Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Ninety-First Session in Geneva
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its ninety-first session, hearing a statement from a representative of the Secretary-General and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session. During the session, the Committee will review the reports of Afghanistan, Botswana, Chad, Ireland, Mexico, San Marino and Thailand, and adopt concluding observations on the reports of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, which it reviewed during a technical cooperation session held in Fiji in April.
Andrea Ori, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said he was pleased to announce the opening of the session, after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was able to confirm it only last month due to the ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations.
Mr. Ori said this year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 of 31 October 2000, a landmark document that recognised the disproportionate impact of conflicts on women and girls and the crucial role of women in conflict prevention, conflict management and sustainable peace efforts.
Noting with concern that some 120 conflicts were currently affecting civilians and communities worldwide, and that women and girls were primarily targeted by gender-based violence as a tactic of war, Mr. Ori commended the Committee on its work to update general recommendation 30, which provided authoritative guidance to States parties on concrete measures to ensure that women’s rights were protected before, during and after conflict.
Mr. Ori also announced with regret that the global funding crisis was affecting the Committee’s work directly. Due to the lack of funding, the Office of the High Commissioner was planning and operating under the assumption that no Committee would have a third session.
He concluded by thanking the Committee for its unwavering commitment and dedication to advancing women's rights and wished it a successful and productive session.
Nahla Haidar, Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee was meeting in one of the most challenging times for the multilateral system, amidst devastating conflicts, a weakening of the rule of law, and scarce resources. Human rights mechanisms needed to be protected more than ever for the benefit of all stakeholders.
During the meeting, the Chair and Committee Experts discussed the activities they had undertaken since the last session. Bandana Rana, on behalf of Brenda Akia, Committee Rapporteur and Chairperson of the Pre-Sessional Working Group, and Jelena Pia-Comella, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, also briefed the Committee on their work.
The Committee’s ninety-first session is being held from 16 June to 4 July. All documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Meeting summary releases can be found here. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage.
The Committee will next meet at 3 p.m. this today, Monday, 16 June, with the representatives of national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations of Mexico, Thailand and Ireland, whose reports will be reviewed this week.
Opening Statement
ANDREA ORI, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said he was pleased to announce the opening of the session, after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was able to confirm it only last month due to the ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations. The Committee’s pre-sessional working group, scheduled to be held after this session, and the sessions of both Optional Protocol Working Groups directly preceding this session were cancelled due to lack of funding.
This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 of 31 October 2000, a landmark document that recognised the disproportionate impact of conflicts on women and girls and the crucial role of women in conflict prevention, conflict management and sustainable peace efforts, reflecting international human rights norms.
Some 120 conflicts were affecting civilians and communities worldwide, and women and girls were primarily targeted by gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence, as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, and displace communities. Situations of insecurity, organised violence and armed conflicts exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities and placed women and girls at an increased risk of gender-based violence. Mr. Ori commended the Committee on its work to update general recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, which provided authoritative guidance to States parties on concrete measures to ensure that women’s rights were protected before, during and after conflict, and highlighted the importance of women’s meaningful participation in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding.
Mr. Ori welcomed that the Committee’s Chair would participate in the first panel of the 2025 annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women at the fifty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council, to be held on 24 June 2025 under the theme “Gender-based violence against women and girls in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings”. The second panel of the Council’s annual full-day discussion would focus on the theme “Commemoration of the International Day of Women in Diplomacy focusing on overcoming barriers to women’s leadership in peace processes”.
Mr. Ori said the global funding crisis was affecting the Committee’s work directly. It was highly likely that, for those treaty bodies with three annual sessions, the Office of the High Commissioner would not be able to secure the funding to hold their third session. The Office was therefore planning and operating under the assumption that no Committee would have a third session. The Office had received only 73 per cent of its approved regular budget in 2025, and 87 per cent of its approved regular budget in 2024.
The United Nations Office at Geneva’s conference services had also adopted cash conservation measures, which would impact the conference support provided to the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, with an overall reduction of 10 per cent. With further reduction of the allotment, the mandated activities of treaty bodies would be even more affected in 2025 than in 2024. This would impact the treaty bodies’ ability to hold dialogues with States parties and to take decisions on individual communications, resulting in further delays and backlogs, and the Office was obliged to significantly reduce treaty body capacity building activities.
All this caused real damage to predictability, which was so important for States, civil society organizations and rights-holders to engage with treaty bodies. Given the overall reduction in funds and availability of support services, “business as usual” was no longer possible and the treaty bodies needed to plan on “doing less with less”.
The thirty-seventh annual meeting of Chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies was able to meet in Geneva from 2 to 6 June. The Chairs dedicated the meeting to the liquidity crisis, which was affecting the very existence of treaty bodies, and to discussing what could be done to increase predictability under the current financial and human constraints.
Mr. Ori said he was aware that the Committee had a heavy programme ahead for the next three weeks, including constructive dialogues with eight States parties, the consideration of several individual communications, and the adoption of an addendum to general recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations. He concluded by thanking the Committee for its unwavering commitment and dedication to advancing women's rights and wished it a successful and productive session.
Questions by Committee Experts
A Committee Expert said that more than 123 million people were currently displaced worldwide due to conflict situations, the majority of whom were women and children. What could be the role of the United Nations in the future if it could not prevent these conflicts?
Another Committee Expert asked why tens of countries were not providing the funds they had promised to provide. Was the United Nations considering reassessing its priorities to ensure that the Committee could hold three sessions each year?
