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PRODUCING NGO
SHADOW REPORTS TO CEDAW:
A PROCEDURAL GUIDE
INTRODUCTION:
CEDAW AND NGO REPORTING
The Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (the CEDAW Convention) is a powerful instrument for
articulating, advocating, and monitoring women's human rights.
NGOs have a very important role in making the Convention an
instrument of women's empowerment, through advocacy and monitoring
their government's implementation of the treaty. Because the
Convention's enforcement mechanism is based on a reporting
system, it is imperative that NGOs understand and use the
reporting mechanism to maintain government accountability
both inside the country and at the United Nations.
These procedural
and format guidelines are designed to assist NGOs in producing
shadow reports for the CEDAW Committee to use in evaluating
government efforts to meet the obligations of the CEDAW Convention.
They are a companion to the IWRAW/Commonwealth Secretariat
manual on reporting under the CEDAW Convention, Assessing
the Status of Women, available from IWRAW.
Reporting requirement.
States parties (countries that have ratified the CEDAW Convention)
are required to submit an initial report on the status of
women within one year of ratification. Thereafter they are
required to submit a periodic report every four years on progress
made in removing obstacles to equality since the prior report.
Because of the reporting backlog, States parties are encouraged
to present consolidated reports (second and third together,
for example).
Review schedules.
The CEDAW Committee meets each year in two sessions of three
weeks each (January and June), at UN headquarters in New York.
Reports are considered roughly in the order in which they
were submitted, with some variations to provide geographical
balance and a balance of initial and periodic reports in each
session. Countries are invited to be reviewed according to
a list drawn up by the Committee at each session for future
sessions. Governments do not have to accept the invitation
to be reviewed in a particular session, and the Committee
includes a number of "reserve" countries to be invited if
any on the initial list decline. Therefore the list tends
to remain tentative until two or three months prior to the
session. Although many States parties' reports are overdue,
the Committee has a small backlog of reports to be reviewed
because of the number of States parties. Countries are not
placed in the queue for review until their report is submitted.
NGOs can expect that country reports may not be reviewed until,
on average, two years after submission.
NGO reporting.
Governments' assessments of their efforts to comply with the
Convention frequently are incomplete and tend to minimize
problems and maximize accomplishments. Recognizing this, the
CEDAW Committee asks governments whether they have involved
NGOs in preparing the government report. The Committee has
invited direct NGO input, in the form of independent or "shadow"
reports and informal presentations, to bring women's real
concerns to national and international attention.
NGOs that have
worked with the government to prepare the official report
may find that the government report as submitted may not include
their concerns. The CEDAW Committee recognizes that even where
the NGOs have been consulted in preparation of the official
report, the final version may omit their point of view. In
many instances the NGOs have therefore submitted a shadow
report to complete the record. The Committee commends governments
that include NGO inputs in their official reports.
ORGANIZING THE
REPORT
Obtaining the
government report. The government report is the basis of the
CEDAW review. The Committee experts use their discretion as
to consulting other sources, and many do use information provided
by NGOs. Try to obtain both the previous and current official
reports. Some NGOs organize their report primarily as a commentary
on the government report, which can be extremely effective.
States parties'
reports should be available from the Foreign Ministry. Some
governments fail to distribute the report within the country,
despite the CEDAW Committee's strong recommendation that they
do so. The government report is a public document and should
be available to all citizens once it is submitted to the UN.
Government reports
are available from the UN for public distribution after they
are translated into all UN languages. Frequently the reports
may not be available from the UN until fairly close to the
beginning of the CEDAW session. Therefore it is important
to request the report first from the government. If the report
cannot be obtained within the country, contact IWRAW or the
UN Division for the Advancement of Women (address below) for
information on the status of particular country reports.
