Guidelines for civil society, NGOs and NHRIs

When participating in CEDAW sessions or submitting information to them, the following guidelines may be helpful.

Collaboration with NHRIs

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Committee) and national human rights institutions (NHRIs) share common goals to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of all women and girls through the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Convention) and its Optional Protocol at the national level.

To clarify and further develop cooperation between the Committee and NHRIs, the Committee at its 69th session established a Working Group on NHRIs mandated, inter alia, to develop a paper on the cooperation between the Committee and NHRIs, in close consultation with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI).

Download the full paper here

Venue

The session and the meeting of the pre-sessional working group of the Committee take place in Geneva, either in Palais des Nations or Palais Wilson. Please consult the page of the relevant session or pre-session for information about the venue.

Documentation

The reports of the States parties to be considered as well as other relevant documentation such as the lists of issues adopted by the pre-sessional working group, the States parties’ replies thereto, the submissions received by the Committee and the concluding observations are posted on the webpage for each session. The provisional agenda and the tentative programme of work are also found here.

Webcast

The dialogue between the Committee and States parties is held in public. All public meetings of the Committee are generally webcast live on UN Web TV.

Further information

For more information on how to participate in the work of the Committee, please see the page on working methods.