Ministry Statements and Speeches 2008

HRC9: Item 8: Integration of a Gender Perspective in the work of the Human Rights Council

Statement by NZ, 11 September 2008

Thank you Madam Ambassador,

New Zealand welcomes the opportunity to annually evaluate the extent to which the Human Rights council has mainstreamed a gender perspective in its work and thanks all panellists for their presentations today.

This is an area where the Council is demonstrating leadership and there has been important innovation.  The system of special procedures of the former Commission did not systematically address a gender perspective, and the practice varied from mandate to mandate.  The Council has however resolved to confront this problem and for the first time required all special procedures to mainstream gender in their work.  It is critical that the system responds and is seen to respond. This means systematically, at every step of their work, special procedures should consider and address gender, not periodically, and not partially. 

New Zealand would propose would propose that every report includes:

• a statement of gender implications of the issue under discussion; and
• gender-disaggregated data, where appropriate; and
• information on the extent to which women's groups and relevant government agencies or representatives otherwise responsible for gender were consulted in the preparation of the report.

We would be grateful for the panellists’ views on how these proposals might be included and other suggestions for ensuring effective evaluation and accountability by special procedures.

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