Note on the 43rd Session of CEDAW

 Note on the 43rd Session of CEDAW

The Committee charged with ensuring that 185 States parties meet their obligations under a treaty that requires them to eliminate discrimination against women opens its three-week forty-third session – running from 19 January to 6 February – at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
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 political, economic, social, cultural, civil or of any other type.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, a 23-person expert body established to monitor compliance with the treaty, are 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 the session, the Committee are reviewing the reports of Dominica, Armenia, Haiti, Cameroon, Libya, Rwanda, Germany and Guatemala on how those countries are implementing their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 


At the opening meeting, the Committee adopted its agenda and organization of work. It then swore in the following eight new members who were elected at the fifteenth meeting of States parties to the Convention held on 30 July 2008 in New York: Indira Jaising (India), Nicole Ameline (France); Violet Tsisiga Awori (Kenya); Barbara Evelyn Bailey (Jamaica); Niklas Bruun (Finland); ; Soledad Murillo de la Vega (Spain); Victoria Popescu (Romania); and Zohra Rasekh (Afghanistan). Three Experts – Magalys Arocha Dominguez (Cuba); Silvia Pimentel (Brazil); and Xiaoqiao Zou (China) – were re-elected for a second two-year term.
These experts fill the 11 positions vacated by the Experts whose mandates expired at the end of 2008. Following a report by the Chairperson on activities undertaken during the intersessional period, the Committee then proceeded to the election of officers – a Chairperson, three Vice Chairpersons and a Rapporteur – from among its members.
Also at its first meeting, the Committee heard introductory statements on ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee.

The Committee and each of the eight State parties presenting reports 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, at the close of each session.
The observations will also be incorporated into the Committee's annual report to the General Assembly,
Also during its forty-third session, the Committee will consider, in private, communications from individuals or groups of individuals claiming to be victims of a violation of their rights under the Convention by States that are parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention. 

Representatives of non-governmental organizations can submit their own reports and present information to the Committee.
Non-governmental organizations had the opportunity to address the Committee on Monday, 19 January and Monday, 26 January.
National human rights institutions also presented reports to the Committee and addressed it orally in a separate meetings convened on those days.