying, from schools and to ensure that persons engaging in such conduct were held accountable. What was done to eliminate the gender pay gap in the education sector?

Ms. Akizuki said that she wished to know what measures were taken to increase women’s participation in the labour force, especially in the formal sector. She wondered how the Government ensured that women working in the informal sector, including self-employed women, had the same access to labour rights and protection as those working in the formal sector. It would be of interest to know what specific strategies were being implemented to address horizontal and vertical segregation in the labour market and to promote a more balanced representation of women across all levels and sectors of the economy. The Committee would welcome examples of women who had successfully integrated into the formal workforce, especially women of African descent, migrant women and other women belonging to marginalized groups. It would be useful to find out what measures were taken to promote the employment of women with disabilities and how progress in that area was monitored.

The Committee would welcome information on any measures taken to prohibit discrimination based on political opinion or social origin in employment, in line with a recommendation issued during the universal periodic review of Cuba, which the Government had accepted. Information on any steps taken to implement provisions on equal pay for work of equal value across all sectors of the economy would also be welcome.

She wondered how the Government intended to implement and maintain the care services provided for by law and what measures it was taking to monitor and evaluate the implementation of Decree-Law No. 56 on working women’s maternity and the responsibility of families. She would be grateful for information on the impact of the Decree-Law and the areas where further implementation might be needed.

The Committee would be curious to hear about any measures taken to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and to promote safe and violence-free work environments, particularly for women. It would welcome more detailed statistics on complaints of gender‑based discrimination and sexual harassment filed since 2019 and the outcome of any investigations conducted into the complaints. What was being done to promote the ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) and the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and what obstacles hindered the ratification of those Conventions?

A representative of Cuba said that, in the 2023/24 school year, comprehensive sexuality education had been enriched, updated and incorporated into the basic compulsory curriculum, with a view to promoting responsible sexuality from a gender and rights-based perspective. On the basis of that general objective, other age-appropriate objectives had been developed, covering areas such as sexuality and affectivity, gender and diversity, sexual and reproductive rights and sexual health. In order to teach those subjects, a range of complementary activities had been included in the institutional curriculum.

Decision No. 111 of the Ministry of Education set out the procedures for the prevention of violence and bullying in schools. Measures were taken to identify problems, develop educational strategies and establish preventive working groups at all levels of the education system. Gender committees operated at the different levels, particularly at the upper secondary level and in the colleges where the majority of teachers were trained. The General School Regulations, which had been updated in accordance with a ministerial decision, addressed all forms of school violence and established disciplinary measures that depended on the seriousness of the acts in question.

The Government had developed an action protocol for combating violence and had set up specific prevention pathways in schools, including a set of indicators for preventing violence and identifying risks. Study plans and programmes addressed the prevention of gender-based violence as a general objective across the different subjects. Relevant training was delivered through videoconferences, visits, seminars and courses for managerial staff and teachers. In the 2023/24 school year, a specialized training programme on the prevention of violence in schools had been designed and developed. Incidents of violence, the conditions that gave rise to them and the decisions adopted in each case were recorded in a statistical register.

Only a very small proportion of girls dropped out of school before completing their education. The number of girls who had dropped out of school because they had become pregnant had fallen between 2018 and 2023. Efforts were made to follow up on girls who dropped out of school, to ensure that they were able to return.

A representative of Cuba said that Act No. 162, adopted in 2023, on social communication established that Internet content must not encourage violence or hatred between people or harass, coerce, humiliate or discriminate against a person or group of persons for reasons of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ethnic origin, skin colour, religious belief, disability, or national or territorial origin. The law in question prohibited content that justified or reproduced cyberbullying and established that advertisements must not depict women in a degrading or demeaning manner.

The Government had in 2021 adopted Decree-Law No. 35 on telecommunications, information and communications technology and the use of the radioelectric spectrum, criminalizing acts such as cyberstalking, the enticement of minors and the dissemination of pornography by technological means. Under that law, users of public telecommunications services must not carry out actions or transmit information that was offensive or harmful to human dignity. The Criminal Code also provided penalties for various forms of cyberviolence and established that the use of any digital technology to commit an offence should be considered an aggravating circumstance.

