A/HRC/23/50
C.
Communications and press releases
7.
Communications sent to Governments during the reporting period, either
individually or jointly with other mandates, concerned a wide array of issues falling within
its mandate.1 These included, for example, allegations of violence against women in the
context of protests, cases of women sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, and cases of
women and girls allegedly victim of forced religious conversion and forced marriage. The
Working Group also sent communications in relation to draft constitutions.
8.
The Working Group issued press statements, either individually or jointly with other
mandate holders, on, inter alia, gender equality provisions in draft constitutions, on the
criminalization of adultery whose enforcement leads to discrimination and violence against
women, and at various occasions, such as for the first International Day of the Girl Child
and for International Women’s Day.
D.
Commission on the Status of Women
9.
On 11 March 2013, the Vice-Chairperson of the Working Group addressed the
Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-seventh session, during an interactive
dialogue between the Commission and special procedures mandate holders. Her statement
focused on violence against women as a cross-cutting issue in the four thematic areas the
Working Group has established as its conceptual framework.
E.
Other activities
10.
From 17 to 19 April 2012, the Chairperson of the Working Group attended a
meeting in Addis Ababa on gender and enforced disappearances convened to inform a draft
general comment by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
11.
The Chairperson participated in a regional consultation (Kathmandu, 19–20
September 2012) focusing on women’s public and political life in Asia and the Pacific,
followed by a one-day national consultation on the same subject matter. She also took part
in a regional expert group meeting (Seoul, 4–5 December 2012) on women, gender equality
and political transitions and lessons learned from Asia. On 17 and 18 January 2013, the
Working Group collaborated with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
on a preliminary discussion on the issue of gender equality and freedom of religion or
belief. These activities were aimed at informing the present report.
12.
On 18 February 2013, the Vice-Chairperson participated in a discussion organized
by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to inform its
process of elaborating a general recommendation on access to justice. Her address focused
on the impact of discriminatory legal frameworks, and in particular constitutions, on
women’s access to justice.
13.
Various members of the Working Group also participated in numerous conferences
and meetings, including the workshop organized by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights on enhancing cooperation between the United Nations
and regional mechanisms (Geneva, 12-14 December 2012), the eleventh biennial
conference of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights on the role of national human rights institutions
1
4
See A/HRC/21/49 and A/HRC/22/67, Corrs. 1 and 2.