Eritrea's record on women's rights to face scrutiny by UN Committee

GENEVA, Switzerland, February 23, 2015/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Eritrea's record on women's rights will be examined by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Thursday 26 February in meetings that will be webcast live.

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

The Committee will engage in a dialogue with the delegation from the Eritrean Government on questions relating to the promotion and protection of women's rights in the country. The session will take place in Conference Room XVI at Palais des Nations in Geneva from 10:00 -17:00 (12:00 – 19:00 in Eritrea). The live webcast can be viewed at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

Among the issues likely to be discussed are: measures to tackle gender stereotypes and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation; legislation criminalising violence against women, including marital rape; women's rights in context of compulsory military service; measures taken to ensure women can vote and stand in elections; strategy to improve women's access to and retention in education system; adequate access to sexual and reproductive health services; awareness-raising among women of laws relating to family and marital property.

Eritrea's written report and more information can be found here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=901&Lang=en

CEDAW's concluding observations on Eritrea and the other States being reviewed – Gabon, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Tuvalu, Denmark, Kyrgyzstan and Maldives - will be published on 6 March here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=901&Lang=en