A representative of Cuba said that Internet access in Cuba had massively expanded since 2013, despite the blockade imposed on the country’s telecommunications sector by the Government of the United States. The blockade prevented Cuba from connecting to any of the underwater Internet cables surrounding the island and forced it to look for other connectivity solutions, in collaboration with international partners.

Currently, more than 7 million people were connected to the Internet, either through mobile devices or wireless connections in their homes. Public places with Internet access had also been established. Every municipality in Cuba was connected to the Internet. Most connections were 4G, although 5G connections were gradually being introduced, despite the restrictions on resources caused by the economic blockade.

Significant efforts had been made to provide a wide range of online services for the entire population, including women and adolescent girls, women with disabilities, women of African descent and women in situations of vulnerability. Internet access made it easier for women and girls to obtain assistance in the event that their rights were violated. The measures taken to increase access to the Internet formed part of the National Plan for Economic and Social Development up to 2030.

A representative of Cuba said that Internet resources were increasingly being used to teach students at all levels of the education system. The Government had begun developing policies and standards for the use of artificial intelligence, in common with other Governments around the world. It was currently developing a strategy to enhance the country’s energy self-sufficiency for the benefit of women and the population in general. In that connection, projects to install photovoltaic panels in rural communities had been carried out with international partners. Green climate fund projects were being implemented in coastal communities in order to increase access to electricity.

A representative of Cuba said that the Family Code adopted in 2022 recognized that women and men had equal responsibility for domestic and care work. The National Programme for the Advancement of Women established that such work should be redistributed within the family so that women were not overburdened. The occupation survey of 2022 showed that women accounted for 97.8 per cent of people who dedicated themselves exclusively to domestic work and also accounted for the majority of persons who gave up work to take care of a family member.

Decree No. 109 on the national system for the comprehensive care of life had recently been published in the Official Gazette. The Decree set out a strategic vision of care and coordinated the actions taken by the various relevant bodes, such as the central State administration and organs of popular power. One of the objectives of the Decree was to ensure that unpaid care work was recognized.

Life expectancy in Cuba was high, especially for women. The Government had opened 360 schools to train carers so that they could earn a salary from care work. The women’s and family counselling centres in the municipalities trained women to work in care services and supported women undertaking unpaid care work to help them to cope with the physical and mental strain of their duties. The challenge facing the National Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Women was to ensure that Cuban families were aware of the Decree before its entry into force in December 2024.

A representative of Cuba said that 1,576 students with disabilities, including 579 girls, were enrolled in secondary school and that 782 students with disabilities, including 344 girls, were enrolled in tertiary education. There was no gender pay gap in the education sector.

The Criminal Code of 2022 defined the offence of workplace harassment, which included deliberately isolating a person, making threats or demands or any other act that might constitute a violation of a person’s employment rights. The penalty was aggravated if the victim was a subordinate of the perpetrator or if the offence was an act of gender-based violence or discrimination. The adoption of Decree No. 96 of 2023, establishing the protocol for action in situations of discrimination, violence and harassment in the workplace, constituted another landmark in the Government’s efforts to protect workers against harassment. Work had begun on the establishment of internal channels for submitting complaints in the workplace. Grievances could be processed through the labour authorities or brought directly before a court.

Under the law, working mothers and families had the right to maternity leave and social protection. In 2024, new mothers were entitled to receive 60 per cent of their salary for up to 15 months after the birth of a child, or 100 per cent if they had a high-risk pregnancy. The right to a paternity allowance had been extended to fathers and grandparents, promoting joint responsibility for mothers, fathers and the entire family in caring for children. Women on maternity leave kept their jobs and continued to accrue entitlements to seniority and social benefits.

A 50 per cent tax reduction was granted to self-employed women with two or more children under 17 years of age. A network of childcare services allowed parents to combine family obligations with work responsibilities and made it possible for mothers to return to work. Over the previous five years, efforts had been made to increase access to early childhood education. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of childcare centres had increased significantly, benefiting over 126,000 working mothers. Furthermore, almost 2,500 crèches had been established in workplaces, benefiting more than 5,000 families.