Coordinating the
contributors. It is entirely possible for a single organization
to prepare a helpful shadow report. However, many NGOs have
chosen to collaborate with other national and international
NGOs in preparing reports. Collaboration can enhance the impact
of the report on the government, as it can demonstrate a consensus
voice and existence of broad constituencies in favor of positions
taken in the report. Coordination also helps the Committee
use NGO information effectively, as the experts cannot be
expected to give adequate attention to multiple reports, especially
if they arrive in the last few days before the session. If
submitting a report in alliance with other NGOs, it is important
to budget time for coordination, identifying the strengths
of each participating NGO, the tasks, resource- and cost-
sharing, how to make final editorial decisions, etc.
Organizing the
report for maximum impact. The following suggestions are based
on seven years of NGO experience in submitting NGO information:
- Organize the
information according to articles of the CEDAW Convention,
not by issue. If an issue concerns more than one article,
choose the article that is most on point for a full discussion.
Indicate briefly the other articles that may cover the issue.
- Try to limit
the report to no more than 30 pages. Note that not all the
experts will be equally interested in each country, but
all of them are more likely to read a brief document. Regardless
of length, provide a table of contents.
- Provide an executive
summary with specific language that the Committee could
use in asking questions and drafting concluding observations,
regardless of the length of the report. An executive summary
should be no more than three pages (a very long report may
require up to five pages of summary). The summary is essential
to draw adequate attention to particular issues.
- Analyze rather
than simply describe the problems, the evidence, and the
suggestions for change.
- Prioritize issues.
The Committee will not be able to focus adequate attention
on more than a few issues. It is important to decide, at
some point in the process, the most important issues to
the NGO community.
- Include analysis
of reservations and accounts of NGO efforts relating to
their withdrawal.
- Include some
background information about the country or region.
Organizing the
content
It may seem difficult
to organize the report according to articles of the Convention
rather than according to the issues that most concern NGOs.
One useful approach is to identify the issues, discuss and prioritize
them, and then consider which articles of the Convention apply.
For each issue, it is important to provide examples or evidence
of how the issue affects women, identify obstacles to elimination
of that form of discrimination, and make specific recommendations
for addressing the problem.
The CEDAW experts will find the identification of obstacles
and recommended solutions extremely useful.
- Identify concerns
and the applicable articles of the Women's Convention. This
will be based on experience and knowledge. Organizations
or coalitions may identify a series of issues and determine
priorities at a later date.
- Gather documentation
and evidence to illustrate the issue. This is important
to make the case for both the necessity and the possibility
of change.
Documentation can include statistics, legal cases, testimony
of individuals, news clips, academic research, provisions
of national and local laws and regulations. Statistics
are most useful if disaggregated by age, marital status,
class, ethnicity, and circumstances such as migrant status,
as well as by sex, if possible. Case histories and testimony
should be complete, including enough detail and contextual
information to indicate the impact of particular actions
or inaction by the government.
- Identify major
obstacles and recommend approaches to removing them. Consider
the practical approaches to solving the problem. Which actors
should be involved? Who needs to be trained or made aware
of the Convention and national laws and regulations regarding
women: judges, police, prosecutors, women's advocates, school
administrators, teachers, etc? Keep in mind how local women
can be involved in monitoring the process.
Recommendations for action should be concrete, suggesting
specific action. Language from the CEDAW General Recommendations
or prior Concluding Observations of the Committee may
be helpful. Questions that remain open from consideration
of prior reports-stated in the Concluding Observations
or, for reviews prior to 1994, in the Committee's summary
of the review- should be addressed. Specificity is important;
for example, "government should protect women from domestic
violence," is not sufficiently precise. It would be more
helpful to propose:
"government
should a) collect accurate data on the incidence of domestic
violence against women (on the national level, local level,
etc.); b) increase the allocation of resources to women's
shelters by 50%; c) train the police to insure that they
offer battered women timely assistance."
- Reference to
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is now
required by Committee guidelines.
- Reservations.
If your government has entered reservations to the Convention,
it is important to suggest the changes that would allow
for withdrawal. This could include analyzing the reservations
in light of the current law and state of society to suggest
narrowing the reservations to reflect the actual circumstances
of society, or suggesting changing in law and policy that
would lead to withdrawal. Reservations are supposed to be
made with an eye to eventually withdrawing them as the law
and culture change to better allow for meeting Convention
obligations. They are not supposed to indicate a total refusal
to change.