A Committee Expert said that the members of the Committee did not take the current situation lightly. It was a grand shame and a disgust. How could Member States let this happen?
A Committee Expert said that reducing the activities of the treaty bodies would further silence them at this important moment. Human rights systems needed to be reenforced, and this required resourcing. How could this silencing be prevented?
NAHLA HAIDAR, Committee Chairperson, said that it was unacceptable that the work of the treaty bodies was becoming less and less visible. The Committee hoped that something would happen that would allow it to hold its third session in September.
Responses by the Representative of the Secretary-General
ANDREA ORI, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said the Office of the High Commissioner shared the Committee’s concerns. This was a turning point in multilateralism and in international law. There were more than 120 conflicts in the world, the primary victims of which were women and children. Authoritarian regimes were taking advantage of and working to weaken the multilateral system.
Some 40 per cent of the United Nations’ regular budget depended on two States. If one of those States decided not to pay its dues, that shook the entire Organization. This was a major factor in the instability of the United Nations system. The Secretary-General was working to reform the system through the “UN80” initiative, looking for solutions that kept it functioning with limited resources.
The UN80 initiative was focused on reform. This was an opportunity to reform the whole system rationally, to allow it to meet the challenges of today. As part of the initiative, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was merging and regionalising its functions. The Office was thinking optimistically but planning for the worst. It needed to be proactive rather than reactive and consider alternatives to stabilise the human rights system. The Committee also needed to consider alternative ways of carrying out its activities and reviewing States parties. Together, the Office and the Committee could find solutions for the challenges they faced by taking proactive decisions.
Statements by Committee Experts
NAHLA HAIDAR, Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee had taken decisions to increase the production of lists of issues prior to reporting. The United Nations system needed to not be reactive, and UN80 needed to implement thoughtful rather than patchwork reforms.
The Committee was meeting in one of the most challenging times for the multilateral system, amidst devastating conflicts, a weakening of the rule of law, and scarce resources. Human rights mechanisms needed to be protected more than ever for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189. On 15 May 2025, San Marino accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph one of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time, bringing the total number of States parties having accepted the amendment to 82. A total of 126 States parties to the Convention were currently required to accept the amendment for it to enter into force. The number of States parties that had ratified the Optional Protocol remained at 115, but Estonia was in the process of ratification.
Ms. Haidar said she was pleased to inform that since the last session, Afghanistan, Australia, Cyprus and Guinea-Bissau had submitted their periodic reports to the Committee. The interim government of Syria had decided to withdraw the combined third and fourth periodic reports that had been submitted by the previous regime and submit a new report under the traditional reporting procedure. The total number of States parties that had opted out from the simplified reporting procedure since the 2022 decision to make the simplified reporting procedure the default procedure remained at 13.
The Committee adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session, and Ms. Haidar and Committee Experts discussed the activities they had undertaken since the last session.
BANDANA RANA, on behalf of BRENDA AKIA, Committee Rapporteur and Chair of the Pre-Sessional Working Group, introduced the report of the pre-sessional Working Group for the ninety-first session, which met from 28 October to 1 November 2024 in Geneva.
The Working Group prepared lists of issues and questions in relation to the reports of Botswana, Cabo Verde, Czech Republic, El Salvador and Lesotho, in addition to lists of issues and questions prior to the submission of the reports of Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Malta under the simplified reporting procedure. The pre-sessional Working Group had the reports of these States parties, except for those of Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Malta, to be submitted in response to the respective lists of issues prior to reporting. It further had before it the general recommendations adopted by the Committee; draft lists of issues and questions and lists of issues prior to reporting prepared by the Secretariat; and other pertinent information, including concluding observations of the Committee and other treaty bodies. In preparing the lists, the Working Group paid particular attention to the States parties’ follow-up to the concluding observations of the Committee on their previous reports. The Working Group benefited from written and oral information submitted by entities of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations, as well as by national human rights institutions. The lists of issues and questions and lists of issues prior to reporting adopted by the Working Group were transmitted to the States parties concerned.
NAHLA HAIDAR, Committee Chairperson, said that, in light of the backlog of State party reports pending consideration by the Committee accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee had decided to postpone the consideration of the States parties referred to in the report of the pre-sessional Working Group to future sessions, with the exception of Botswana. The Committee instead decided to, during the present session, consider the reports of Afghanistan, Botswana, Chad, Ireland, Mexico, San Marino and Thailand, and adopt concluding observations on Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, following country exchanges held during the Pacific technical cooperation session in Suva, Fiji from 7 to 11 April 2025.
JELENA PIA-COMELLA, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, briefed the Committee on the status of the follow-up reports received in response to the Committee’s concluding observations. She said that at the end of the Committee’s ninetieth session, follow-up letters outlining the outcomes of assessments of follow-up reports were sent to Belgium, Gambia, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. Reminders were sent to Honduras, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Ukraine, as their follow-up reports were scheduled for consideration at the ninetieth session but had not been received. Ukraine’s report had since been received and would be scheduled for assessment by the Committee at its ninety-second session in October 2025.
For the present session, the Committee would consider follow-up reports from Finland and Georgia, both received on time; Bahrain and Norway, received with a one-month delay; Armenia, with more than two months’ delay; and Mongolia, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates with more than five months’ delay. Reminders regarding the submission of follow-up reports would be sent to Costa Rica, Hungary and Mauritania.
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