On 4th April 2008, the Working Group of the OP to the ICESCR has completed the drafting of the text of the optional protocol and has transmitted it to the Human Rights Council for endorsement.

You can find the text of the draft OP here.

You can also find the official position of the Steering Committee of the NGO Coalition on the OPICESCR responding to this current draft.
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The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will come into force on May 3rd 2008. Ecuador ratified on 3rd April 2008, the 20th ratification, triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol 30 days later.

This landmark treaty aims to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

"...According to United Nations officials, the rapid coming into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, which was opened for signature on 30 March 2007, is due to the strong commitment of United Nations member countries as well as advocacy by organizations of persons with disabilities, who were instrumental in drafting the Convention. Adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006, the Convention was one of the fastest treaties ever negotiated at the United Nations." [Source of information from http://www.un.org/disabilities/]

The status of ratification is now:
• 126 signatories to the Convention
• 71 signatories to the Optional Protocol
• 20 ratifications of the Convention
• 13 ratifications of the Optional Protocol

Please lobby your governments to sign and ratify this treaty.
You can find out more about this treaty from its website here: http://www.un.org/disabilities/

• The Commmittee has released its guidelines on treaty specific reporting to work with the harmonised reporting guidelines for the common core document.

Under the reform of the treaty body system, a new harmonised reporting system is now being implemented which contains two parts: the common core document (CCD) and a treaty specific document. These guidelines are meant to address the reporting requirement for CEDAW Convention specifically. Therefore all states parties reporting under the Convention will now have to implement these guidelines in giving information to the Committee.

These guidelines replace all previous guidelines on reporting to the CEDAW Committee. Please refer to the OHCHR CEDAW website for the original document, the results of the 40th Session.

• The Committee has issued a statement on its expectant working relationship with NHRIs.

Firstly, the Committee expects all NHRIs to be compliant with Paris Principles as independent and effective national bodies for promotion and protection of Human Rights and be gender balanced/composed of men and women.

The Committee said they looked forward to working with NHRIs and recommended that NHRIs role should include:
a. monitoring of treaty obligations
b. promotion of the implementation of CEDAW at the national level.
c. popularising CEDAW and the OP CEDAW
d. to act as a complaints mechanism and provide assistance to victims of HR violations
e. give information to the Committee (The Committee invites NHRIs to submit information at the presession state and to attend the reviews and give oral information. The Committee is looking to enhance the visibility of input by NHRIs and may be allocating more time/making a special bloc of time for this purpose.)

You may read the full statement here. Please refer to the OHCHR CEDAW website for the original document, the results of the 40th Session.

• IWRAW Asia Pacific is organising a Regional Training of Trainers designed for leaders in the field of women’s rights in the Asia Pacific region who wish to play a role in promoting equality and the human rights of women through engagement with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (“the CEDAW Convention” or “the Convention”).

Date: 25 – 31 May 2008
Venue: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If you are interested please download this form and return it to us completed. Download form

Details:
Who should participate:
Participants should be interested in using the Convention to raise human rights standards, strengthen the domestic application of human rights norms in relation to women’s rights and create change in laws and policies around women’s rights.

Benefits of participation
They will gain an understanding of the social construction of gender and the systemic nature of discrimination; the law and its potential to empower women; the international human rights system, including its monitoring frameworks, treaties and treaty bodies, reporting processes and special procedures; the theoretical framework behind the CEDAW Convention and its basic principles and procedures; and how the Convention can be applied in the local context through a rights-based approach. At the end of the training, participants will be able to lead trainings on the CEDAW Convention at the local and national levels and use the knowledge gained to mobilise others to activism and powerfully advocate for the advancement of women’s rights.

Participants will have the opportunity to join IWRAW Asia Pacific’s pool of resource persons. As members of the resource pool, they may be asked to conduct trainings on the CEDAW Convention for IWRAW Asia Pacific, can conduct trainings in their countries and for their organisations using IWRAW Asia Pacific materials, will receive updated training materials as they are developed, and may be invited to participate in future IWRAW Asia Pacific Updating of Skills and Training Concepts meetings.

