Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/46 Integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system

The Commission on Human Rights,

Reaffirming that the equal rights of women and men are enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments,

Recalling all previous resolutions on this subject,

Recalling also that, in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the World Conference on Human Rights affirmed that the human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights and called for action to integrate the equal status and human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activity,

Emphasizing that all entities of the United Nations system, as well as the major United Nations conferences and summits, including in the process of implementation of their outcome, should further mainstream a gender perspective at all levels, bearing in mind the need for integrated and coordinated follow-up,

Bearing in mind that the Fourth World Conference on Women, in the Beijing Platform for Action, called upon all relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system, all human rights bodies of the United Nations system, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to give full, equal and sustained attention to the human rights of women in the exercise of their respective mandates,

Welcoming the adoption without a vote by the General Assembly, in its resolution 54/4 of 6 October 1999, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was opened for signature, ratification and accession on 10 December 1999, and the fact that a number of States have already signed the Optional Protocol,

Emphasizing the pivotal role of the Commission on the Status of Women in promoting equality between women and men, and welcoming its agreed conclusions on the human rights of women and on the other critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action,

Acknowledging the need to integrate further the human rights of women and a gender perspective into all aspects of the work of the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and all other subsidiary mechanisms,

Acknowledging, furthermore, the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the promotion and protection of the human rights of women, which includes the integration of the human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations activities system-wide,

Reaffirming the important role women's groups and non-governmental organizations play in promoting and protecting the human rights of women,

1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/2000/67);

2. Also welcomes the ministerial communiqué adopted by the Economic and Social Council at the high-level segment of its substantive session of 1999 on the theme "The role of employment and work in poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women";

3. Emphasizes that the goal of mainstreaming a gender perspective is to achieve gender equality and that this includes ensuring that all United Nations activities integrate the human rights of women;

4. Invites the Economic and Social Council to give attention to the implementation of its agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective and 1998/2 related to the coordinated follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, in particular section IV on the equal status and human rights of women, including in its coordination segment of 2000 on the theme "Assessment of the progress made within the United Nations system, through the conference reviews, in the promotion of an integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields";

5. Encourages the continued commitment of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system and, in this regard, welcomes the finalization by the High Commissioner of the policy statement on gender and the human rights of women, and the cooperation on women's human rights between the High Commissioner and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women;

6. Welcomes the continued cooperation between the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights, including through joint bureau meetings and the participation of the Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women in the work of the Commission on Human Rights under the relevant agenda item, and encourages the continuation of this cooperation;

7. Also welcomes the cooperation and coordination between the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights aimed at mainstreaming women's human rights, and the report of the Secretary-General on the joint work plan for the year 2000 (E/CN.6/2000/8-E/CN.4/2000/118) and encourages the Secretary-General to ensure its implementation, to continue to elaborate this plan, reflecting all aspects of work under way and the lessons learned, to identify obstacles/impediments and areas for further collaboration and to make it available to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-seventh session and to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-fifth session;

8. Draws attention to the need to develop practical strategies to implement the recommendations contained in the report of the expert group on the development of guidelines for the integration of a gender perspective into human rights activities and programmes (E/CN.4/1996/105, annex) and, in this regard, notes with interest the workshop on gender integration into the human rights system, organized jointly by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Division for the Advancement for Women and the United Nations Development Fund for Women and held from 26 to 28 May 1999;

9. Urges the relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system, including all human rights bodies, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to bear in mind, in the recruitment of staff, including for peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and human rights missions, the need for expertise in women's and girls' enjoyment of human rights;

10. Emphasizes the need for further activities in the United Nations system to strengthen expertise concerning the equal status and human rights of women through, inter alia, the provision of training on the human rights of women and on gender mainstreaming, including through gender impact analysis, to all United Nations personnel and officials at Headquarters and in the field, especially in field operations;

