United Nations
The GEO supports the UK in delivering its commitments on gender
equality at the UN. The UK has signed up to a number of UN
Conventions including the Convention on the Elimination of all
forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional
Protocol. GEO takes the lead on coordinating the production of the
UK Periodic Report to the CEDAW every four years and supports the
UK in its implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of
Action for Women. GEO is also responsible for the development of
strategies which include commitments to promote the advancement and
empowerment of women, to address women and poverty and to combat
violence against women.
CEDAW
What is CEDAW?
CEDAW is an international Convention adopted in 1979 by the
United Nations General Assembly. It consists of a preamble and 30
articles, defining what constitutes discrimination against women
and setting up an agenda for national action to end such
discrimination. So far it has been ratified by 186 countries.
To find out
more about CEDAW click here.
What do member states need to do to comply with
CEDAW?
CEDAW is a legally binding international
Treaty. States that have signed up to the Convention agree to take
all appropriate measures to ensure that women enjoy all their human
rights and fundamental freedoms. The UK became a signatory to CEDAW
in 1981 and ratified the Convention in April 1986.
In line with the obligations of the Convention,
States undertake to submit periodic reports to the CEDAW Committee
(the expert body that monitors States parties' compliance with the
Convention) every four years. These reports provide progress
information on the situation of women in all the areas of
discrimination detailed within the Convention, as well as the UN
CEDAW Committee’s previous recommendations.
UK Government action
The Government submitted the UK’s 7th Periodic CEDAW Report to
the United Nations on 10 June 2011. A link to the report can
be found here: UK’s 7th
CEDAW
Report.
The Report sets out progress over the last four years that the
UK has made on significant legislative, judicial and administrative
measures adopted to give effect to the Convention since the
submission of its last report to the Committee. It details
developments in areas covered by the Convention, such as health,
employment, education, representation, social and economic
benefits, sex role stereotyping, trafficking and marriage and
family law. It responds to recommendations made by the CEDAW
Committee in 2008 following the UK’s 5th and the periodic reports
which covered issues such as forced marriage, trafficking and
teenage pregnancy.
The report also provides an update on the situation of women in
the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to which CEDAW has
been extended to and these reports are provided as separate
annexes.
The Government engaged with women and women’s organisations
throughout the reporting period to promote the UK’s work on CEDAW
and to seek views on potential areas of concern and the next part
of the CEDAW process provides interested Non-Government
Organisations (NGOs) further opportunity to be involved in the
whole process.
What next?
The submission of the State periodic report is usually followed
by an in depth one-day oral examination of the State Party by the
UN’s CEDAW Committee. The CEDAW Committee is the overseeing
body comprised of independent experts on women's issues from around
the world. The UK Government’s oral examination of the
Seventh Report is expected to take place in Geneva during the early
part of 2013.
From now to two weeks before the oral examination NGOs can
submit independent or "shadow" reports to the CEDAW Committee
detailing concerns about progress on women’s rights in the
UK. The CEDAW Committee considers these reports as part of
the oral examination process.
Following examination, the CEDAW Committee will publish a set of
Concluding Observations which outlines concerns and make
Recommendations to the UK.
Previous UK Reports
On 1 May 2007 the UK submitted its 6th Periodic Report to the
CEDAW Committee. A link to the report can be found here: UK’s 6th
Periodic Report
The Report sets out progress that the UK has made on significant
legislative, judicial and administrative measures adopted to give
effect to the Convention since the submission of its last report to
the Committee.
The UK was orally examined on its 5th and 6th national reports
in July 2008. The CEDAW Committee published the subsequent
‘Concluding Observations’ which included a number of follow-up
Recommendations for the UK. One of these was that the UK submit,
within one year of its examination, a report on what the UK is
doing to address several of the recommendations made by the
Committee. The UK submitted this “One Year On” report to the UN on
30 July 2009.
The report can be accessed here.
A link to the Concluding
Observations of the 2008 examinations can be found here.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is
responsible for overseeing the UK’s commitments to CEDAW and works
across government to ensure coordinated follow-up action to address
the recommendations of the Committee. To date it has:
- Circulated the recommendations throughout Government, including
to the Devolved Administrations and the Overseas Territories.
- Ensured that all departmental Ministers are alerted to those
recommendations that are relevant to the work of their respective
departments.
- Established a network of the lead officials on gender policy
from GEO, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure a
joined-up approach to address the recommendations and to share
information and good practice on gender equality more widely.
- Raised public awareness of CEDAW through regional Stakeholder
events (London, Newcastle, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) in
08/09 and 09/10.
You can download the
fact sheet and the CEDAW
articles here.
NGO/ Ministerial engagement
On Monday 22nd November 2010 the Ministers for Women
and Equality hosted a national consultation event with women’s
organisations to discuss key issues relating to the UK’s 7th
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) Periodic Report, which is due to be submitted to the United
Nation’s CEDAW Committee in May 2011.