• The OHCHR is now the Secretariat to all treaty bodies. The Secretariat for the CEDAW Committee has therefore also been transferred from the DAW in New York to the OHCHR at Geneva, which is where the CEDAW sessions will normally be held from Jan 2008 onwards.

The website of the OHCHR will now also host a section on CEDAW. All official updates and alerts are now available from the OHCHR website, and not the DAW website. Information from the 40th session onwards can be found at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/index.htm but the DAW will still maintain their website on CEDAW.

• In the last session (2nd part of the 6th Session in December 2007), The Human Rights Council adopted 13 resolutions. The main subjects of discussion and decision fall into these categories:

o Extension of mandates for several special procedures
o Called upon all relevant actors to implement a General Assembly resolution on improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system;
o A process to elaborate a set of voluntary human rights goals was initiated.
o Creation of new mechanisms for human rights

Click here to read all resolutions adopted in the 6th session

The countries to be reviewed by the CEDAW Committee at the 40th and 41st Session have been decided. Go to the DAW website for more details and states parties reports.

Click here for the 41st session and here for the 40th session.

The Human Rights Council has chosen the first batch of countries to be reviewed under the new Universal Periodic Review Mechanism. UPR mechanism is a new innovation in the UN human rights system, under which each UN member state will be reviewed periodically - at this stage every 4 years - on its human rights record. IWRAW Asia Pacific has developed guidelines on how NGOs can engage with this process. Click here for more info

IWRAW Asia Pacific is looking for a candidate to fill the post of Executive Director and Programme Officer. For more details click here.

IWRAW Asia Pacific attended the 6th Session of the Human Rights Council,17-21 September 2007. IWRAW-AP fully participated in the Gender Integration Panel of the Human Rights Council, both in preparation for the panel (including through contributing to lobbying for the inclusion of a panel in the programme of work of the HRC’s 6th session, preparation with the NGO representative on the panel - Charlotte Bunch) and during the panel by preparing and coordinating the delivery of an oral intervention. IWRAW-AP also participated in on-going discussions around the Chilean Resolution on Gender Integration in the Human Rights Council which we continued to be involved in during the 6th session through informal meetings.
Click here for more details.
Click here to read our joint statement to the Human Rights Council.

In July 2007, three IWRAW Asia Pacific resource persons attended the United Nations Open Ended Working (OEWG) group on an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR). Ensuring an IWRAW Asia Pacific presence at the United Nations Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) is only one part of enhancing the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights for women but it is a very important part. Click here for more information.

On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the work of the CEDAW Committee IWRAW Asia Pacific were invited to give a brief congratulatory statement at the 39th CEDAW Session in New York. More

IWRAW Asia Pacific is looking for a new Programme Officer (Capacity Building). For more details please visit our vacancies page.

The General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on 13 December 2006 . The Convention and its Optional Protocol will be open for signature from 30 March 2007 . To come into force, the Convention requires 20 ratifications and its Optional Protocol requires 10 ratifications. The text of the Convention and its Optional Protocol can be found in the report of the Final Ad Hoc Committee. Click here for the press release. More

IWRAW Asia Pacific submitted a statement for consideration by the Working Group created  to develop the modalities of the UPR mechanism on 20 November 2006. More

Report of the Coherence Panel released!
The report of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel for UN System-wide Coherence ('Coherence Panel') has been released on November 9, 2006. More

The Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has adopted a series of recommendations for the protection of refugee women and girls at its 57 th session.

The UN General Assembly has appointed Ban Ki-moon (Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea ) as the next Secretary-General, to succeed Kofi Annan when he steps down on 31 December 2006 . More

The Secretary-General's in-depth study on Violence Against Women has been issued. It states that v iolence against women is a violation of human rights. More

Second session of the Human Rights Council. 18 September to 6 October 2006 . IWRAW Asia Pacific attended the 2nd session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) and made statements on the reports of the Special Rapporteur on Housing, Special Rapporteur on Health and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). More

Breaking News! Drafting on an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural (OP-ICESCR) rights begins! More