WUNRN
Human Rights Council Monitor -
International Service for Human Rights
UN Human Rights Council 6th Session
- September 28, 2007
"The Council also deferred
consideration of the Draft Resolution on Integrating the Human Rights of Women
and a Gender Perspective Throughout the UN System, until its December 2007
Session.
_________________________________________________________________________
DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT
UNITED |
|
A |
General Assembly |
Distr. LIMITED A/HRC/6/L.32 25 September 2007 Original: ENGLISH |
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Sixth session
Agenda item 8
FOLLOW-UP TO AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION
Albania*, Andorra*,
Australia*,Austria*, Belarus*, Belgium*, Bolivia, Burkina Faso*, Cameroon,
Canada, Chile*, Congo*, Croatia*, Cyprus*, Ecuador, Estonia*,
Timor-Leste*,
and
6/… Integrating the human rights of women and a
gender perspective
throughout the United Nations system
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming that the equal rights of women and
men are enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
__________________________
*
Non-members of the Human Rights Council
Rights, and the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other
international human rights instruments,
Recalling all previous resolutions on this
subject, including E/CN.4/2005/42, from the 61st session of the
Commission on Human Rights, and the Economic and Social Council Resolutions
E/2006/36 and E/2007/L.28 on
mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the
United Nations system,
Recalling
also the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in June 1993 by the World
Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23), which affirms that the human rights
of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible
part of universal human rights and calls for action to integrate the equal
status and human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations
activity system-wide,
Reaffirming the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century” and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, which called upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as all relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system to give full, equal and sustained attention to the enjoyment of human rights of women in the exercise of their respective mandates,
Reaffirming further the international
commitments in the field of social development and to gender equality and the
advancement of women made at the World Conference on Human Rights, the
International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for
Social Development and the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, as well as those made in
the United Nations Millennium Declaration and at the 2005 World Summit,
Acknowledging the need for a
comprehensive and integrated approach to the promotion and protection of the
human rights of women and the need to integrate a gender perspective in a more
systemic way into all aspects of the work of the United Nations system,
including the treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council, the Human Rights Council
Advisory Committee, the special procedures and all other subsidiary mechanisms,
Noting with appreciation
the
Secretary General’s report (A/HRC/4/104) acknowledging the work already being
undertaken to integrate the human rights of women throughout the United Nations
system, including work undertaken by the treaty bodies and by some of the
special procedures of the Human Rights Council,
Underscoring that in the general
comment No 16 (2005) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
on article 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, the principle of equality between men and women is recognised as being
essential for the enjoyment of each of the specific rights enumerated in the
said Covenant,
Recalling with satisfaction the review of the integration of
women s enjoyment of human rights and
the gender perspective in the reports of special procedures of the former
Commission
on Human Rights between 1996 and 2003 undertaken by the Division for the
Advancement of Women in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights,
Reaffirming the need to implement
fully international humanitarian and human rights law in order to protect fully
the human rights of women and girls,
Emphasizing the pivotal role of the
Commission on the Status of Women in promoting equality between women and men
and welcoming its agreed conclusions over the years on the human rights of
women and on the other critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action,
Recognizing the importance of the participation
of women at all levels of decision-making, throughout the United Nations
system for the achievement of gender equality and the realization of the human
rights of women,
Noting General Assembly
Resolution 61/143 and its invitation to the Human Rights Council to discuss, by
2008, the question of violence
against women in all its forms and
manifestations, and to set priorities for addressing this issue in its future
efforts and work programmes;
Reaffirming
the
important role that women’s groups, human
rights defenders, and non-governmental organizations play in promoting
and protecting the human rights of women,
1. Welcomes the report of the
Secretary-General on “Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and
progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General
Assembly” E/2006/65; the report of the
Secretary- General on “Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and
programmes of the United Nations system” (E/2007/64); and the report
of the Secretary-General on implementation of resolution E/CN.4/2005/42 (A/HRC/4/104),
2. Emphasizes that the goal of
mainstreaming a gender perspective is to achieve gender equality and that this
includes ensuring that all United Nations activities, including
United Nations conferences, special sessions and summits, integrate the
human rights of women;
3. Recognizes
the importance of examining, including
in its own work, the
intersection of multiple forms of discrimination and conditions of
disadvantage, their root causes and consequences, from a gender perspective,
and their impact on the advancement of women and the enjoyment by women of
their human rights, in order to develop and implement strategies, policies and
programmes aimed at the elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women and to increase the role that women play in the design, implementation
and monitoring of gender-sensitive anti‑discrimination policies;
4. Encourages Member States to promote
gender balance by, inter alia, regularly nominating more women candidates for
election to the human rights treaty bodies and for appointment to
United Nations bodies, including international courts and tribunals, the
specialized agencies and other organs, and calls upon all relevant actors to
implement General Assembly resolution 59/164 of 20 December 2004 on
improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system;
5. Reiterates
the need for incorporating a gender perspective, including through using
gender-inclusive language, in the formulation, interpretation and application
of human rights instruments, as well as in reports, resolutions and/or
decisions of the Human Rights Council, its Advisory Committee and the various
human rights mechanisms;
6. Welcomes
cooperation between the Commission on the Status of Women and the Human Rights Council, including
through joint bureau meetings and the participation of the Chair of the
Commission on the Status of Women in the work of the Human Rights Council and,
similarly, the participation of the Chair of the Human Rights Council in the
sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women, and encourages such
reciprocal collaboration;
7. Stresses
the need for integrating a gender perspective into the outcome of future
United Nations conferences, special sessions and summits;
8.
