CHINA’S RECORD ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS TO FACE SCRUTINY BY UN COMMITTEE

GENEVA (16 October 2014) – China’s record on women’s rights will be examined by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Thursday 23 October 2014 in meetings that will be webcast live.

China is one of the 188 States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and is required to submit regular reports to the Committee of 23 independent experts on how it is implementing the Convention.

Among the issues likely to be discussed by the Committee and the delegation of the Chinese Government are: enforcement and monitoring of laws against sex-selective abortion, forced sterilisation and female infanticide; abuse and violence experienced by women in prostitution; steps to improve women’s representation at all levels in decision-making and legislative bodies; measures to address near doubling of women infected with HIV/Aids between 1998 and 2009; land expropriations and lack of compensation for women; rights of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong.

Location: Room XVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 10.00 – 17:00 (16:00 – 23:00 in Beijing), 23 October
Live webcast: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

China’s report and a full list of issues that are likely to be discussed: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en

A news conference is scheduled for 7 November at 13:30 at Palais des Nations to discuss CEDAW’s concluding observations on China, China (Hong Kong) and China (Macao) and the other countries being reviewed – Venezuela, Poland, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Guinea and Solomon Islands. The concluding observations will be published on 7 November here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en


For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell (+41 (0) 22 917 9466 / ethrossell@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Committee on the Elimination of the Discrimination against Women, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cedaw/pages/cedawindex.aspx


For use of the information media; not an official record

CEDAW14/023E