SIXTH INFORMATION SEMINAR ON PARLIAMENTS AND CEDAW: ADDRESSING LAWS THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST WOMEN Geneva, 16 October 2008
	Organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

	The seminar is organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and will take place on 16 October 2008 at International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG). It primarily targets members of parliaments of those States parties to the Convention whose reports were considered or will be considered by the CEDAW Committee during the course of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. Its aim is to identify opportunities for strengthening parliament's role both in the reporting process, including preparation and presentation of reports, and in follow-up to the Committee's concluding observations on the reports. Several experts, including a member of the Committee, a member of the Committee's Secretariat and a member of parliament with experience in this field, will facilitate the seminar. The afternoon session will focus on the theme Addressing Laws that Discriminate against Women.

 

SESSION DOCUMENTS
	Final report [PDF]
	List of participants [PDF]
	"Report on Laws That Discriminate Against Women" commissioned by the Women's Rights and Gender Unit of the OHCHR (Consultant: Dr. Fareda Banda) [PDF]
	Invitation letter [PDF]
	Registation Form [PDF]
	Program [HTML] [PDF]
RELATED SITES AND DOCUMENTS
	The Convention
	United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women Web site
	The website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
	2007 information seminar
	2006 information seminar
	2005 information seminar
Note: Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader

Updated on 1 October 2008
PROGRAM
THURSDAY, 16 OCTOBER
8:30 - 9:00	Registration
9:00 - 9:15	Welcoming remarks
9:15 - 10:30	Introducing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol -  Why a Convention on discrimination against women? -  Why an Optional Protocol to the Convention? What rights? What mechanism? Presentations by: Ms. F. Gaspard, Vice-President of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Ms. Jane Connors, Office of the High Commission for Human Rights The presentations will be followed by a debate
10:30 - 10:45	Coffee break
10:45 - 13:00	Focus on Addressing laws that discriminate against women -  Article 2 of the CEDAW and general recommendations -  Overview of existing legislation that discriminates against women -  Addressing discriminatory legislation: What are the challenges faced? -  Parliamentary mechanisms: reviewing, amending and monitoring legislation Presentations by: Ms. F. Gaspard, Vice-President of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Mr. M. Traoré, Member the National Assembly of Burkina Faso, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee of the WAEMU Ms. F. Banda, author of a study on discriminatory laws The presentations will be followed by a debate
13:00 - 14:30	Lunch break
14:30 - 17:00	Implementing the Convention: the Role of Parliament -  Developing an adequate legislative and oversight framework -  Working with civil society and the media -  Keeping track of progress -  Parliamentary involvement in the CEDAW reporting mechanism Presentation by: Ms. F. Gaspard, Vice-President of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Ms. Jane Connors, Office of the High Commission for Human Rights A Member of Parliament The presentation will be followed by a debate
17:00 - 17:30	Conclusions and recommendations