Chairpersons of the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in
1979, states in article 19 that the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) shall adopt its own rules of procedure,
and that it shall elect its officers for a term of two years. The Committee's
rules of procedure establish that the officers of the Committee shall consist
of a Chairperson, three Vice-Chairpersons and a Rapporteur. While the length of
the terms of office is laid down in the Convention, the rules of procedure add
that the officers shall be eligible for re-election "provided that the
principle of rotation is upheld".
The Bureau of the Committee has regularly consisted
of five members, one from each of the five regions of the United Nations,
except when a region was not represented among the membership. The first Bureau
served for a three-year term, whereas each subsequent Bureau remained in office
for two years, with the exception of the Chairperson of the fourth and fifth
sessions, who remained in office also for the sixth and seventh sessions; and
the Chairperson of the twelfth and thirteenth sessions, who remained in office,
also for the fourteenth and fifteenth sessions.
The rules of procedure identify the general powers
of the Chairperson. Under the rules, the Chairperson controls the proceedings
of the Committee, including the direction of the discussion and decision-making
process. Procedurally, the Chairperson works closely with the United Nations
Secretariat in the preparation of the session, in ensuring the timely conduct
of business, including the preparation of documents, the presence of States
parties for the consideration of reports, and the general provision of backup
to the Committee.
The Chairperson has been increasingly called upon
to represent the Committee at various international activities and events,
including international conferences and other intergovernmental meetings of the
United Nations, in particular the Commission on the Status of Women and the
General Assembly. The Chairperson participates on behalf of the Committee in
the annual meeting of the persons chairing human rights treaty bodies, which
makes recommendations to the General Assembly.
As of the thirty-sixth session of the Committee,
ten experts have served as its Chairperson.
Ms. Dubravka Šimonović, the
Committee’s eleventh Chairperson, has been chairing the Committee since its
thirty-seventh session in January 2007.
The following is a list of the Committee’s Chairpersons:
Ms.
Luvsandanzangyn Ider (1982 –
1987)
A national of Mongolia, Ms. Ider served on the
Committee from 1982 to 1988. Her career
in the foreign service of her country began in 1963, and she has the rank of
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. She has attended many UN meetings
and conferences and those of other international organizations since 1962. In
1979, she was Vice-Chairperson of the UN Commission for Social Development, and
in 1985 she was nominated its Chairperson.
Ms. Desirée
Bernard (1985 – 1988)
A national of Guyana, Ms. Bernard served on the
Committee from 1982 to 1992 and from 1995 to 1998. She was appointed the first woman judge of
the High Court of Guyana in October 1980, and was later appointed the first
woman judge of the Court of Appeals of Guyana in May 1992. She later
served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Guyana. In her career, she has attended many
national, regional and international fora, and has written and lectured
extensively on the legal rights of women and children.
Ms. Elizabeth
Evatt (1989 – 1990)
A national of Australia, Ms. Evatt served on the
Committee from 1985 to 1992. From 1976 to 1988, she was Chief Judge of the
Family Court of Australia, and from 1988 to 1993, she was President of the Law
Reform Commission of Australia. She has also served as a part-time Commissioner
of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. She served as member of the UN Human Rights
Committee from 1993 to 2000.
Ms. Mervat
Tallawy (1991 – 1992)
A national of Egypt, Ms. Tallawy served on the
Committee from 1987 to 1998. She was appointed Minister for Social Affairs in
1997. She was Ambassador to Austria
and Permanent Representative of her country to the United Nations Office at Vienna. She was Deputy
Director of the International Training and Research Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) for several years. Ms. Tallawy has represented
her country at many UN meetings and conferences and those of other
international and regional organizations since 1962. She was Chairperson of the
Commission on the Status of Women from 1992 to 1993. Since 2000, Ms. Tallawy has been the
Executive Secretary of UN ESCWA.
Ms. Ivanka Corti (1993 – 1996)
A national of Italy, Ms. Corti served on the
Committee from 1987 to 2002. She was its
Chairperson for two consecutive terms during the period leading up to, during
and after the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995), and was
instrumental in ensuring the participation of the Committee at the Conference. She was elected Chairperson of the seventh
meeting of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies in September
1996. Ms. Corti has contributed greatly to the increased visibility of the
Committee. She was a member of the Italian Prime Minister’s Commission for
Human Rights.
Ms. Salma Khan (1997 – 1998)
A national of Bangladesh, Ms. Khan served on the
Committee from 1993 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2006. She was the Director-General of the
Bangladesh Management Development Centre. She was Divisional Chief Economist of
the Ministry of Planning from 1993 to 1994. Ms. Khan's professional work and publications
have focused on economics as well as women, children, labour, credit, and
non-governmental organizations. In 2006, she became her country’s Ambassador to
Indonesia.
Ms. Aída
González Martinez (1999 –
2000)
A national of Mexico, Ms. González served on the
Committee from 1982 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2004. She has been Coordinator for Women's Affairs
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1993, and Adviser to the Secretary of
Foreign Affairs since 1990. She has been an Ambassador since 1978, and has
represented her country since 1968 at the United Nations and other
international organizations. In addition to international relations, Ms.
González has focused on women's issues, human rights and labour and social
welfare.
Ms. Charlotte
Abaka (2001 – 2002)
A national of Ghana, Ms. Abaka served on the
Committee from 1991 to 2002. She has
represented her country in a number of UN meetings and conferences, as well as
other international and regional conferences since 1989. She served as the
Chairperson of the National Subcommittee on the CEDAW (an independent body to
monitor implementation of the Convention and the Beijing Platform for Action)
since 1996. She has written many publications and lectures on women's issues,
youth awareness, labour and gender equality.
Ms. Feride Ayse
Acar (2003 – 2004)
A national of Turkey, Ms. Acar served on the
Committee from 1997 to 2004. She has
been an academic since 1977, at the Department of Political Science and Public
Administration, Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey. She became Professor in 1994 and Chairperson
of the Department in 2001. She was the
founder and chairperson/director of the first degree-conferring graduate
programme in Gender and Women’s Studies in Turkey, at the same
University. She has published and
lectured extensively on women’s human rights, and been an advocate for gender
equality and implementation of the Convention in her own country and around the
world.
Ms. Rosario G.
Manalo (2005 – 2006)
A national of the Philippines, Ms. Manalo served on
the Committee from 1999 to 2006. She has
been a career diplomat serving, since 1979, as her country’s Ambassador to
several countries in Europe as well as to
international and regional organizations. She represented her Government at the
Third World Conference on Women, in Nairobi,
Kenya, in 1985.
As a lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute, she gave courses on gender
issues and human rights, economic diplomacy, and international relations. She
has also been a Professor at the Philippine Women’s University Graduate School
of Public Administration and De La Salle University on International Relations
and Diplomacy. Among her particular interests has been the situation of migrant
women.
Ms. Dubravka
Šimonović (2007 –
2008)
A national of
Croatia
, Ms. Dubravka Šimonović has been a member of the Committee since January
2002, and served as its Rapporteur in 2005 and 2006. A career foreign service
officer, Ms. Šimonović currently heads
the Human Rights Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She represented her country at the Fourth
World Conference on Women in
Beijing
,
China
, in 1995.
She was elected Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women for 2001
and 2002, and served as a member of the UNIFEM Consultative Committee from 2001
to 2003. She has been appointed by the
Secretary-General of the Council of Europe to its Task Force to combat violence
against women, including domestic violence (2006-2008), and was its Chairperson
in 2006/07. Ms Šimonović has published and lectured widely on women’s
rights.
(Source: United Nations Division for the
Advancement of Women/Department of Economic and Social Affairs, July 2007)