Ministry Statements and Speeches 2010

Fifteenth Regular Session of the Human Rights Council - Statement on Integrating a Gender Perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council

Statement on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand delivered by New Zealand's representative, Hine-Wai Loose, September 2010

I make this statement on behalf of the Governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

It is sobering to reflect on the fact that in this review year of the Millennium Development Goals, the goals that have made the least progress are those which directly relate to women. This is one of the reasons why meaningful engagement on the integration of a gender perspective in the Human Rights Council is important.

We welcome the contributions of the panelists. In terms of practical suggestions of how to integrate a gender perspective into the work of the Human Rights Council, we support the following proposals:

• Panels need to include experts who can address the direct and indirect gender implications of the particular issue under discussion.
• The Council could also benefit from the experience of other UN organizations striving to integrate a gender perspective into their work by, for example, inviting experts from other parts of the UN system to participate in panels or dialogues.

• We support the call for a new special procedure of the Human Rights Council to be established and mandated to focus on laws that discriminate against women. Such a mechanism could provide the necessary sustained follow-up and tailored advice, which is simply not possible under the human rights treaty bodies and other existing mechanisms. This proposal is not new and is now long overdue.
• A proposal supported by the panelists and one that we also support is to include as a standing item under the Universal Periodic Review process an evaluation of how each State has met its obligations to eliminate laws discriminating against women.
• A significant development this year was the agreement by the General Assembly to establish the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, known as UN Women, and we warmly welcome the appointment of Michelle Bachelet to the role of Under-Secretary-General to lead the new entity.

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