A/HRC/38/46
Annex
Activities undertaken by the experts as Working Group
members since its last report to the Council
1.
The Working Group submitted an amicus brief 1 regarding the criminalization of
termination of pregnancy in Northern Ireland to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom,
which was presented before the Court on 26 October 2017.
2.
On 3 November 2017, the Chair of the Working Group held a discussion with the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in a plenary session. She
briefed the Committee on the highlights of the Working Group’s recent work and emphasized
the need to further strengthen cooperation, collaboration and coordination, especially in the
context of the backlash against the gains in women’s rights. The meeting agreed to further
explore ways for effective collaboration, including through the holding of an annual joint
session.
3.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2018, a member of the
Working Group participated in a Facebook Live event on women human rights defenders.
4.
Two members of the Working Group attended the sixty-second session of the
Commission on the Status of Women. For the first time, the Working Group formally
reported to the Commission’s general discussion, as newly mandated by the Human Rights
Council. 2 The Working Group also addressed the Commission’s interactive dialogue on
accelerating the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and
achieving concrete results by 2020. The members of the Working Group participated in a
number of other events, including a consultation organized by the Victims’ Rights Advocate,
a “meet and greet” for Working Group members hosted by civil society, an Expert Group
Meeting, a side event on violence against women in politics, a consultation on strengthened
cooperation between global and regional women’s rights mechanisms, and side events on
achieving gender parity in United Nations human rights bodies, men’s accountability for
change, and women’s human rights advocacy in a time of backlash. Along with the Special
Rapporteur on violence against women, the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women and representatives of regional women’s rights mechanisms,
the experts also met with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
5.
A member of the Working Group participated in the US Human Rights Network
National Convening on Advancing Human Rights, held in December 2017 in Atlanta. She
participated in a panel discussion on Gender and Poverty Strategy, in February 2018 at New
York University, to discuss the preliminary findings of the Special Rapporteur on extreme
poverty and human rights from his country visit to the United States of America. She was
part of a joint thematic dialogue on sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex between
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and
Peoples’ Rights, and United Nations human rights mechanisms, held in Washington D.C. on
26–28 March 2018. She also participated in a conference on Challenging Criminalization
Globally: Inter-disciplinary and intersectional dialogue on un-policing identity, morality,
sexuality and bodily autonomy, organized by CREA and Global Health Justice Partnership
at Yale University on 17–18 April 2018.
6.
A member of the Working Group participated in a regional consultation organized by
the Special Rapporteur on the right to development in Addis Ababa on 27 and 28 March 2018
and participated in a regional consultation organized by the African Commission on Human
and Peoples’ Rights on human rights in conflict situations in Africa held on 5 and 6 April
2018 in Addis Ababa.
1
2
22
See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/AmicusCuriae.aspx.
See Human Rights Council resolution 35/18.
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