Special attention
to context and analysis
This is important
because the CEDAW Committee experts may not have a great deal
of information about the country. Even if the government report
provides general information, the Committee will want to relate
that information specifically to women's situation.
Context also will
be important for appropriate evaluation of a particular situation.
For example, if an employment law includes remedies available
only through an administrative system, such as the Ministry
of Labor or a local authority, it is important to analyze
the general attitude of that authority. If the court system
generally has not been sympathetic to women's claims, it is
important to note how judges are selected and trained and
address the obstacles and opportunities for changing that
system.
SUGGESTED FORMAT
FOR SHADOW REPORTS
To provide the
essential information and guidance to the reader, the report
should include:
- Title page including
title, author(s) and date of the report;
- Executive summary
(see below);
- Table of contents;
- Introduction
that gives more information about the production of the
report;
- The main body,
organized by Convention article, including recommended actions;
- Concluding remarks;
- Appendix (if
necessary: can include text of important laws, lists of
references or participants in report preparation, etc.)
Executive Summary
An executive summary
is a very brief presentation of information that allows busy
readers to almost instantly get a clear idea of the main points
in the shadow report. A good executive summary saves time
for the reader and helps determine which part of the shadow
report is of most interest. It is imperative for use by CEDAW
members whose first language is not the language in which
the report is written.
An executive summary
is usually no more than three pages long (if the body of the
report is over twenty pages, the executive summary can be
somewhat longer). Information must be concise, accurate, and
carefully selected from the full report. It should include:
- the main points
of the report;
- the evidence/data
included to support the main points;
- recommendations
for government action to address the key issues, in language
the Committee can use in its concluding observations.
The executive
summary usually is the most difficult part of the report to
produce. It should state clearly where in the shadow report
the reader can find more details about a particular point
if she wishes to know more. Some suggestions:
- All the information
about one article of the Convention should be possible to
summarize in one paragraph. If you cannot do so, it probably
means that the information in the discussion does not have
a clear focus and may have to be reorganized.
- Every important
paragraph can be reduced to one sentence.
- Not every sentence
or paragraph needs to be represented in the executive summary.
Useful Materials
- The CEDAW
Convention and the General Recommendations. As of mid-1999
there are 23 general recommendations to the CEDAW Convention.
General Recommendations are adopted by the CEDAW Committee
to give guidance to governments as to the details of
specific issues the Committee wishes to see addressed
in reports. General Recommendation Nos. 19 through 23
are quite detailed, but even the earlier ones include
important instructions. Copies of the General Recommendations
can be obtained from the United Nations, in hard copy
or from the treaty Web sites (see addresses at end of
this document), or from IWRAW. They also are included
as an Annex to the reporting manual, Assessing the Status
of Women.
- Assessing
the Status of Women: A Guide to Reporting Under the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (second edition, 1996). This manual is
published by IWRAW and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Its main purpose is to assist individuals and organizations
to assess the status of women and to evaluate the implementation
of the CEDAW Convention. It provides commentary on each
article as well as a number of questions on implementation
of each article. The Annexes include the text of the
CEDAW Convention, guidelines for preparation of government
reports, General Recommendations adopted by the CEDAW
Committee, and the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. Available in English and Chinese
from IWRAW; will be available in French and Spanish
by the end of 1999.
- Shadowing
the States, a set of guidelines for organization and
issue analysis in NGO reporting. Available from: International
Human Rights Law Group, 1200 18th Street, NW, Washington
DC 20036 USA. Tel: (202) 822-4600; fax: (202) 822 4606.
- Samples
of NGO shadow reports can be obtained directly from
NGOs or, in some cases, from IWRAW. IWRAW maintains
a list of NGO reports that have been submitted to the
Committee and can provide addresses.
