Solomon Islands’ Record on Women’s Rights to Face Scrutiny

Solomon Islands’ Record on Women’s Rights to Face Scrutiny by UN Committee

GENEVA (27 October 2014) – The record of the Solomon Islands on women’s rights will be examined by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) onFriday 31 October 2014 in meetings that will be webcast live.

Solomon Islands is one of the 188 States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and is required to submit regular reports to the Committee of 23 independent experts on how it is implementing the Convention.

Among the issues likely to be discussed by the Committee and the government delegation: participation of women in peace and security programmes; justice and reparations for women victims of violence during ethnic tensions; stereotypes and harmful practices hampering women’s rights in the social, economic and political spheres as well as in family relations; discriminatory practices such as payment of bride prices, early marriage; women’s access to and use of modern contraceptive methods; high drop-out rates of education due to expectations that women shoulder family responsibilities; legislation prohibiting women’s access to certain types of employment.

Location: Room XVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 10:00 – 17:00 (19:00 – 02:00 in Honiara) on 31 October
The webcast of the session will be at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

Solomon Islands’ report and a full list of issues that are likely to come up can be found here:http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en

A news conference is scheduled for 7 November at 13:30, Palais des Nations, to discuss CEDAW’s concluding observations on Solomon Islands and the other countries being reviewed – Venezuela; Poland; China, China (Hong Kong) and China (Macao); Ghana; Belgium; Brunei Darussalam; and Guinea. The concluding observations will be published on 7 November here:http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en

ENDS

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