The Government promoted the reintegration of women into employment, provided special protection for working mothers and had established the principle of equal pay for work of equal value for men and women. As a result of the efforts made, the unemployment rate for women had fallen from 2.7 per cent in 2015 to 1.9 per cent in 2023. In 2022, the rate of economic activity for women had risen to 52.7 per cent.

A representative of Cuba said that the Government had created a national commission to follow up and monitor implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and had established the Cuban Association of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, a civil society organization. A total of four organizations currently provided assistance and protection to almost 70,000 persons with disabilities, many of whom were women.

A representative of Cuba said that Cuba had a robust system for the protection of workers against harassment in the workplace. It was therefore not considered necessary to ratify the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), particularly since Cuba had already ratified the eight fundamental ILO conventions. The Government had accepted 81 per cent of the recommendations made in the most recent universal periodic review of Cuba, including almost all the recommendations relating to gender equality. It was currently considering how best to implement the recommendations, in collaboration with civil society.

Ms. Xia said that she wished to know whether, in its efforts to ensure the right to health, the Government took account of the specific needs of ethnic minorities, older women, women with disabilities and rural women, and whether targeted policies and services were established to ensure their right to health. She would welcome information on how Cuba had become the first country in the world to eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and syphilis, and what the Government had done to consolidate that achievement over the previous 10 years. Given that the country had long been subjected to economic sanctions and blockades, she wondered how it managed to upgrade its medical equipment and ensure the effectiveness of its medical services. Did medical professionals participate in international exchange programmes to keep their medical skills up to date?

She would be grateful for information on any challenges encountered in the implementation of the Government’s strategy on comprehensive sexuality education. The Committee would be interested to hear about any measures taken to provide affordable contraception to women of child-bearing age and adolescent girls. It would be useful to know whether, in the Government’s view, the policy of terminating pregnancies in cases where complications arose violated the rights of pregnant women. She would like to know what measures had been taken to reduce post-partum complications and whether access to family doctors was ensured in rural and remote areas. The Committee would be interested to hear about any steps taken to reduce the rate of birth defects. What was the current rate, and what assistance was given to children born with defects?

Ms. Bethel said that the Government had taken a wide range of initiatives to promote women’s social and economic empowerment. For instance, development programmes had been implemented to increase women’s participation in various sectors of the economy and measures had been taken to include women in agricultural cooperatives, promote entrepreneurship among women and provide capacity-building for women who started businesses. The Committee would be grateful to know how the Government assessed the effectiveness of those initiatives, what it did to ensure their sustainability, what kinds of businesses women were establishing and what capacity-building and training resources were allocated to them. She wished to know whether strategies for enhancing women’s economic participation, including the organization of national employment fairs, targeted women aged 50 years or older and whether women had the opportunity to participate in the country’s blue economy.

The Committee would appreciate information on the outcome of the Government’s efforts to implement Decree-Laws No. 259 and No. 300, which had provided for the transfer of some 1.5 million hectares of land to over 172,000 people. She wished to know whether women were encouraged to enter the agricultural sector and, if so, what capacity-building, training and financial and technical resources were made available to them. It would be useful to learn how the empowerment of women in the agricultural sector could help to ensure food security in the country. In the light of the ongoing economic crisis, she wondered whether the Government had been able to continue making loans and credit available to women and, if not, what other provisions had been put in place. Lastly, she asked whether, in the Government’s view, the publication of sex-disaggregated statistics on credits, loans and social subsidies hindered women’s integration into the non-State sector, and if so, why that would be the case.

A representative of Cuba said that over 27,500 family doctors had been active in 2023, including in rural areas. The health sector faced growing difficulties that adversely affected the provision of basic healthcare to the population, posing problems for both patients and healthcare staff.

A representative of Cuba said that the Local Agricultural Innovation Project was operating in 75 municipalities and in 285 entities, and that about 30 per cent of its budget was allocated to women. Women producers participated in exchange programmes with women from other countries and were given the opportunity to establish their own seed banks. The Government had adopted the Act on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutrition Security.

Women had the right to apply for the usufruct of land. A total of 22 per cent of landowners in Cuba were women and, of those, 57 percent were black or of mixed race. Women and men had equal access to credit and, in August 2024, a significant number of women had had active bank loans. The Government had set up the Gender Equality Monitoring Centre that had established 33 indicators, including 17 that corresponded to the Sustainable Development Goals. Plans were in place to generate disaggregated data on bank loans issued to women in rural areas.

