CONCEPT NOTE EQUALITY OF WOMEN AND MEN IN NATIONAL LEGISLATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Objectives The objective of the conference is to contribute to the UN Human Rights Council discussions on a new mechanism for the promotion of equal rights of women and men in national laws and their implementation. Participants Guest speakers: President of the Republic of Slovenia; President of National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia; representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, member of the Norwegian Parliament, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Slovenia Panelists: representatives of individual countries from different regions and representative of the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women Participants: academia, NGOS, think tanks from Slovenia and the Western Balkans; diplomats accredited to Slovenia Partners National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Embassies in Ljubljana Venue Ljubljana (Slovenia), National Assembly Dates 12 May 2010 1. Background information The international human rights law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex and guarantees the equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by both women and men in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, now accepted by 186 UN member states, is the most comprehensive legal instrument in this context. The commitments made by the member states and reflected in a number of relevant international policy documents and obligations undertaken by State Parties to the human rights treaties, which are aimed at promoting both de jure and de facto gender equality, have often not been implemented in a results‐oriented manner. Reviews of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the monitoring of the implementation of international legal instruments showed that the legislative and regulatory gaps, as well as a lack of implementation and enforcement of legislation and regulations, perpetuated de jure as well as de facto inequality and discrimination. To protect and promote women’s rights as human rights and to end dehumanizing discrimination and violence against women, which persist in developed and developing countries and in all regions, the equality in law and in practice is an issue of vital importance for all countries. To prioritize equality of women and men in laws as well as women’s access to justice, five years ago, the Commission on the Status of Women took an initiative to set up an additional mechanism to further improve the situation in an accelerated manner. With the establishment of the Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review, the initiative of creating a new mechanism on women’s equality before the law was transferred to this new intergovernmental platform. 2. Objectives The Conference is a follow up to past events and discussions on establishing such a mechanism under the Human Rights Council mandate. Its purpose is to improve the understanding of how addressing more thoroughly the obstacles to full enjoyment of human rights by women on the basis of equality with men in national legislation and regulations, as well as in their enforcement, can provide new impetus to the promotion of gender equality and the realization of this goal at national, regional and global levels. The main objective of the Conference is to draw the attention to the benefits of reviewing the legislation in order to repeal discriminatory provisions and adopt specific laws or introduce specific gender equality provisions in existing laws as required by the international gender equality legal standards, and to positive changes achieved through the enforcement of such legislation in the lives of women and men and the society as a whole. However, over and above this objective, it is also necessary to emphasise the need for addressing equality of women and men before the law in a targeted and intensified way. A new dedicated mechanism established by the Human Rights Council, which would tackle this as a primary and exclusive concern rather than as part of a broader mandate, could certainly scale‐
up the visibility of the issue at all levels, in particular the national level, and further the development of comprehensive and effective responses. In so doing, the Conference’s aim is also to contribute to a successful outcome of the discussion on the discrimination against women at the fifteenth session of the Human Rights Council next September and to assist in generating further support for an agreement between the member states on the establishment of the new mechanism on equality before the law. The underlying objective is to make the work of the Human Rights Council on gender equality issues better known to the general public and to target groups, such as academia, human rights and gender equality bodies and relevant NGOs, in particular women’s or gender equality NGOs. 3. Participation and format of the Conference Welcome address: Dr Pavel Gantar, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Key‐note speech: Dr Danilo Türk, President of the Republic of Slovenia, The one‐day event will be divided into two panels, which will provide reflections of the members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), representatives of States and representatives of regional organizations/integrations on the technical and political dimensions of furthering progress with regard to legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender in all aspects of life and all areas of society, and ensuring de jure equality of women and men, including effective sanctions in cases of violations of the law. In addition, panelists will present national experience with legislative changes aimed to ensure full enjoyment of human rights by women on an equal footing with men both in law and in practice. The presentation of the panelists will be followed by interactive discussions, which will be divided into 60‐minute slots (45 minutes for comments and questions from the floor, followed by 15 minutes for comments and replies by panelists). The modalities of the panel are: 10 minutes for panelists, 3 minutes for questions and comments from the floor. The Conference will be closed by Ms Dragoljuba Benčina, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia. 4. Outcome The Conference will contribute to a successful outcome of the discussion on (elimination of) discrimination against women at the fifteenth session of the Human Rights Council in September 2010. It will also assist in creating further support for reaching an agreement between member states on the establishment of a new mechanism on equality before the law. 5. Reference documents - Human Rights Council Resolution, Elimination of discrimination against women, A/HRC/RES/12/17 (2009) - Human Rights Council Resolution, Integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system, A/HRC/RES/6/30 (2007) -
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Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, A/CONF.177/20 (1995) and A/CONF.177/20/Add.1 (1995) General Assembly Resolution, Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, A/RES/S‐23/3 (2000) Final Report of the 49th session of the CSW, Resolution 49/3 on the Advisability of the appointment of a special rapporteur on laws that discriminate against women, E/CN.6/2005/11 (2005) Commission on the status of Women 50th session, Advisability of the appointment of a special rapporteur on laws that discriminate against women – Report of the Secretary‐
General, E/CN.6/2006/8 (2006) -
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6. Chronology of the initiative within the United Nations In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, governments undertook to ‘revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex.’ In 2000, at the Special Session of the General Assembly to review the Beijing Platform for Action, the outcome of the World Conference, the States set the year 2005 as target for removing discriminatory legislation against women. In 2005, the Commission on the Status of Women reviewed the commitments undertaken at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to revoke remaining discriminatory laws. It concluded that ‘legislative and regulatory gaps, as well as a lack of implementation and enforcement of legislation and regulations, perpetuate de jure as well as de facto inequality and discrimination.’ In 2005 and 2006, the Secretary General issued two reports (E/CN.6/2006/8 and E/CN.6/2007/8) on the advisability of the appointment of a mechanism on laws that discriminate against women. Both reports highlighted that the appointment of such dedicated mechanism “could provide the necessary momentum for change.” The 2006 report (presented to the Commission on the Status of Women in 2007) suggested that the action on this issue should be considered in the Human Rights Council in relationship with existing mechanisms. In 2007, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights commissioned an analytical study to identify how the existing mechanisms have addressed de jure discrimination against women and the resulting protection gaps. The Study was presented in April 2008. In June and October of the same year, two side events under the title “Equality before the law: the key to women empowerment” were organised by several delegations to further promote the discussion and exchange views on the issue. At the 11th session (June 2009), the Human Rights Council devoted its annual full‐day discussion on women’s human rights to “Equality before the law: concrete steps to further women’s equality.” The discussion reflected the need to further advance on the fight against all forms of discrimination against women, particularly discrimination in legislation. In September 2009, at the 12th session of the Human Rights Council, the Resolution on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (A/HRC/RES/12/17) was adopted. The Resolution inter alia requests the High Commissioner to draw up for consideration at the 15th session of the Council a thematic study on discrimination against women, in law and in practice, in consultation with States, relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and agencies and other relevant stakeholders. The Council also decided to hold a half‐day discussion on the issue “in order to consider taking further possible action on discrimination against women”.