COMMITTEE ON DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN MEETS WITH NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTION

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this afternoon met with non governmental organizations (NGOs) from Bahrain, El Salvador, Myanmar and Portugal, whose reports will be considered by the Committee this week and next Monday. It also met with a representative of the Ombudsperson's Office of El Salvador.

In the discussion with NGOs, Bahraini NGOs highlighted that currently there were around 62,000 domestic workers in Bahrain – the majority of them women – who were excluded from the protection of Bahraini labour law and were living with abuse, and in conditions of involuntary servitude. In El Salvador, despite the fact that trafficking in persons had been criminalized in 2004, NGOs worried that there remained no acknowledgment of violence against victims. NGOs from Myanmar underscored three themes: that the militarization of the country reinforced patriarchy; that rape and sexual violence committed by State actors were occurring throughout the country; and that a 1982 citizenship law had rendered the Rohinga ethnic minority stateless, harming Rohinga women. Portuguese NGOs noted positive advances, including the decriminalization of abortion and the establishment of electoral quotas in favour of women's participation. Areas of concern in Portugal included the fact that, despite the new legislation on abortion, family planning was still not readily available to large segments of the population, particularly young women; and that incidents of domestic violence against women was growing in Portugal, both in number and degree.

The NGOs in these countries said they had had no input into the reports submitted by their Governments for the Committee's consideration.

In the discussion with Raquel Caballero of the Ombudsman's Office of El Salvador, the problem of violence against women in the country was identified as a serious concern. There was impunity for perpetrators, and investigative techniques were insufficient, she said. It was necessary for the Government to take steps to change the attitude that violence against women was a private matter and to create a specialized unit in the Public Prosecutor's Office on violence against women, as well as specialized training in techniques for analysing such cases.

NGOs speaking this afternoon included representatives of the Bahrain Women's Union; the Bahrain Young Ladies' Association; CLADEM El Salvador and Gender Committee of the national Union of Workers; Karen Women's Organization and Women's League of Burma; Shan Women's Action Network and Women's League of Burma; the Arakan Project; and PPDM-Portuguese Platform for Women's Rights.

The Committee will also review the report of Madagascar this week, on Friday, 31 October, but there were no NGOs present to speak on the situation in that country.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be on Thursday, 30 October, at 10 a.m., when it will take up the initial and second periodic reports of Bahrain (CEDAW/C/BHR/2).


Statements on Bahrain

GHANIYA JASSIM ALAIWI, of the Bahrain Women's Union, said the most pressing issues facing women in Bahrain were the absence of family law, violence against women, the nationality law, political participation, domestic workers and trafficking in persons. A study conducted by the Bahraini Women's Union had revealed that 43 per cent of the population sample of 4,000 Bahraini women had been subjected to violence.

AYSHA GHULOOM BUCHEERI, of the Bahrain Young Ladies' Association, said that the percentage of Bahraini women's political participation was almost negligible. To give women a fair chance, the electoral law should be amended to endorse a proportional representation system and the giving of women electable positions on the top of party lists. Finally, on domestic workers and trafficking in persons, the current figure of domestic workers in Bahrain stood at around 62,000, the majority of which were women. Their exclusion from Bahraini labour law had led to their deprivation of their legal rights, living with abuse, withholding of their passports, and conditions of involuntary servitude. Yet, the Government had not yet activated anti-trafficking legislation in order to protect those women from forced prostitution.

Statement on El Salvador

CLAUDIA MONTERROSA, on behalf of CLADEM El Salvador, in a joint statement on behalf of the Gender Committee of the National Union of Workers and 16 other organizations, said that, while trafficking in persons had been criminalized in 2004, there remained no acknowledgment of violence against victims or the methods used to obtain their consent and the conditions regarding vulnerability of victims. In education, there was a lack of resources and the inefficiencies in the educational system were reflected in the high dropout and repetition rates of girls. Moreover, cases of harassment, sexual abuse and resulting pregnancies were part of a vicious cycle that discouraged women from continuing their education. Other areas of concern included a lack of labour laws covering risks and sexual harassment in the workplace; a lack effective exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, with a prohibition on abortions in effect; and the plight of rural women who had limited access to social services.

Statements on Myanmar

NAW HTOO PAW, of Karen Women's Organization and Women's League of Burma, said that the militarization of the country reinforced patriarchy. The regime's new Constitution not only failed to effectively promote gender equality, it guaranteed that the armed forces, an almost exclusively male institution, would control 25 per cent of the seats in the legislature. As boldly indicated in the new Constitution, "nothing in this section [8] shall prevent appointment of men to the positions that are naturally suitable to men". Moreover, women's human rights defenders that had dared to speak out had been physically assaulted, arrested and detained indefinitely. When the regime cracked down on the Saffron Revolution of September 2007, at least 19 women disappeared, and 131 women protestors, including 6 nuns, were arrested, and prominent women activists went into hiding.

YING TZARM, Shan Women's Action Network and Women's League of Burma, said that rape and sexual violence committed by State actors were occurring throughout Burma. The majority of incidents took place in the ethnic states, which had been most impacted by the regime's policies of military expansion. Sexual violence was being used by the regime as an integral part of its strategy to subjugate the ethnic peoples and to establish control over their land and resources.

CHRISTIANE D, of the Arakan Project, said that according to the 1982 citizenship law the Rohinga ethnic minority had been rendered stateless, which had a big impact on women. Girls were barred from university studies, from employment in Government, and from serving as teachers or nurses. Moreover, international NGOs were banned from training Rohinga women, even to act as local midwives. Finally, to marry the Rohinga had to obtain official permission to do so and there were a number of cases in which Rohinga had been prosecuted for failing to do so.