A representative of Cuba said that the National Plan for Economic and Social Development up to 2030 contained specific objectives for the protection of natural resources and the environment. It inter alia addresses the use, management and preservation of marine resources, in particular to restore and halt the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems with the active participation of the community, which included women. Under the State plan for addressing climate change, known as Tarea Vida (Duty for Life), special emphasis had been placed on coastal areas and the blue economy. Various projects incorporating a gender perspective were being implemented, including a pilot coastal resilience project, for which a gender assessment had been carried out. On the basis of that assessment, a gender action plan had been devised, with a focus on empowering women through capacity-building, training and employment-generating opportunities, including in the forestry and water resources sectors.

A representative of Cuba, providing an overview of specialized medical programmes for women and girls, said that Cuba had the lowest HIV/AIDS rate in the Western hemisphere. A strategic plan for the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis had been updated. With the support of the United Nations Development Programme, the Pan American Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, a digital system had been launched to record and monitor the health of persons who accessed prevention, diagnostic and treatment services. Such services were available nationwide.

Ms. Reddock said she noted that the State party’s replies to the list of issues (CEDAW/C/CUB/RQ/9, para. 174) stated that women accounted for just 10 per cent of the more than 170,000 persons who had been granted access to land on a beneficial-use basis. She wished to know how the Government intended to support more women in gaining access to land, whether there were any other factors affecting women’s land access and their participation in agriculture and what specific technical support was provided to support them in that endeavour.

Ms. Bonifaz Alfonzo said that she wished to know what measures the Government was taking to regulate internal migration, particularly with regard to rural women wishing to move to urban areas, in a non-coercive manner, and in accordance with the right of persons to transit or change their residence or domicile, as enshrined in the country’s Constitution. In the light of the current economic crisis, she would welcome information on the situation of rural women in the country, with emphasis on their access to housing, health, electricity and water supply. Similarly, given that the life expectancy of Cuban women was 83 years and that older women were a disadvantaged group, she wondered how the Government guaranteed their access to basic services and necessities and whether the unpaid care work of older women had been taken into consideration in the provision of comprehensive care for life.

According to alternative sources of information, between July 2021 and July 2024, almost 2,000 persons had been detained in relation with public protests. She would be interested to receive information on the general situation of women deprived of their liberty, including their access to food and medical care, and on access for pregnant detainees to prenatal care; the measures taken to ensure the physical integrity and security of women in detention, in particular those who were members of civil society organizations, who had reportedly experienced violence at the hands of staff and other detainees; and the current status of those women who had been in detention since the protests of July 2021.

She would like to know what the Government was doing to address the underrepresentation of women of African descent in decision-making processes and to realize their substantive equality. It would be useful for the Committee to find out to what extent facilities and resources, in particular in schools, hospitals and other public services, were accessible to women and girls with disabilities in rural areas. The Committee would like to know whether the delegation could provide more information on the strategy for the social inclusion of transgender persons in Cuba, including the specific measures the strategy called for, and to find out whether the Government intended to adopt a law to recognize the right to gender identity and, if so, when.

Articles 15 and 16

Mr. Safarov said that he noted the negative effects of the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba, which had been in place for more than 60 years and affected almost every sphere of life, including the situation of human rights in the country. He wished to know what measures had been taken to ensure the prompt and effective implementation of the amended Family Code, which had raised the age for marriage to 18 years; how early and forced marriages were prevented in practice; and how many cases of early or forced marriage had been investigated and prosecuted over the past four years, including the number of convictions handed down and the penalties imposed. He would welcome information on the implementation in practice of laws concerning equal rights to inheritance and property. Gender-disaggregated data on the percentage of women who owned land or property would also be appreciated.

A representative of Cuba said that the events of 21 July 2021 had involved acts of public disorder, vandalism and violence, not of peaceful protest, and had put peoples’ lives in danger. The trials of the persons involved had been conducted in strict compliance with due process, with all legal safeguards guaranteed. The prosecution of the women involved had not been motivated by gender discrimination. Their conviction by the courts had been based solely on their proven involvement in the offences committed, and they had suffered no discrimination while in prison. He wished to point out that Cuba had not recognized the competence of the Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention to consider individual communications.

