[women-rights] CEDAW 30th Session: Committee finds mixed progress

29 January 2004 ­ The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, currently in session at United Nations Headquarters in New
York, has found signs of progress in fighting bias along with the
persistence of gender stereotypes, its chairperson said today.

"We welcome the fact that in almost all countries, there are new laws and
legal reforms and efforts to strengthen those national machineries for
women," Feride Acar told a press briefing. "There is a significant
improvement in efforts to implement the Convention, both de facto and de
jure, in all States parties that we examined."

The Committee, which monitors implementation of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, is examining
reports from Belarus, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Germany, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal
and Nigeria during the current session, which ends on Friday.

"We also once again noted that one of the major difficulties with women's
human rights right now on the basis of these reports is that there
continues to be the persistence of stereotypes," Ms. Acar continued.
Entrenched stereotypes may manifest in different ways, "but nonetheless
there is a commonality in being disadvantageous for women and
discriminatory towards women."

She hailed evidence of "significant efforts" to incorporate the
Convention's principles into the national domestic laws, and noted that a
number of national courts have recently made explicit reference to the
Convention when ruling on discrimination cases.

"More and more, States are adopting laws against violence against women,
including domestic violence," she said, while cautioning that much needs
to be done "at the stage of implementation."

UN News Service




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