CEDAW General Recommendation on Women in Situations of Armed Conflict and Post-Conflict

The CEDAW concept paper on women in conflict and post-conflict situations is now available. It is a guide to what will be covered during the General Discussion on July 18, 2011 at the upcoming Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Session.

All NGOs are invited to participate in the “Day of Discussion” to be held on July 18th and are invited to submit written statements. Although work on CEDAW General Recommendations has been going on for several years, this is the first time the CEDAW Committee will release text and move the work forward. This is seen as the start of the drafting process of the GR, which will be controlled by the Committee itself. It is important that civil society inputs to the text and ensures that a comprehensive GR is drafted, so hopefully WG members can participate.

WILPF has been part of a coalition working on this General Recommendation since 1997 including: IWRAW Asia Pacific, Women and Media Collective-Sri Lanka, Development Alternatives for Women (DAWN) and Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP). We hope to share documents on this process in the coming days.

Dates to note: June 30th: Deadline for written submissions

Organizations wishing to submit written contributions on the theme of the general discussion are welcome to do so. Submissions should be sent electronically in Word format to Ms. Georgina Mendoza (email: gmendozasolorio@ohchr.org) and/or Ms. Janna Iskakova (email: jiskakova@ohchr.org) indicating "General discussion on women in armed conflict and post-conflict situations" in the subject, as well as in 35 hard copies by 30 June 2011 to:

Gaynel Curry (Ms.)
Gender and Women's Rights Advisor
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
New York Office
Room DC1 – 0511
United Nations, New York 10017, USA
Telephone: 212 963 5931
Fax: 212 963 4097

For further information on the general discussion, kindly contact the Secretariat of the Committee: gmendozasolorio@ohchr.org / jiskakova@ohchr.org.

July 18th: CEDAW Day of Discussion at the at the 49th session of the CEDAW (10:00 am to 1:00 pm)