It was regrettable that the Committee had repeated distorted information and false allegations emanating from so-called civil society organizations. Such allegations were not genuine expressions of concern for the plight of women in Cuba. Instead, they were part of an international campaign designed and financed from abroad to justify an agenda aimed at subverting and altering the legitimate constitutional order of the country. Those organizations sought only to justify the material and financial support they received from a foreign Power whose hunger to dominate Cuba was well known. The dissemination of information, including on specific cases or organizations, that had been manipulated for political purposes risked undermining the credibility of the human rights treaty bodies.

The Chair said that she wished to emphasize that civil society played a critical role in the fulfilment of the Committee’s mandate. As a matter of course, the Committee sought information – as it was entitled to do – from civil society organizations in order to gain a better understanding of the economic and social contexts of a particular State party. In the case of Cuba, that context included the impact of the embargo, which the Committee was aware of and deeply regretted. However, the Committee had raised a genuine concern related to the work of several feminist organizations. It was not overstepping its mandate by doing so; it was simply trying to grasp the situation.

A representative of Cuba said that the Government deeply respected the work of the civil society organizations. In fact, the report and the replies to the list of issues (CEDAW/C/CUB/9 and CEDAW/CUB/RQ/9) had been shared with civil society organizations working in Cuba, as they were particularly aware of the reality on the ground, the challenges faced and the progress made in relation to women’s rights. That reality necessarily included the hostile context that the country had faced for over 60 years. The impact of the embargo imposed by the United States Government could not be ignored, nor could the subversive attempts – covert and overt – to overthrow the Cuban political and legal order. No dialogue with the Committee would be complete without the delegation being able to explain that context and its impact on certain issues in Cuba.

Over the years, the Government, which held the Committee in high esteem, had made a significant contribution to the promotion of human rights, in Cuba and elsewhere, and it was committed to continuing to do so.

A representative of Cuba said that the Cuba Gender Equality Monitoring Centre collected data on land ownership and on women with access to land for beneficial use. The Federation of Cuban Women had identified women’s land access as a priority issue for their economic empowerment and had taken action to improve the situation, including by encouraging more women to apply for access to agricultural land. Training and other activities were carried out to promote women’s participation in agriculture, a traditionally male-dominated sector, and in food production. As a result, the number of women joining the food sovereignty movement was growing.

Rural women had the same rights to health, education and electricity as anyone else; there were very few areas that were still off-grid. While the Government had been unable to invest in the electricity grid owing to the embargo and a lack of resources, it was striving to advance in that endeavour.

A representative of Cuba said that the national health system provided various specialized services for older women. Community-based education programmes were also available with the aim of fostering their social inclusion.

Efforts continued to be made to promote accessibility and facilitate the participation of women with disabilities in the labour force and their access to cultural and other spaces. Measures were also taken to promote the participation of women of African descent in decision-making and to eliminate stereotypes against them, starting with in the field of education.

A representative of Cuba said that the right of persons deprived of their liberty to decent treatment was recognized in the legislation, as was their right to physical, psychological, emotional and sexual integrity. Women deprived of their liberty were treated in accordance with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non‑custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules). They enjoyed full legal rights, including the right to legal counsel, and had access to free medical care – including prenatal and postnatal services – and to education, employment and cultural activities in prison. Under the Criminal Sentence Enforcement Act, women prisoners received differentiated treatment. Discrimination on the ground of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or other characteristics was prohibited.

The Family Code recognized same-sex marriages, assisted reproduction and altruistic surrogacy without discrimination. The right to gender identity was respected. For example, a network for trans persons, their partners and families had around 3,000 members, and a commission had been set up to ensure the provision of comprehensive care for trans persons by the State. Among other measures, training and awareness-raising were carried out to combat homophobia and transphobia.

A representative of Cuba, welcoming the constructive dialogue, said that the Committee’s comments, recommendations and insights would be considered with all due rigour in order to guide ongoing efforts to achieve the full equality and empowerment of women. In spite of the challenges, in particular the negative impacts of the United States embargo, the Government remained committed to reaching that goal.

The meeting rose at 5 p.m.