Credit: OHCHR
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) is currently holding its 61st session from July 6 to July 24, 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the session, the CEDAW Committee has been reviewing State reports submitted by Bolivia, Croatia, Gambia, Namibia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Spain, and Vietnam, on their implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). During the session, representatives from each State engage in a dialogue with CEDAW Committee members based on each State’s national report and responses to the list of issues, which consists of those topics the Committee had previously asked each State to address. The Committee will also review reports submitted by civil society organizations concerning the States’ implementation of the Convention. At the conclusion of the review process, the Committee will issue concluding observations for each State, containing its concerns and recommendations on each State’s implementation of the Convention.
The session agenda also includes discussion of matters relating to the Committee’s follow-up procedure, which has States provide information on their implementation of two recommendations from the Committee’s concluding observations within two years. The Committee will also consider individual complaints as well as inquiries under the Optional Protocol to the Convention, in closed meetings, and will discuss matters relating to general recommendations and its methods of work. [OHCHR Press Release]
Bolivia
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee asked Bolivia to provide information about: provisions in its 2009 Constitution that address discrimination; measures taken to increase access to justice for women, including rural, Afro-Bolivian, and indigenous women; steps adopted to prevent and address trafficking and sexual exploitation, particularly of children, adolescents, and young women; and steps taken to achieve equal pay for work of equal value. The Committee also asked Bolivia to provide updated information on a draft bill on sexual and reproductive rights; to address discrepancies in prenatal care and maternal mortality rates between urban and rural areas; to provide information about steps taken to ensure access to legal and safe abortion for all women, including rural and indigenous women; and to discuss continued barriers that indigenous and rural women face in registering as landowners.
Bolivia replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, held on July 14th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Bolivia, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/BOL/5-6, 17 December 2013.
Several civil society groups, including Amnesty International, CLADEM, Coalición de Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Croatia
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee requested that Croatia explain its four-year delay in submitting a State report; discuss how it is implementing its anti-discrimination legislation; provide information on available resources (human and financial) allocated to various government offices that address gender equality; delineate measures taken to increase gender equality, especially in fields where women are underrepresented; discuss steps taken to eliminate stereotypical images of women in the media, for example the presentation of women as sexual objects; and indicate steps taken to promote the equal division of family responsibilities. The Committee also asked the State to provide information about: statistics on gender-based violence; measures to ensure access to justice and reparations for women who suffered wartime violence, including sexual violence; steps taken to combat trafficking, including prevention; steps taken to increase women’s participation at senior levels of public, political, and economic life; access to contraception; threats to abortion coming from neoconservative groups; and discrimination against Roma girls and women in the educational, employment, and health-care sectors.
Croatia replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, to be held on July 15th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Croatia, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/HRV/4-5, 17 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, including the Autonomous Women’s House Zagreb, the Advocates for Human Rights, B.a.B.e. and Women’s Room – Centre for Sexual Rights, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Gambia
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee requested that Gambia provide information on: improving women’s access to courts, especially in cases of gender-based violence; plans to put into place a human rights institution to address gender-based discrimination; the national plan of action to eliminate female genital mutilation and cutting; steps taken to implement the national law addressing domestic violence (the 2013 Domestic Violence Act) and rape and other sexual offenses (the 2013 Sexual Offences Act); the implementation of a national law criminalizing trafficking in women; and steps taken to increase the number of women elected or appointed to decision-making positions at all levels of government, including local government. In addition, the Committee asked Gambia to provide information about steps it has taken to increase women’s participation in the formal employment sector; whether it is considering decriminalizing abortion; steps taken to support women living with HIV/AIDS and to provide them with antiretroviral therapy; measures taken to ensure that all laws, including customary and Sharia laws, are applied in a way that is consistent with the Convention; and steps taken to abolish child and/or forced marriage, which continues to exist despite legal prohibitions.
Gambia replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which was held on July 9th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Gambia, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GMB/4-5, 17 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, including GAMCOTRAP, the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, and the Association of Non-Governmental organizations (TANGO), Women’s Rights Organizations (WRO) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) [in a joint submission], submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Namibia
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee requested that Namibia provide information on whether it has adopted legislation on issues including the minimum legal marriage age, gender equality, the division of marital property, and no-fault divorce. The Committee also asked Namibia to discuss the mandates and available budgets of national and regional task forces on gender; steps taken to eliminate obstacles women confront in accessing justice; measures taken to increase the prosecution and conviction of sexual offences and to ensure the availability and accessibility of legal aid for indigent women; steps taken to address high adolescent pregnancy rates and reduce high maternal mortality rates; and measures taken to ensure that full and informed consent is given by women before they are sterilized, in order to eliminate the practice of forced or coerced sterilization, specifically of HIV-positive women; and steps taken to better implement a law intended to repeal practices preventing women from staying on land that was allocated to their deceased husbands.
