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CEDAW Update
On 1 May 2008 the WNC Shadow Report was submitted to the CEDAW Committee in response to the UK Government's 6thPeriodic Report, and was an important milestone for WNC.
The CEDAW Process
The CEDAW process is a mystery to many so this attempts to describe in simple terms, the process that is followed. This is one of those situations whereby the role and activity of NGOs is quite separate from the role of Government. This is because NGOs assist the CEDAW Committee to hold the Government to account, whilst acknowledging any good work it has done.
UK Examination
The formal examination of the UK Report is due to take place on Thursday 10 July, when an anticipated planned video link to London will connect Harriet Harman and the UK Delegation with the CEDAW Committee. This arrangement is still to be confirmed by the CEDAW Committee secretariat.
The official examination sessions will take place between 10am and 1pm and between 3pm and 5pm, and NGOs are not allowed to intervene during the examination itself. The Committee will then meet in closed session between 5 and 6pm, to discuss the detail of the examination and official responses to their questions.
Role of WNC/NGO
NGO representatives play a full part in the CEDAW examination process by helping to brief members of the CEDAW Committee to robustly question the official delegation on the UK's official report. Members of the CEDAW Committee welcome information to support the examination process, but NGOs must press and lobby on those points of greatest concern, to ensure that the Committee are aware of all the facts.
Formally, input from UK NGOs would be in the form of a short 10 minute oral presentation on Monday 7 July, which will take place between 3pm and 4.45pm. The UK oral presentation would be likely to include input from a range of UK NGOs including WNC, but this is to be agreed. Who will deliver the oral presentation to the Committee also needs to be agreed.
Besides this formal input, NGOs have the opportunity and are encouraged to informally meet individual Committee members throughout the week in New York, to lobby the Committee members when they are not in session, by speaking to them in breaks or arranging to have a lunch-time meeting with them. It is also recommended that these informal meetings take place the day before the examination, to reiterate the main areas the Committee should question the delegation on, and again a meeting at lunchtime on the day of the examination, to focus on whether the Delegation is giving frank answers during the dialogue in the morning session.
During the examination itself, NGOs are encouraged to take notes of the dialogue so that following the examination, NGOs can prepare statements on what they would like to see in the Concluding Comments. The concluding statement must respond to the dialogue and responses. It should verify, or identify, weakness of the Government's responses and include NGO recommendations of what should go into the Concluding Observations. As the Concluding Comments should only include what was raised during the examination, it is critical that NGOs lobby the Committee before the formalities begin, to ensure the Committee raises all the critical issues during the examination.
Pre-Meeting on CEDAW
There were plans in place for a pre-meeting with NGOs which the GEO wanted to hold to update them on the process and the UK delegation's plans. It was scheduled to take place on Monday 9 June, but unfortunately this meeting had to be cancelled due to delays in UN correspondence with the GEO. The UK has been unable to confirm the exact terms of its engagement with the Committee for the examination and as a result, did not have sufficient information to relay to UK NGOs in order to generate a fruitful meeting.
CEDAW Committee Elections
During April 2008, the UN was seeking applications for membership to the CEDAW Committee., where there were to be 11 places to fill. The deadline for receipt of names was 30 April. The UK did not officially propose or support any UK experts for these places.
The official response from Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated that;
Individuals on all Treaty Monitoring Bodies serve in a personal capacity and do not represent nations or governments;
FCO and OGDs have limited resources and agree across Whitehall and with FCO Ministers, the need to focus on one or two election campaigns per year;
Running an election campaign is resource intensive, but `resources' does not just mean money, but also time and staff both at home and overseas.
Every 18 months, priorities are re-visited. But this year FCO are focused on re-lection to the newly formed Human Rights Council and to the International Court of Justice. Both elections involved lobbying the other 191 members of the UN General Assembly;
FCO decided to focus on election to the Human Rights Council as an overarching UN human rights body - the HRC is in its infancy and it is important that the UK is engaged at this point to ensure that it develops good practice to address all human rights issues, including women.
The UK was successful in their campaign to be elected to the Human Rights Council, being elected to the Council along with France.
WNC/08/02/12