Statements on Portugal

ANA MARIA PARADA DA COSTA, of the PPDM-Portuguese Platform for Women's Rights, began by highlighting two positive developments in Portugal regarding the condition of women: the decriminalisation of abortion; and the approval, in 2006, of the Parity Law, enforcing quotas of a minimum of one third of women and men candidates in electoral lists.

VERA SUSANA ELOI DA FONSECA, also of the PPDM-Portuguese Platform for Women's Rights, raised concerns about the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, the new national mechanism for equality, which had extended its fields of action in order to cover other forms of discrimination under an umbrella-type concept of citizenship. That approach raised strong concern that discrimination against women would be diluted among other types of discrimination. Further, the NGOs Executive Council had been, in practice, extinguished. On health issues, despite the gains mentioned earlier, family planning was still not readily available to large segments of the population, particularly young women. Finally, there was growing evidence that forms of violence against women – namely, domestic violence – were growing in Portugal, both in number and degree, whereas judicial proceedings were slow and hardly ever protected women, while the number of shelters was insufficient.

Questions by Experts

On Portugal, Experts asked what involvement women's groups had had in Portugal's report to the Committee. In El Salvador, had NGOs raised the issue of sexual harassment with the Government? On Bahrain, several Experts asked questions, including what NGOs felt was the reason that the Government had not enacted a family law; what was the basis for the statement that the Government considered quotas for political participation of women unconstitutional; and whether domestic workers in the country, who were outside of the labour law, were subject to other controls, such as bilateral agreements with sending countries. Concerning Myanmar, Experts asked whether there was a shelter system for victims of violence; and what was the size of the Rohinga community.

In a general question, an Expert asked all NGOs how well the Convention was known in their respective countries, both by the Government and the judiciary, as well as by the general public.

Response by NGOs

NGOs from Bahrain said they were not able to participate in the drafting of the Government's report to the Committee. As for the reasons for the non-action on a family law, that was owing to a lack of political will on the part of the Government, who did not "take this issue seriously", Bahraini NGOs said. As a result, women were suffering from an inability to get divorce decrees, or regarding housing and children's custody issues. There had been no attempt whatsoever to get religious leaders to dialogue with the public and resolve the issue. On domestic workers, there were no laws that covered this group, apart from the employment contract; moreover, in the majority of cases there was no contract at all. Regarding the non-constitutionality of quotas, the Government had said that quotas were in contravention of the Constitution because of its extensive provisions establishing equality. It was the NGOs contention that this was a case for special measures.

El Salvador NGOs said the only information they had had about the Government's report to the Committee had been gleaned from the CEDAW website. Sexual harassment, which was among the most serious forms of discrimination against women in the country, had been raised as an issue with the Government, NGOs claimed, but they had not had the hoped-for results.

In Myanmar, the junta had enacted trafficking laws in 2002, an NGO said, but there were no steps being taken to implement it. Police and judges had no training, and were unable to distinguish between smuggling, illegal migration and trafficking. Regarding sexual violence, the perpetrators were the Army troops, therefore there was no recourse for the victims. The issue was not being addressed. There were some cases that had come to the attention of the Army command, but there had never been any disclosure of the outcome of such communications or action taken. There was no training on these issues for the Army, who only received military training, and no training for the Regime, or for the judiciary either.

In Portugal, women's rights organizations had not been consulted on the report presented to the Committee. Regarding employment, the gender gap was mostly witnessed in the private sector. Despite higher levels of women in terms of higher education attained, that was not reflected in terms of women in decision-making positions. Employers still asked women in interviews whether they were married and whether they had or were interested in having children. As for paternity leave, many employers pressured men not to take the paternity leave to which they were legally entitled. On domestic violence, complaints could be lodged at police stations or via the Commission on Citizenship and Domestic Equality's dedicated phone line. There were shelters for victims run by NGOs, which provided psychological, medical and legal support to victims, but the number was insufficient. There was no gender training for judges. There was no sexual education in schools.

Statement by National Human Rights Institution

RAQUEL CABALLERO, of the Ombudsman's Office of El Salvador, said the Ombudsman’s Office shared the concerns expressed earlier by NGOs about the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women, which was weak and lacked resources. A serious concern was the problem of violence against women. There was impunity for perpetrators, and investigative techniques were insufficient. It was necessary for the Government to take steps to change the attitude that violence against women was a private matter. There was a need to create a specialized unit in the Public Prosecutor's Office on violence against women and specialized training in techniques for analysing such cases, including forensic evidence. There was a lack of statistics on the spread of violence against women, including murders, which hampered the development of policies and plans.

A further difficulty impeding the proper investigation of cases of discrimination against women was the fact that the National Assembly had not yet ratified the Optional Protocol, allowing for individuals to address complaints to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Another issue was a lack of mechanisms for ensuring equal political participation of women, Ms. Caballero said. They had to work on parity in this area. Problems relating to fundamental women's rights were far-reaching and considerable effort had to be deployed.

In the labour sphere, there were no laws ensuring access for women in large numbers. Women had two different jobs – in the labour market, and at home. However, the State did not provide compensations to accommodate that. Women who bore children were excluded from health benefits, as their work was not considered to be worthy of recognition or compensation. Mechanisms for complaints by women workers had to be established.

Question by Expert

An Expert asked what was happening with regard to the Optional Protocol.

Response by National Human Rights Institution

Responding, the representative from the Ombudsman's Office of El Salvador said that there was a lack of political will to address women's and children's issues in the Government. For that reason, the decision on the Optional Protocol to the Convention remained blocked in the National Assembly.



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CEDAW08024E