Fifth Inter-Committee Meeting
of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Geneva , Switzerland , 19-21 June 2006

Submission by International Women’ s Rights Action Watch ( Asia Pacific)
20 June 2006

Thank you Mr. Chairperson.

I speak on behalf of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific), an international organisation based in Malaysia that works for the realisation of women’s human rights through the lens of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other international human rights treaties.

We thank the Chair for this opportunity to present our views on critical debates currently before us. We would first like to outline the general principles that we believe would strengthen the reforms, and then comment on two aspects of the proposed reform to the treaty body system: the unified treaty body and the reporting guidelines.

In general, we believe the proposed reforms would be beneficial if they were to achieve the following:

(1) Encourage a consistent and holistic approach to human rights promotion, protection and monitoring;

(2) Strengthen the mainstreaming of women's human rights throughout the UN human rights system;

(3) Avoid duplication; and

(4) Create more entry points for advocacy on women's human rights.

We also share the concern expressed by several Committee members that this reform, if not properly implemented, could result in an even more confusing and inefficient system. To avoid this, we strongly believe that any reform – if it is to be successful - must incorporate the following key principles:

1. Retain and strengthen NGO participation: As expressed several times yesterday by Committee members, NGOs are an indispensable part of implementation, monitoring and follow-up of the rights contained in the various human rights treaties. Their roles should therefore be retained and institutionalized under any new reporting system.

2. Retain expertise of the CEDAW Committee: Women’s human rights have expanded under CEDAW because of contributions by experts on its committee. For it to continue to progress, we must ensure that any reform to the current system continues to retain this level of expertise.

3. Adopt the most progressive standards and jurisprudence in the current system: Over the past decades, treaty bodies have developed progressive standards and jurisprudence in several areas. The CEDAW Committee has done so in the area of women's human rights. We must ensure that these progressive standards and jurisprudence are incorporated into any reform from the outset – especially with regards to CEDAW’s definition of substantive equality, non-discrimination and state obligation.

4. Retain the specialized understanding of women's human rights: The CEDAW Convention and Committee have created a specialized understanding of women's human rights – such as the notion of ‘multiple forms of discrimination’. This type of specialized understanding must be retained under any new system.

Turning specifically to two aspects of the reforms, we address the proposal for a unified standing treaty body, as expressed in the concept note of the OHCHR. We endorse the statement of the CEDAW Committee, presented by its Chair yesterday that a unified standing treaty body runs the risk of losing the specificity and expertise of individual Committees to the detriment of rights holders. Should a unified standing body come to exist at all, it is essential to have experts, in particular women’s rights experts, on the committee.

Regarding the treaty reporting system, we commend the work of the Inter-Committee Technical Working Group and its revised harmonized guidelines. We especially commend the guidelines for stressing the importance for State parties to report on both de jure and de facto implementation of rights. We appreciate the draft guidelines for special attention paid to persons who suffer multiple forms of discrimination. We still caution however, that reporting on the rights of equality and non-discrimination in both the common core document and the treaty specific document deserves special emphasis. Guidelines need to be clearly articulated in order to avoid dilution of these rights and confusion for reporting parties.

In conclusion, we emphasize that these reforms should result in a holistic, integrated, progressive human rights paradigm that applies across the board not only to treaty bodies but to all other UN human rights mechanisms, in particular, the newly inaugurated Human Rights Council.

Thank you Mr. Chair.

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