Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action 10/ adopted by the
World Conference on Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, in
which the Conference stipulated that the human rights of women and of the girl
child were an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human
rights,
Recalling also that in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the
Conference recommended the adoption of new procedures to strengthen the
implementation of the commitment to women’s equality and human rights and called
upon the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women to examine quickly the possibility of
introducing the right of petition through the preparation of an optional
protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, 11/
Noting suggestion No. 7, entitled "Elements for an optional protocol to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women", 12/
adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at
its fourteenth session,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 47/94 of 16 December 1992, relating
to the scheduling of the meetings of the Committee,
Recalling also Council resolution 1994/7 of 21 July 1994 and relevant
resolutions adopted by the General Assembly to support the work of the
Committee,
Welcoming General Assembly resolution 49/164 of 23 December 1994 and its
decision 49/448 of 23 December 1994, providing for a meeting of States Parties
to the Convention in 1995 to consider the revision of article 20, paragraph 1 of
the Convention,
Aware that the workload of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women has increased because of the growing number of
States Parties to the Convention, and that the annual session of the Committee
is still the shortest of all the annual sessions of the human rights treaty
bodies,
Welcoming the Committee’s efforts to further improve its working methods,
inter alia, by adopting concluding observations containing specific suggestions
and recommendations,
1.
Calls upon the States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, at their meeting in 1995, to consider
the revision of article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention to allow the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to meet annually
________________________
10/ Report of the World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna,
14-25 June 1993 (A/CONF.157/24 (Part I)), chap. III.
11/
Ibid., sect. II, para. 40.
12/
See E/CN.6/1995/CRP.1.
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