Namibia replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which will be held on July 16th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Namibia, UN Doc CEDAW/C/NAM/4-5, 13 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, including the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, NANGOF Trust, and Southern Africa Litigation Centre, submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee asked Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: to provide an update on the adoption of its National Gender-Based Violence Action Plan intended to eliminate gender inequality, to discuss steps it has taken to improve the collection of disaggregated data on domestic violence, whether steps are in place to criminalize sexual harassment, what steps have been taken to broaden the legal definition of rape in the Criminal Code, and to explain measures taken to prevent and provide protection and legal support to trafficking victims. The Committee also asked the State for information on: measures adopted to increase women’s participation in political and public life; steps taken to enable pregnant adolescents to continue with their education; the implementation and enforcement of employment laws ensuring equal pay for equal work and prohibiting employment termination on prohibited grounds; the availability and accessibility of sexual and reproductive health and rights information, particularly for adolescents; when legal abortion is available and steps taken to remove barriers to abortion; steps taken to address the downturn in the banana industry which has impacted rural women, who work as banana farm workers; and whether legislation has been adopted to protect women who are in de facto unions, but not legally married.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which will be held on July 20th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, UN Doc CEDAW/C/VCT/4-8, 13 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, such as the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, UQAM’s (Université du Québec à Montréal) International Clinic for the Defense of Human Rights, and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Senegal
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee requested that Senegal address: why numerous discriminatory provisions continue to exist in its national legislation and to provide a timeframe for modifying these laws; what steps the State has taken to provide free legal aid to women; measures it has adopted to prohibit harmful practices, including denying inheritance rights to women, child and/or forced marriage, and female genital mutilation; steps taken to criminalize marital rape and to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment; measures to implement the national action plan to combat trafficking in persons; steps taken to prevent and punish workplace sexual harassment; the wage gap between women and men; and whether women who work in the informal and rural sectors are provided with social benefits. The CEDAW Committee also asked the State to provide data on rates of unsafe abortion; to discuss steps taken to reduce high maternal mortality rates; to clarify whether women with HIV/AIDS, particularly those living in rural and remote areas, have access to free antiretroviral medication, including to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission; to discuss whether support is provided to rural women in the areas of access to health-care services, education, justice, employment, and ownership of land; and to explain the situation of women in detention facilities.
Senegal replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which was held on July 7th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Senegal, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/SEN/3-7, 17 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, including Fédération Sénégalaise des Associations de Personnes Handicapées (French only), the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, and FIDH, RADDHO, and LSDH (joint submission, French only), submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Spain
In its list of issues, the Committee asked Spain to provide information about: available resources for women, particularly women with disabilities, minorities, and migrants, who are victims of violence; steps taken to identify why the number of homicides resulting from gender-based remains so high (81 percent); the adoption of an instrument to combat human trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation, particularly given that Spain has the second highest number of trafficking and forced prostitution cases in Europe; steps taken to increase women’s participation in the political and public spheres; and measures taken to encourage girls and women, and boys and men, to study non-traditional subjects (for example, for girls and women to study engineering and architecture). The Committee also asked Spain to address steps taken to lower the rate of unwanted pregnancies, for example by making family planning information and services more readily available; information about changing the current abortion legislation, specifically provisions that require parental authorization for those between 16 and 18 years of age; steps taken to improve the situation of migrant women, including those who lack legal status, as well as Roma women, and whether financial cuts have prevented these improvements from being implemented; and data on refugees and those seeing asylum, as well as whether law enforcement officials and border guards are trained in how to deal with gender-related persecution.
Spain replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which was held on July 8th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Spain, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/ESP/7-8*, 17 December 2013.
Many civil society organizations, including Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Amnesty International, CEDAW Shadow Platform and Women’s Link, submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Vietnam
In its list of issues, the CEDAW Committee requested that Vietnam provide information about steps taken to address the continued practice of sex-selective abortion, despite the fact that this practice is outlawed. The Committee also requested information about steps taken to ensure that women have access to redress in discrimination cases; information about budgetary allocation to government agencies tasked with the advancement of women; steps taken to change gender stereotypes, including through changes in textbooks and the media; steps taken to eliminate harmful practices including child and/or forced marriage; measures taken to address violence against women and girls, both in the private and public realms; information about how many girls work in the commercial sex industry and what the State is doing to protect them, as well as to prosecute those who exploit them; and to provide an update on sex-disaggregated data on former Cambodian refugees and those of undetermined nationality living in Vietnam. The Committee also asked the State to address: the situation of women working in the informal sector; high maternal mortality rates, particularly in rural areas and among ethnic minorities; assistance to older women, especially given that 80 percent of the elderly are women; and the conditions for women prisoners, particularly given the absence of women-only prisons.
Vietnam replied to the list of issues prior to its constructive dialogue with the Committee, which was held on July 10th. See also Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention: Vietnam, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/VNM/7-8, 17 December 2013.
Several civil society organizations, including Four Freedom Forum, the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, and Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, submitted supplementary reports for the Committee’s review.
Additional Information
The CEDAW Committee is one of ten committees of experts established to assess States’ implementation of specific UN human rights treaties. To learn more about the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, visit IJRC’s Online Resource Hub.