CONFERENCE: United Nations Committee Monitoring Discrimination Against Women to Hold Forty-Eighth Session in Geneva from 17 January to 4 February 2011

Reports of Bangladesh, Belarus, Israel, Kenya, Lichtenstein, Sri Lanka and South Africa to be Reviewed

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Committee charged with ensuring that 186 States parties meet their obligations under a treaty that requires them to eliminate discrimination against women, opens its forty-eighth session next week at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The three-week session is scheduled to run from 17 January to 4 February 2011.

States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women legally commit themselves to ending all forms of discrimination against women, be they of a political, economic, social, cultural, civil or other form. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, a 23-person expert body established to monitor compliance with the treaty, will be considering State party reports required under the Convention to assess to what extent each State is meeting its obligations, and making recommendations aimed at implementation of the provisions of the Convention.

At this session, the Committee will review the reports of Bangladesh, Belarus, Israel, Kenya, Lichtenstein, South Africa and Sri Lanka on the legislative, judicial, administrative and other measures they have adopted in order to implement their obligations under the Convention and other progress made in that respect.

At the opening meeting, the Committee will adopt its agenda and programme of work and hear a report by the Chairperson on activities undertaken during the period between sessions. The Committee will also swear in five new members who were elected in 2010 and whose two-year terms begin in January 2011. Committee members will also discuss implementation of articles 21 and 22 of the Convention as well as ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee.

The Committee and each of the seven States parties presenting reports will have the opportunity to interact in a constructive dialogue on women's enjoyment of their human rights in that country. The outcome of that dialogue is the Committee's concluding observations, which recognize progress a State has made in implementing the Convention, detail the Committee's concerns about gaps in implementation or insufficient compliance with the provisions of the Convention, and contain recommendations on measures that should be taken by the State to achieve more complete and consistent application of the Convention. The Committee encourages wide dissemination of its concluding observations, which are made available on the CEDAW webpage (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/index.htm) at the close of each session.

During the session, in addition to the consideration of country reports, the Committee will also consider cases under the Optional Protocol to the Convention. States parties to the Optional Protocol recognize the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications submitted by or on behalf of individuals, under the jurisdiction of the State party, claiming to be victims of violations set forth in the Convention. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 22 December 2000 and currently has 100 States parties.

The Committee will also further consider general recommendations on the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution as well as violence against women in armed conflict and post conflict situations. The Committee will also consider reports and information received under its follow-up procedure to concluding observations.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations can submit their own reports and present information to the Committee. Non-governmental organizations will have the opportunity to address the Committee on Monday, 17 January and Monday, 24 January in the afternoon. National human rights institutions may also present reports to the Committee and address it orally during the meetings convened on those days. Those reports are made available on the Committee's Web page for its forty-eighth session at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/cedaws48.htm.

In addition to these reports, the provisional agenda for the forty-eighth session, which includes background documents for the session, including the reports of States parties and supplementary information, can be found online at the address referenced above.

All seven of the States parties presenting reports under the Convention during this session have previously come before the Committee, which subsequently issued concluding observations on them. The Committee considered the fifth periodic report of Bangladesh on 9 July 2004 and issued its concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/BGD/CO/31. The Committee considered the combined fourth to sixth periodic report of Belarus on 23 January 2004 and issued its concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/BLR/CO/6. It heard the third periodic report of Israel on 6 July 2005 and published concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/ISR/CO/3. The Committee reviewed the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Kenya on 27 July 2007 and issued concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/KEN/CO/6. Lichtenstein presented its second and third periodic reports to the Committee on 26 July 2007 and concluding observations were published in document CEDAW/C/LIE/CO/3. Sri Lanka presented its combined third and fourth periodic reports on 28 January 2002 and the Committee issued its concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/LKA/CO/4. The Committee considered the initial report of South Africa on 24 and 29 June 1998 and issued concluding observations in document CEDAW/C/ZAF/CO/1.

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