WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS AND ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Isis International/Manila
14 March 2003

Delegates were unable to adopt Agreed Conclusions for the theme women's human rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, and the CSW Chair, Ambassador Othman Jerandi of Tunisia, suspended the session.

The delegate from Iran, with support from Egypt, objected to the inclusion of paragraph O which reads: "Condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition, or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women." Realising that there was no agreement, the CSW Chair remarked: "No Agreed Conclusion? Then we have no Agreed Conclusion." At this point, the Brazilian delegate who facilitated the informal consultations on the theme "women's human rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls," stressed that the draft Agreed Conclusions were a product of extensive deliberations and therefore needed to be respected. He suggested that the opinion of the UN legal officer be sought.

The UN legal officer then presented these options: 1) the adoption of the document with Iran registering its reservation; 2) votation on the inclusion or non-inclusion of paragraph O in the final document. The Iranian delegate did not agree with the first option. Instead, he reiterated his appeal to delete paragraph O from the Agreed Conclusions. Without resorting to votation, the Chair moved for the adoption of the Agreed Conclusions. This prompted the Iranian and U.S. delegate to question the rules of procedures. A recess was then called. After about 15 minutes, the CSW Chair called the meeting to order only to announce that because translation was no longer available, the meeting would be suspended to a later date. Both NGO and government delegates expressed disappointment that the 47th Session of the CSW ended without Agreed Conclusions in the area of women's human rights and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.

NOTE: The contributor of this article, Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, was not able to totally monitor the negotiations on the theme women 's human rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls because she was focusing on the them of gender, media and ICTs.

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