UNITED

NATIONS

                                                                                                                                     Distr.

                                                                                                                                     LIMITED

                                                                                                                                     CEDAW/SP/1996/L.1

                                                                                                                                     23 February 1996

                                                                                                                                     ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

MEETING OF THE STATES PARTIES TO

  THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION

  OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

  AGAINST WOMEN

Ninth meeting

New York, 29 February 1996

Item 6 of the provisional agenda*

AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 20, PARAGRAPH 1, OF THE CONVENTION ON

THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

Australia, Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland,

Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and

Sweden: draft resolution

Meeting time of the Committee on the Elimination of

Discrimination against Women

          The States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

          Recalling General Assembly resolution 49/164 of 23 December 1994 on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and decision 49/448 also of 23 December 1994 on consideration of the request for the revision of article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention,

          Taking note with appreciation of General Assembly resolution 50/202 of 22 December 1995 in which it urged early acceptance and entry into force of the amendment to the Convention,

          *        CEDAW/SP/1996/1.

96-04264 (E) 260296                                                                                                                                 /...

*9604264*

          Reiterating the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as well as the contribution of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to United Nations efforts to eliminate discrimination against women,

          Noting that the workload of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has increased as a result of the growing number of States parties to the Convention, and that the annual session of the Committee is the shortest of all the annual sessions of the human rights treaty bodies,

          Recalling decision 1 on increasing the meeting time of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted by the Committee at its fifteenth session, as well as its general recommendation 22 on the same subject,

          Welcoming the efforts made by the Committee to improve its procedures and working methods, and encouraging it to continue such efforts,

          Convinced that an adequate amount of time for the meetings of the Committee is one of the vital factors in ensuring the continued effectiveness of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in future years,

          1.       Recognize the need to introduce a temporary measure to enable the Committee to reduce the backlog until the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, enters into force;

          2.       Support the request made by the Committee at its fifteenth session for additional meeting time so as to allow the Committee to hold two sessions annually, each of three weeks' duration and each preceded by a pre-session working group, starting from 1997 for an interim period;

          3.       Recommend that the General Assembly at its fifty-first session approve the request of the Committee, within the overall existing budget framework, in order to enable the Committee to continue to reduce the backlog in reports of States parties' awaiting review.

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