against Women

Pre-session working group

Thirty-sixth session

7-25 August 2006

List of issues and questions with regard to the consideration of periodic reports

Denmark

The pre-session working group examined the sixth periodic report of Denmark (CEDAW/C/DEN/6).**

General

1. The report contains very limited information about legislation on gender equality and does not contain any information on the de facto implementation of the Convention in Greenland. The State party is requested to provide adequate information relating to Greenland.

Constitutional, legislative and institutional framework and status of the Convention

2.Please describe in detail how the Government ensures that Danish law and practice conforms to the Convention, including the procedure used vis-à-vis draft legislation (see discussion under article 2, sect. A).

3.Please provide examples of whether any laws, policies, programmes or administrative practices have been recently challenged in court as discriminatory on the basis of sex, utilizing the provisions of the Convention. If so, what has been the outcome?

4.Has the manual on how to use the United Nations complaints procedures, including the individual communications procedure under the Optional Protocol to the Convention (see discussion under article 2, sect. A), been translated into any languages other than Danish and made accessible to other linguistic communities?

5.Has the substance of the annual parliamentary debates on gender equality been reported on by the media or otherwise brought to the attention of the public? What has been the impact of the debates?

6.Please provide information about the implementation of the action plans that have been prepared by the Minister for Gender Equality for the Parliament (see discussion under article 3, national policy) since 2002, including in relation to achievements, obstacles encountered and progress to date.

7.Please provide a description of the staffing and other resources of the Department of Gender Equality in the Ministry for Social Affairs.

8.Please describe in detail the information strategy used in respect of the Gender Equality Board and comment on its impact (see discussion under article 4,sect. C.1).

9.Has the Convention been invoked in any recent cases before the Gender Equality Board?

Stereotypes

10.Please describe in more detail the Government’s order (and guidelines) on initiatives to promote gender equality, including whether there has been or will be an assessment of the impact of the order.

11.Please provide the results of the joint Nordic research project on how pornography impacts young people’s perceptions of their own gender roles and on the outcome of activities aiming at clarifying facts, prejudices and myths about parenthood, family and relationships (see discussion under article 5, sect. D).

Violence against women

12.Kindly provide the findings from the International Violence against Women Survey that was expected to be published in 2004, the results of the qualitative evaluation of the independent counselling centres for victims of violence (see discussion under article 12, sect. J) as well as the results, if available, of the cooperative research programme on women and violence covering the Faroe Islands and Greenland (see CEDAW Convention and the Faroese Authorities (p. 97 of English text), article 6, sect. on “Abuse of Women”).

13. The report describes measures to combat violence against women from ethnic minorities. Kindly provide information about the impact of these measures.

14.How many prosecutions have there been under section 245 (a) of the Criminal Code (on female genital mutilation)? What were the outcomes?

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

15.Kindly provide information about the implementation of legislation covering trafficking in human beings that was adopted in June 2002 and about the Action Plan against Trafficking (see discussion under article 5, sect. C).

16.Please provide information on the prevalence of prostitution and trafficking in women and girls.

17.What progress, if any, has been made towards extending Denmark’s obligations under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, to the Faroe Islands and Greenland?

Participation in political and public life and representation at the international level

18.Have there been any increases in the numbers of female local councillors and female mayors as a result of the initiatives undertaken by the Department of Gender Equality (see discussion under article 7, sect. A)?

19.What temporary special measures, if any, are being contemplated in the Faroe Islands to increase the number of women in political and public life?

20.In concrete terms, what has been the impact of the Action Plan for Equality in the Foreign Service 2000-2004, particularly in respect of senior-level management positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Education

21.Are the educational opportunities described in the report (see discussion under article 8, sect. A) available to non-citizens, as well as Danish nationals who are from minority ethnic groups?

Employment

22.The report states that an inter-ministerial working group would be established in 2004 to study how desegregating the labour market might help to combat unequal pay (see discussion under article 11, sect. C). Kindly provide information on the outcome of the study, including any recommendations for action to desegregate the labour market and reduce the wage gaps.

23.Kindly provide information, including statistics, if available, about the implementation and impact of the amended rules (2002) on maternity, paternity and parental leave.

24.As a result of the studies undertaken in 2000, what action, if any, is being taken to help women entrepreneurs overcome their reported negative tendencies?

25.Please comment on the repeal of the bill on sex-disaggregated wage statistics mentioned by the Women’s Council in Denmark (see Comments made by Danish NGOs, discussion under article 11).

Health

26.Kindly provide information on the Government’s evaluation of the implementation and impact of the action plan to decrease the number of induced abortions in Denmark.

27.What action is being taken to educate minority and foreign women in Denmark about HIV/AIDS and to overcome the factors that make them more vulnerable to the virus, given that they are said make up the majority of infected women?

Marriage and family relations

28.How many women have been denied family reunification under Act No. 365 of 6 June 2002 as compared to men (see discussion under article 13)? On what basis is the decision made as to whether an applicant is able to maintain the foreign spouse?

29.What has been the actual impact of Act No. 1204 of 27 December 2003, which amended the Aliens Act regarding marriage with a close relative from a foreign country?