11. Recognizes that gender mainstreaming will strongly benefit from the enhanced and full participation of women, including at the higher levels of decision-making in the United Nations system, and in this regard strongly encourages Member States to promote gender balance by, inter alia, regularly nominating more women candidates for election to the human rights treaty bodies and for appointment to United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies and other organs, and calls upon all relevant actors to implement General Assembly resolution 54/139 of 17 December 1999 on improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat;

12. Encourages United Nations bodies and agencies to increase cooperation with other organizations in developing activities to address, within their respective mandates,

violations of the human rights of women and to promote the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by women, including by developing activities with other organizations;

13. Requests all human rights treaty bodies, special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights regularly and systematically to take a gender perspective into account in the implementation of their mandates, and to include in their reports information on and qualitative analysis of human rights of women and girls, and encourages the strengthening of cooperation and coordination in this regard;

14. Recalls the paper prepared for the meeting of special rapporteurs/representatives, independent experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the advisory services programme held from 28 to 30 May 1996 (E/CN.4/1997/3, annex) and the description therein of gender-specific analysis and reporting as an examination of the effects of gender on the form which a human rights violation takes, the circumstances in which a particular violation occurs, the consequences for the victim and the availability and accessibility of remedies, and urges the implementation of the recommendations pertaining to working methods and reporting methodology, including sources of information and gender-specific analysis in conclusions and recommendations;

15. Takes note with appreciation of the request made by the Economic and Social Council in its agreed conclusions 1998/2 that the Commission make explicit the integration of a gender perspective when establishing or renewing human rights mandates;

16. Urges the use of gender-inclusive language in the formulation, interpretation and application of human rights instruments, as well as in reports, resolutions and/or decisions of the Commission, the Sub-Commission and the various human rights mechanisms, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to utilize gender-inclusive language in the preparation of all of its communications, reports and publications, and to work with the United Nations conference services to ensure gender-inclusive language and interpretation in the proceedings of the Office.

17. Encourages the efforts of the treaty bodies to monitor more effectively the human rights of women in their activities, bearing in mind the workshop on gender integration, and reaffirms that it is the responsibility of all treaty bodies, in their work, to integrate a gender perspective, bearing in mind also the need:

(a) To develop gender-sensitive guidelines to be used in the review of States parties' reports;

(b) To develop, as a matter of priority, a common strategy towards mainstreaming the human rights of women into their work, so that each body, within its mandate, monitors the human rights of women;

(c) To incorporate a gender analysis and regularly exchange information in the development of general comments and recommendations, with a view to the preparation of general comments which reflect a gender perspective;

(d) To incorporate a gender perspective in concluding observations so that the concluding observations of each treaty body delineate the strengths and weaknesses of each State party insofar as enjoyment by women of the rights guaranteed by a particular treaty is concerned;

18. Encourages all entities charged with the promotion and protection of human rights, especially United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms, to identify, collect and use sex-disaggregated data and gender-specific information in their activities and to apply gender analysis in monitoring and reporting;

19. Welcomes the submission of reports by specialized agencies, at the invitation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their activities and the contribution of non-governmental organizations to the work of the Committee;

20. Encourages all entities of the United Nations system to pay systematic, increased and sustained attention to the recommendations of the Committee, in order to ensure that its concluding observations and general recommendations are better utilized in their respective work;

21. Urges all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to do so as soon as possible so that universal ratification of the Convention can be achieved by the end of the year 2000, and encourages all Member States to consider signing, ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol to the Convention so that it can enter into force as soon as possible;

22. Urges States to limit the extent of any reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to formulate any such reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible, to ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise incompatible with international treaty law and regularly to review them with a view to withdrawing them, and withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention or which are otherwise incompatible with international treaty law;

23. Urges States that have ratified or acceded to the Convention to take action to implement the Convention fully, inter alia through national legislation, policies and practice, and to take account of the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in this regard;

24. Requests the Secretary-General to report, at its fifty-seventh session, on the implementation of the present resolution;

25. Decides to integrate a gender perspective into all agenda items of the Commission;

26. Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its fifty-seventh session.

61st meeting
20 April 2000

[Adopted without a vote.]