27 July 1993

43rd plenary meeting

. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

The Economic and Social Council,

Bearing in mind that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is the most important international human rights instrument for the promotion of equality between women and men,

Welcoming the growing number of States parties to the Convention, which now stands at one hundred and twenty,

Noting with concern that the Convention is still the human rights instrument with the most reservations, despite the fact that some States parties have withdrawn their reservations to it,

Noting the importance of the monitoring function of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, as demonstrated most recently by the Committee at its twelfth session, at which the Committee adopted suggestion 4 on the World Conference on Human Rights and also adopted, in substance, and decided to place on the provisional agenda of its thirteenth session for final approval without discussion, a draft general recommendation on article 16 and related articles 9 and 15 of the Convention, to be its contribution to the International Year of the Family,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 47/94 of 16 December 1992,

Recalling its resolution 1991/25 of 30 May 1991 and other General Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolutions relating to support for the Committee,

Noting that the annual session of the Committee is the shortest of all the annual sessions of the human rights treaty bodies,

Welcoming the expressed intention of the Committee to strengthen the analysis of country reports provided to it,

1. Supports the request of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for additional meeting time for its future sessions, as allocated to it for its twelfth and thirteenth sessions;

2. Welcomes suggestion 4 on the World Conference on Human Rights, adopted by the Committee at its twelfth session, and the draft general recommendation adopted, in substance, by the Committee at that session, both of which were submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-seventh session, and encourages the Committee to continue its work in developing detailed general recommendations;

3. Requests States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to review regularly their reservations and make efforts to withdraw them in order to enable the full implementation of the Convention;

4. Urges the Secretary-General to continue to widely publicize the decisions and recommendations of the Committee.