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Valuable Voices from the Ground - NGOs and
   the Shadow Reporting Process

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (the CEDAW Committee) places great value on hearing from women themselves about the situation in their countries. They recognise the critical role that civil society plays in raising awareness about the Convention, in helping to monitor state obligations, and in highlighting some of the most pressing women’s human rights concerns in their countries, as these are being experienced in everyday life by women on the ground.

 

When the Committee is considering State reports, it therefore will also draw on information provided by NGOs from the reporting countries, typically in the form of independent or alternative ‘shadow’ reports. For gender equality advocates, this is an important opportunity to ensure that women’s voices are heard, and that the situation of women in their countries receives international attention.

 

But, as with other UN international human rights treaties, the procedures and requirements could be complex and intimidating. Participants at Committee sessions must navigate specific processes and follow particular guidelines, including in the preparation and submission of reports prior to sessions, and in their presentation to the Committee.

 

In the case of CEDAW, although NGOs can only be observers to the formal sessions when states are reporting, the Committee sets aside specific meeting times around these sessions to hold informal meetings with activists and UN agencies. Beyond submitting an alternative report to the Committee therefore, many activists also find it invaluable to be present themselves during Committee sessions so they can interact directly with members of the Committee.

Preparing for CEDAW Sessions – Shadow Reporting

 

In the last decade, many civil society groups in countries across the region have received assistance in preparing for CEDAW sessions. Training and guidance programmes conducted by experts from international and regional NGOs and UN agencies with the involvement of former and current CEDAW Committee members themselves, have helped to de-mystify the participation process at CEDAW sessions, and give activists hands-on knowledge and experience on the workings of the UN human rights system. NGOs are encouraged to coordinate the drafting and submission of a shadow report, and technical assistance is on hand to help them do this.

 

For the Women’s Legal Bureau of the Philippines, who led a coalition of women’s NGOs in coordinating a shadow report in 2006, the opportunity to offer alternative information to the CEDAW Committee was also an opportunity for local and national NGOs to work together on a common goal – to better understand the application of CEDAW in their work, and to collectively gather and share data from all over the country on women’s concerns. In their publication on ‘lessons learned’, they describe the various steps taken in their shadow reporting process, from convening a skills-building workshop on CEDAW for women’s groups working on a range of issues, to data gathering and analysis for the report proper, and finally to presentation of their information to CEDAW Committee members at their Committee Session in January 2007. In all, at least 95 participants from 3 regions – Luzon, Mindanao and Visayas – representing NGOs from all over the country, were involved in the shadow reporting process.

Participating at CEDAW Sessions – Sharing Information with the Committee

One regional NGO that has worked significantly on building the capacity of Southeast Asian women’s rights advocates working on CEDAW is the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP), a regional human rights NGO, founded in 1993 and based in Malaysia. One of IWRAW-AP’s most successful initiatives is its ‘Global to Local’ programme, established in 1997 to facilitate the participation of women activists at the review of their government's report by the CEDAW Committee during their Committee Sessions.

The programme starts with an intensive training-cum-orientation session to raise awareness and understanding of the CEDAW Convention, the UN Human Rights system, the dynamics of the reporting process, the CEDAW Committee's working methods and the role NGOs can play within the review process. This is followed by a one-week observation of the review process itself at the UN and advocacy with the CEDAW Committee. NGOs are mentored on interacting with the CEDAW Committee during the review period, to offer more information and alternative viewpoints ¹.

Often, creative measures are called for, since time is extremely limited – during the informal NGO discussion session with the Committee for example, each country is given only 10 minutes for their presentation, and if there are many NGOs with separate reports, this time has to be shared. Committee members are also tied up at back-to-back meetings so opportunities to interact are few. “There were 7 of us in the NGO delegation to New York – 5 women and 2 men. We strategised on how to share information with the CEDAW Committee and each of us chose one issue to focus on,” explained Phally, from Project Against Domestic Violence (PADV), part of the Cambodian NGO CEDAW Committee. “We approached them at breakfast and lunch every single day, asking them for just 5 short minutes of time here and there! We took every chance we had to say something!”

 

	Members of the CEDAW Working Group Initiative, Indonesia (Photograph by Leigh Pasqual)

Members of the CEDAW Working Group Initiative (CWGI) from Indonesia, the NGO coalition that submitted a 2006 independent report, had a slightly different strategy – they zeroed in on one Committee member each, managing to eventually coordinate a quick private meeting for their group. One CWGI member said she offered to walk with a Committee member 10 blocks from one meeting to the next just to get some interaction time.

 

Apart from learning in-depth how the CEDAW review process works, activists who attend the Committee Sessions say that it is a gratifying, bonding experience that makes them feel like important stakeholders in a larger international movement to advance women’s rights. They realise how important NGO inputs can be to the CEDAW Committee. CWGI members said that at least 60 percent of the comments and questions posed by the Committee to the Indonesian government delegation came from their independent report. Hoy Sochivanny from the Cambodian NGO CEDAW Committee said “In the end, we couldn’t believe the result! The CEDAW Committee mentioned a lot of our points during the session – they asked the government about ‘Chbab Srey’ for example and what was being done to ensure that this did not contradict CEDAW. It was a great feeling to know that we were listened to.”

 

“It was a very important achievement for us,” echoes Madame Hanh, from GenComNet of Vietnam, a network of rights advocates that submitted the first-ever Vietnamese shadow report in 2006. “It was very difficult to catch the Committee members in New York. Luckily my friends and I were able to speak briefly to the Committee members from China and the Philippines. And I think this may have helped a lot because the questions that the Committee asked the government showed that they had read our report.”

Beyond the CEDAW Sessions – Just the Beginning

 

The work is far from over once NGOs return to their home countries. After the CEDAW session, many embark on advocacy campaigns to discuss the outcome of the session, and raise awareness about CEDAW implementation. They translate key documents into local languages and disseminate these as widely as possible. They also use the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations as an important advocacy tool – to urge their governments to concentrate on the critical measures highlighted by the Committee that need to be taken to make progress. Many NGOs also field gender experts to conduct training on CEDAW for community groups and national institutions to deepen knowledge and build awareness on gender equality and women’s human rights.

 

CWGI members described how they moved quickly to translate key documents into Bahasa, and then convened a civil society meeting to share experiences and discuss future actions, within just four weeks after returning from New York. They also began going ‘door-to-door’ to various government agencies to talk about follow-up on the Concluding Observations, and to ‘exert some pressure while the subject was still hot.’

 

In Thailand, the CEDAW Watch group organized a series of press conferences and a media campaign to draw attention to the Concluding Observations, which they claim helped positively influence opinions in the deliberation process of two important laws on domestic violence and anti-trafficking, both of which were passed with reference to CEDAW principles.

Footnote:

1. For more information see http://www.iwraw-ap.org/aboutus/local_global.htm

 

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