Minister fields questions from the Committee
The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women has set aside Friday, 21 January to consider and interrogate a report on South Africa’s efforts to eradicate all forms of discrimination against women in the country.
Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana will be in Geneva on this day to address the United Nations (UN) Committee on the measures that South Africa (SA) is taking to attain gender equality and to respond to questions from the committee about the country’s performance.
The committee, made up of 23 experts from across the world, is charged with ensuring that all countries meet their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Minister Xingwana believes that after SA ratified CEDAW in December 1995, a number of legislative, judicial, administrative and other measures have been adopted in order to implement their obligations under the convention.
“The implementation of CEDAW particularly strengthened the human rights focus of government’s programmes in post-apartheid South Africa. A key achievement in this regard has been the emergence of national consensus that violence against women is a gross violation of human rights and a threat to women’s full participation and contribution to democracy,” said Minister Xingwana.
Minister said the country report highlights the non-homogenous nature of the more than 25 million South African women whose conditions differ in terms of historical disadvantages and socio-economic and cultural background.
“South Africa made unprecedented progress in advancing women in the area of political representation and decision-making. During the 2009 elections, 55 percent of all registered voters were women and representation of women in the South African Parliament has increased from 27.8 percent in 1994 to 43.3 percent in 2009. This puts South Africa amongst the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of women in important leadership positions,” said Minister Xingwana.
The committee will also interrogate SA progress on improving women’s access to justice, health, education and other basic services and measures that have been taken to stop traditional practices that are harmful to women.
Based on the contents of the report and answers to its questions by the minister, the committee will make recommendations on further actions that need to be taken by SA towards the elimination of all forms of discrimination of women in the country.
Enquiries:
Sibani Mngadi
Cell: 082 772 0161
