Human Rights Council - 15th Regular Session
Statement on Integrating a Gender Perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council
by Ms Hine-Wai Loose
Permanent Mission of New Zealand
On behalf of Australia, Canada and New Zealand
24 September 2010
I make this statement on behalf of the Governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
It is sobering to reflect on the fact that in this review year of the Millennium Development Goals, the goals that have made the least progress are those which directly relate to women. This is one of the reasons why meaningful engagement on the integration of a gender perspective in the Human Rights Council is important. The integration of a gender perspective cannot merely be a mantra that is repeated annually, but must be an objective which is implemented.
In terms of practical suggestions of how to integrate a gender perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council, we have the following proposals:
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Panels need to include experts who can address the direct and indirect gender implications of the particular issue under discussion. For example, it would be critical to ensure there was at least one gender expert on a panel discussing the rights of migrant workers as females all too often are the most vulnerable migrant workers.
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The Council could also benefit from the experience of other UN organizations striving to integrate a gender perspective into their work by, for example, inviting experts from other parts of the UN system to participate in panels or dialogues.
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We support the call for a new special procedure of the Human Rights Council to be established and mandated to focus on laws that discriminate against women. Such a mechanism could provide the necessary sustained follow-up and tailored advice, which is simply not possible under the human rights treaty bodies and other existing mechanisms. This proposal is not new and is now long overdue.
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Also, we support the proposal of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to include as a standing item under the Universal Periodic Review process an evaluation of how each State has met its obligations to eliminate laws discriminating against women.
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The Human Rights Council should consider facilitating sessions where States would have the opportunity to outline their efforts to eliminate discrimination against women and promote women’s rights. This could be done in informal or formal sessions of the Council.
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A significant development this year was the agreement by the General Assembly to establish the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, known as UN Women, and we warmly welcome the appointment of Michelle Bachelet to the role of Under-Secretary-General to lead the new entity. We hope that Ms Bachelet will be invited to address the Human Rights Council. As one of the underlying principles of UN Women is universality, the work of UN Women will reach across the whole United Nations system, beyond that of the UN development funds and programmes. Also, bearing in mind the mandate of the Council to promote human rights mainstreaming throughout the United Nations system, there must be a close working relationship between this Council and UN Women.
Finally, we reiterate our strong support for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action and Declaration. The role of the Human Rights Council is to play a strong leadership role in ensuring the implementation of these critical agreements.