Encourages all entities
charged with the promotion and protection of human rights, especially
United Nations human rights bodies, agencies, and mechanisms, to identify,
collect and use sex and age disaggregated data and gender-specific information
in their activities and to use the tools at their disposal for gender analysis
in monitoring and reporting;
9 Welcomes the cooperation and coordination
between the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights aimed at mainstreaming
the human rights of women, including through their joint work plan, and, in
this sense, encourages United Nations
bodies and agencies to increase cooperation with other organizations in developing
activities to address, within their respective mandates, violations of the
human rights of women and to promote the full enjoyment of all human rights and
fundamental freedoms by women;
10. Recalls
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women and peace
and security, which, inter alia, calls on actors involved, when negotiating and
implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter
alia, measures that ensure the protection of and respect for the human rights
of women and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the
electoral system, the police and the judiciary, and welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on
women, peace and security (S/2004/814);
11. Recognizes the
important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in
peace-building, the importance of their equal participation and full
involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and
security and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to
conflict prevention and resolution, and urges the United Nation system and
Governments to make further efforts to
ensure and support the full participation of women at all level of decision–making
and implementation in development activities and peace process, including
conflict prevention and resolution,
post-conflict reconstruction, peacemaking, peace keeping and peace building, as
well as through the integration of a gender perspective into those United
Nations processes;
12. Welcomes the recent establishment of the Women’s
Rights and Gender Unit within the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the continued commitment of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to
integrating the issue of women’s enjoyment of human rights throughout the
United Nations system, including through continued cooperation with the
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Division for
the Advancement of Women, and encourages her to maintain her commitment to
raise awareness and promote the universal ratification and implementation of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
and its Optional Protocol;
13. Encourages the efforts of all the treaty bodies to
mainstream the human rights of women and a gender perspective into their work,
in particular, in their concluding observations and in the development of
general comments and recommendations;
14. Welcomes the transfer of the Secretariat of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights in
2008.
15. Urges all states to implement
recommendations of all human rights treaty bodies with a view to improving the
status of women worldwide and further undertake to reach the goal of universal
ratification of human rights treaties, including making every effort to remove
reservations to treaties, and reinforce actions to implement treaty
commitments;
16. Welcomes
the submission of reports by specialized agencies, at the invitation of the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, on the
implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women in areas falling within the scope of their
activities and the contribution of non-governmental organizations to the work
of the Committee;
17. Encourages all entities of the
United Nations system, as well as Governments and intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations, in particular women’s organizations, as
appropriate, to pay systematic, increased and sustained attention to the
recommendations of the CEDAW Committee
and other treaty bodies, in order to ensure that these recommendations are
better utilized in their respective work, and encourages all relevant entities
of the United Nations system to continue to assist States parties, upon
the request of those States, in implementing their international human rights
obligations;
18. Encourages organs, bodies, mechanism and
agencies of the United Nations system to promote discussion of how the United
Nation can most effectively integrate the human rights of all women and a
gender perspective throughout its work.
19. Takes all the necessary
measures, including budgetary and institutional measures, to guarantee the full
participation of women in medium and high level ranks within the
United Nations system, in order to achieve gender equality in the
Organization.
20. Reaffirms its commitment to integrate the human rights
of women and a gender perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council and
its subsidiary bodies, including in the universal periodic review and its
outcomes and the review of mandates;
21.
Encourages States in their reports
under the universal periodic review to include thorough information on the
human rights of all women and to integrate a gender perspective in their
reporting on all matters under the review.
22. Encourages
States to consult with NGOs active in addressing gender issues and the human
rights of women, and to report on recommendations emerging from those
consultations in their State reports.
23. Welcomes the efforts made by most special procedures and other human
rights mechanisms and requests all
special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights
Council and the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee regularly and
systematically to integrate a gender perspective and consideration of the
intersection of multiple forms of discrimination, into the implementation of
their mandate and to include in their
reports information on and qualitative analysis of human rights of women and
girls, and encourages the strengthening of cooperation and coordination between
these procedures and mechanisms;
24. Further
encourages special procedures to develop guidelines for effectively integrating
the human rights of women and a gender perspective into their work and to
incorporate these into the Manual of the United Nations Human Rights Special
Procedures;
25. Decides to incorporate into its Programme of Work, at minimum, an
annual full-day meeting to discuss the human rights of women, including
measures that can be adopted by States, and other stakeholders, to address
human rights violations experienced by women;
26. Decides
to incorporate into its Programme of Work an annual discussion of the
integration of a gender perspective throughout its work and that of its
mechanisms, including the evaluation of progress made and challenges
experienced;
27. Recognizes the need to establish an
effective and accountable process in
order to ensure the integration of the human rights of women and a gender
perspective across the full breadth of its work;
28. Requests the Secretary-General to report, at its ninth session, on the implementation
of the present resolution including analysing the degree to which the promotion
and protection of human rights of women are being integrated into the
United Nations system, the work of the Human Rights Council and its
subsidiary bodies, identifying obstacles and challenges to implementation of
the resolution, to make concrete, comprehensive recommendations for action by
States and/or by the United Nations system and to bring the report to the
attention of the relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the
United Nations system, including all human rights bodies;
29. Encourages
States to cooperate with and support the United Nations system in its
efforts to integrate the human rights of women and a gender perspective to take into full
consideration the content of the present resolution;
30. Also decides to continue
its consideration of the question at the 9th session of the Human Rights
Council.
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.