The Girl From Beijing 1992

[Coleman John]

Initialreports submitted under article 18 of the Convention should cover the situationup to the date of submission. Thereafter, reports should be submitted at least every fouryears after the first report was due and should include obstacles encountered inimplementing the Convention fully and the measures adopted to overcome such obstacles.

Bearing in mind that the Committee had been faced with difficulties in its work becausesome initial reports of States parties under article 18 of the Convention did not reflectadequately the information available in the State party concerned in accordance with theguidelines,

"Initial reports submitted under article 18 of the Convention should cover thesituation up to the date of submission. Thereafter, reports should be submitted at leastevery four years after the first report was due and should include obstacles encounteredin implementing the Convention fully and the measures adopted to overcome suchobstacles."3

Further considering that, although the reports have come from States with differentlevels of development, they present features in varying degrees showing the existence ofstereotyped conceptions of women, owing to socio-cultural factors, that perpetuatediscrimination based on sex and hinder the implementation of article 5 of the Convention,

Urges all States parties effectively to adopt education and public informationprogrammes, which will help eliminate prejudices and current practices that hinder thefull operation of the principle of the social equality of women.

Welcomes the decision of the States parties to consider reservations at its nextmeeting in New York in 1988, and to that end suggests that all States parties concernedreconsider such reservations with a view to withdrawing them.

Taking note that the reports, the introductory remarks and the replies by Statesparties reveal that while significant progress has been achieved in regard to repealing ormodifying discriminatory laws, there is still a need for action to be taken to implementfully the Convention by introducing measures to promote de facto equality between men andwomen,

Recommends that States Parties make more use of temporary special measures such aspositive action, preferential treatment or quota systems to advance women's integrationinto education, the economy, politics and employment.

Noting General Assembly resolutions 40/39, 41/108 and in particular 42/60, paragraph14, which invited the Committee and the States parties to consider the question of holdingfuture sessions of the Committee at Vienna,

Bearing in mind resolution 42/105 and, in particular paragraph 11, which requests theSecretary-General to strengthen co-ordination between the United Nations Centre for HumanRights and the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariatin relation to the implementation of human rights treaties and servicing treaty bodies,

1. That they continue to support proposals for strengthening the co-ordination betweenthe Centre for Human Rights at Geneva and the Centre for Social Development andHumanitarian Affairs at Vienna, in relation to the servicing of the Committee;

3. That they take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that adequate resourcesand services are available to the Committee to assist it in its functions under theConvention and in particular that full-time staff are available to help the Committee toprepare for its sessions and during its session;

4. That they ensure that supplementary reports and materials are submitted to theSecretariat in due time to be translated into the official languages of the United Nationsin time for distribution and consideration by the Committee.

Recommends that States parties take further direct measures in accordance with article4 of the Convention to ensure the full implementation of article 8 of the Convention andto ensure to women on equal terms with men and without any discrimination theopportunities to represent their Government at the international level and to participatein the work of international organizations.

Recommends that States parties should make every effort to ensure that their nationalstatistical services responsible for planning national censuses and other social andeconomic surveys formulate their questionnaires in such a way that data can bedisaggregated according to gender, with regard to both absolute numbers and percentages,so that interested users can easily obtain information on the situation of women in theparticular sector in which they are interested.

Considering further that in those 10 years the Convention has proved to be one of themost effective instruments that the United Nations has adopted to promote equality betweenthe sexes in the societies of its States Members,

1. Undertaking programmes including conferences and seminars to publicize theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in the mainlanguages of and providing information on the Convention in their respective countries;

2. Inviting their national women's organizations to cooperate in the publicitycampaigns regarding the Convention and its implementation and encouraging non-governmentalorganizations at the national, regional and international levels to publicize theConvention and its implementation;

3. Encouraging action to ensure the full implementation of the principles of theConvention, and in particular article 8, which relates to the participation of women atall levels of activity of the United Nations and the United Nations system;

4. Requesting the Secretary-General to commemorate the tenth anniversary of theadoption of the Convention by publishing and disseminating, in co-operation with thespecialized agencies, printed and other materials regarding the Convention and itsimplementation in all official languages of the United Nations, preparing televisiondocumentaries about the Convention, and making the necessary resources available to theDivision for the Advancement of Women, Centre for Social Development and HumanitarianAffairs of the United Nations Office at Vienna, to prepare an analysis of the informationprovided by States parties in order to update and publish the report of the Committee

(A/CONF.116/13), which was first published for the World Conference to Review andAppraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Developmentand Peace, held at Nairobi in 1985.

Welcoming the request in General Assembly resolution 43/115, paragraph 9, that theSecretary-General should arrange, within existing resources and taking into account thepriorities of the programme of advisory services, further training courses for thosecountries experiencing the most serious difficulties in meeting their reportingobligations under international instruments on human rights,

Recommends to States parties that they should encourage, support and co-operate inprojects for technical advisory services, including training seminars, to assist Statesparties on their request in fulfilling their reporting obligations under article 18 of theConvention.

Considering that articles 2, 5, 11, 12 and 16 of the Convention require the Statesparties to act to protect women against violence of any kind occurring within the family,at the work place or in any other area of social life,

1. The legislation in force to protect women against the incidence of all kinds ofviolence in everyday life (including sexual violence, abuses in the family, sexualharassment at the work place etc.);

Recalling International Labour Organization Convention No. 100 concerning EqualRemuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, which has been ratified bya large majority of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women,

Considering that although reports of States parties indicate that, even though theprinciple of equal remuneration for work of equal value has been accepted in thelegislation of many countries, more remains to be done to ensure the application of thatprinciple in practice, in order to overcome the gender- segregation in the labour market,

1. In order to implement fully the Convention on the Elimination of All forms ofDiscrimination of against Women, those States parties that have not yet ratified ILOConvention No. 100 should be encouraged to do so;

2. They should consider the study, development and adoption of job evaluation systemsbased on gender-neutral criteria that would facilitate the comparison of the value ofthose jobs of a different nature, in which women presently predominate, with those jobs inwhich men presently predominate, and they should include the results achieved in theirreports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;

3. They should support, as far as practicable, the creation of implementation machineryand encourage the efforts of the parties to collective agreements, where they apply, toensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Noting with satisfaction that Governments, where such practices exist, national women'sorganizations, non-governmental organizations, and bodies of the United Nations system,such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, as well asthe Commission on Human Rights and its Sub- Commission on Prevention of Discrimination andProtection of Minorities, remain seized of the issue having particularly recognized thatsuch traditional practices as female circumcision have serious health and otherconsequences for women and children,

Taking note with interest the study of the Special Rapporteur on Traditional PracticesAffecting the Health of Women and Children,4 and of the study of theSpecial Working Group on Traditional Practices, 5

(iii) The encouragement of politicians, professionals, religious and community leadersat all levels, including the media and the arts, to co-operate in influencing attitudestowards the eradication of female circumcision;

(b) Include in their national health policies appropriate strategies aimed ateradicating female circumcision in public health care. Such strategies could include thespecial responsibility of health personnel, including traditional birth attendants, toexplain the harmful effects of female circumcision;

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