The event was an opportunity for Ministers and
Government officials to engage with Civil Society on this important
issue and highlight the Government’s commitment to continue
delivering progress on the full implementation of CEDAW.
In attendance were representatives from over
50 voluntary and community sector groups, as well as
representatives from government departments. Over the course of the
afternoon attendees discussed the UK’s progress on CEDAW and the
challenges faced going forward, particularly in the context of the
current financial climate. In addition, attendees considered
two-way communication and participation in policy decisions between
Government and women’s organisations.
Please see attached Ministerial Speeches from the event
Theresa May Speech.
Lynne Featherstone Speech.
Optional Protocol to CEDAW
The Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which came into force in
December 2000, enables women who believe that their rights have
been violated to make complaints directly to the United Nations.
It applies only in countries that have ratified the
Optional Protocol, and the UN will consider complaints only if all
domestic remedies have been exhausted. The UK ratified the
Optional Protocol in December 2004 and it came into effect in the
UK in March 2005.
The Optional Protocol works in two ways:
- It allows individuals or groups who feel that their rights
under CEDAW have been violated - and who have not received justice
at the national level - to apply to have their claims reviewed by
the CEDAW Committee.
- It establishes an inquiry procedure which
enables the Committee to initiate inquiries into situations of
grave or systematic violations of women’s rights. If warranted (but
also only with the consent of the State), the Committee may visit
the country concerned.
For information about the Optional Protocol and how UK
individuals or groups can use it please refer to the
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) website.
To find out more about the use of the UN Optional Protocol to
CEDAW internationally go to: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/protocol/
UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), established through
the United Nations Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC), is one of the main international
policy-making bodies dedicated exclusively to gender equality and
the advancement of women.
CSW meets annually in March at the UN headquarters in New York
for a period of ten days to discuss and negotiate the text of a
number of ‘agreed conclusions’ around a priority theme. This theme
changes annually and is set out in the multi-year programme of
work. Click here to find out
more about CSW.
The fifty-fifth session of CSW took place on Tuesday 22 February
to Friday 4 March 2011.
Click here for
information on the next CSW
The principal output of the CSW is the agreed conclusions on
priority themes set for each year. The Commission also adopts a
number of resolutions on a range of issues. A final report of the
session – which this year will include resolutions and a
Declaration - is prepared by the Commission and submitted to ECOSOC
for adoption.
Please click
here for the final agreed conclusions of CSW's 55th
session.
The UK has a longstanding commitment to the CSW and participates
actively in the annual meeting.
Please see below for information on UK's participation
in this year's CSW:
- UK
National Statement on priority theme 'access and participation
of women and girls to education, training, science and technology,
including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full
employment and decent work'.
- UK
National statement on the review theme 'the elimination of all
forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child'
Please use links below to read our CSW
newsletters to find out how GEO is supporting NGOs at the
forthcoming CSW session:
For more information please also go to GEO's Women's Engagement page.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA)
The BPfA is an international declaration of women’s rights set
up at the UN’s landmark Fourth World Conference on Women, held in
Beijing in 1995. The BPfA covers 12 key critical areas of
concern/areas for action including women and poverty, violence
against women and access to power and decision-making, and was
supported by 189 countries - including the UK, at the 1995 World
Conference.
What happened before?
In June 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted a
political declaration reaffirming Member States’ commitment to the
objectives set forth in the BPfA and a Special Session was held by
the General Assembly in 2005 to review Member States’ progress in
implementing the BPfA. The UK took an active role in the process. A
link to Beijing +10 (10th anniversary of BPfA) and the UK’s report
can be found here: Beijing+10.
2010 is the 15th anniversary of the BPfA (Beijing +15). In 2009,
the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) circulated a
questionnaire to assess progress on Beijing +15 to all UNECE
members and the UK has responded with a full report.
The UNECE hosted a Regional Review Meeting on progress on
Beijing +15 in Geneva in November 2009, which informed the Global
Review of progress on Beijing +15 at CSW.
The 54th session of CSW undertook a global review of progress of
the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA, please see next
section) on 1-12 March 2010 in New York. The meeting adopted a
Declaration which recognised the progress that had been made
and identified the challenges ahead.
What happens next?
The next session of CSW will focus on “Access and participation
of women and girls to education, training, science and technology,
including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full
employment and decent work”.
More information can be found on the CSW website address
provided above.
UN WOMEN
On 02 July 2009 the United Nations General Assembly voted to
create an establishment of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and
the Empowerment of Women – to be known as UN Women.
Resolution
The UN resolution started the process to bring together four
existing UN women’s agencies into one body headed by an
Under-Secretary General who will report directly to the
Secretary-General: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the
Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the
Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research
and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
(UN-INSTRAW).
On 14 September 2010, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named the
former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to head United Nations
Women (UN Women).
Please click here for UN Women
UK.