New York, NY – During the NGO Briefing at the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Chair of NGO CSW Vienna, Dr. Evelyn Dürmayer, used her time to support the call for a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW to end violence against women and girls.
“This is a very crucial moment in the history of the women’s movement and the CEDAW to consider this new Optional Protocol,” she said in her opening remarks.
Dr. Dürmayer pointed out the strength of the CEDAW Committee and its work but noted that recommendations are not binding on states, and that while we have binding regional instruments, millions of women live in nations without a binding regional mechanism, leaving the issue of violence against women and girls unaddressed.
“Until we resolve this issue, we will not have peace in the world,” she said.
Dr. Dürmayer’s support highlights the growing call to strengthen the legal framework on violence against women and girls, a call that began in 1991 with the Commission on the Status of Women. At the time, rates of violence against women and girls were high and the Commission recommended to the UN Economic and Social Council that an international instrument be developed.
Today, 17 nations, the African Union, thousands of women’s rights activists and NGOs, and four Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and girls, three former and the current, urge the creation of a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW to end violence against women and girls.
In her remarks, Ms. Dürmayer pointed out the support of the Special Rapporteurs, including Professor Rashida Manjoo and Dr. Dubravka Šimonović, both of whom have published position papers on the need for a new Optional Protocol (read here and here, respectively), and the current Special Rapporteur Ms. Reem Alsalem, who will release a position paper following CSW.
“It should also be our initiative as NGOs worldwide to be part of this movement to create a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW because this would include women who are not part of a regional convention and this is very crucial,” she said.
Thank you, Dr. Dürmayer, for your support and for your ongoing work for women and girls around the world.
Her full remarks
Thank you for giving me the floor. My name is Evelyn Dürmayer. I’m not going to speak about our work in Vienna. I’m going to speak about the meeting I just attended. It’s about the issue of a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW. And I think this is a very crucial moment in the history of the women’s movement and the CEDAW to consider this new Optional Protocol because, as you know, CSW was created in 1946, the CEDAW convention was created in 1979, but of course, during the years there have been many changes. There is the CEDAW Committee in Geneva doing great work, [56] but, what they do, they have recommendations, important recommendations, like Recommendation 19 and Recommendation 35 but these are not binding instruments.
And we shouldn’t forget that there are regional instruments that are binding, but there are regions where there is no regional conventions regarding women’s issues and the one point is — the person I’m sorry I don’t remember your name — from Syria, the question of violence against women is still an issue that hasn’t been solved. Until we resolve this issue, we will not have peace in the world.
So I’m not going to repeat what the speakers there with the Every Woman Treaty organization who is championing this event. There were two ambassadors from the DRC and Gabon, but also there were two former Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and girls, namely Rashida Manjoo and Dubravka Šimonović, and unfortunately only online was Reem Alsalem, who is the current Special Rapporteur. She made — I’m going to summarize her proposal. She will prepare a declaration for the General Assembly of the United Nations. What could be the four important points. To define clearly what is violence against women, violence can be sexual violence, can be psychological violence, can be economic violence, so there is a need to really be clear about what is violence and how we could fight violence against women. There needs to be prevention, there needs to be education and there also needs to be legally binding instruments and this would be a very important issue, not only for states that are already part of this initiative and the African Union, but it should also be our initiative as NGOs worldwide to be part of this movement to create a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW because this would include women are not part of a regional convention and this is very crucial.
I’m going to limit myself to this because the declaration prepared by Reem Alsalem will be online so we can all follow this initiative. And also we have the documents prepared by the two former Special Rapporteurs.
I hope you will bring to all your places of work and your countries, this important initiative for this new Optional Protocol, that it could become a reality because we should not take too long for possibility.
Thank you.