- CEDAW Concluding
Observations. The official reports of the CEDAW sessions
include questions asked of the States parties in prior
reviews. Since 1994, the Committee has issued Concluding
Observations on each country, highlighting shortcomings,
accomplishments, and recommended action to further implement
the Convention. Copies of the CEDAW reports, and in
particular the Concluding Observations, should be available
from the Foreign Ministry. If they are not, contact
IWRAW or the UN Division for the Advancement of Women.
The Division also publishes the Concluding Observations
on its Web site (see address below).
WORKING WITH
THE CEDAW COMMITTEE
The CEDAW
Committee consists of twenty-three independent experts,
elected by the States parties to the Convention. The membership
represents a geographical distribution as well as an attempt
to include experts from different political and legal
systems. Because they are by the terms of the CEDAW treaty
"independent," the members serve in their individual capacity
and do not take formal instructions from their government
as to their approach to consideration of the reports.
(However, bear in mind that they must be nominated for
the position by their government, so they are likely to
be prominent and their views acceptable to the government).
This independence also allows for a certain flexibility
in organizing their working procedures and in working
with NGOs.
At each of
the two CEDAW sessions, approximately three initial reports
are considered in the first week and approximately six
periodic reports are considered in the last two weeks.
For each country, the Committee listens to a presentation
by a government representative and asks questions. For
periodic reports, questions are prepared in advance of
the session by a four-person presessional working group
and conveyed to the country's UN mission for answer during
the opening presentation (this does not apply for initial
reports). The country representative returns, usually
within three days, to answer questions that could not
be answered in the first discussion.
The Committee
issues Concluding Observations on the country, including
both commendable progress and recommendations for improvement
of policies and processes concerning women's human rights.
These Concluding Observations are the crucial product
for NGO action, as it is a public statement given to the
government that specifies further action required to live
up to its obligations under the Convention. It is crucial
that NGO shadow reports highlight the major priorities
that can be readily reflected in the Concluding Observations.
Each country
report is assigned a rapporteur who has the responsibility
of reading all the background material provided by the
UN (and NGOs) and presenting her analysis of that information
to the Committee during its deliberations. The country
rapporteur usually is assigned to write the Concluding
Observations on that country. Contact with her is crucial.
NOTE that a member from a country under review, according
to the Committee's rules, is not permitted to participate
in the review of her country. Contact the UN Division
for the Advancement of Women or IWRAW to obtain further
information on specific country rapporteur assignments
(addresses below).
NGO input
at the CEDAW session. NGOs may approach the CEDAW members
in several ways. The process is relatively open, and at
least some of the members are quite open to working directly
with NGO materials.
- Most of
the CEDAW members want to have written shadow reports
to enable them to ask useful questions. They should
be couriered to at least a few members, including the
Chairperson and the country rapporteur, prior to the
session. All of the members should receive a copy of
the shadow report at the opening of the session (see
below about conveying the reports to them).
- The presessional
working group recently adopted a practice of asking
NGOs from countries submitting periodic reports to orally
present information during the presessional working
group (which focuses only on periodic reports). If NGOs
can be present in New York at that time as well as at
the time their country comes up for review by the full
committee in the second or third week, this presentation
can be extremely useful to them. The presessional working
group meets at the end of the prior session (for January
2000, for example, the presessional will be held after
the close of the June 1999 session).
- The Committee
holds one meeting during the first week of each CEDAW
session to hear country-specific information directly
from NGOs. This is an opportunity to make your points
to a number of the experts at once. Simultaneous interpretation
is provided.
- Many of
the CEDAW experts are readily approachable individually
before and after the working sessions to talk informally
about the issues that concern NGOs. Some will be willing
to have a full-length meeting before a working session
or at midday. Most will be approachable to at least
have a few words. BE PREPARED for these meetings by
having your specific points of concern ready to be conveyed
in a few words and on a single sheet of paper.
NGOs will
need a pass to enter the UN building in New York. To obtain
a pass, contact Koh Miyaoi at the Division for the Advancement
of Women (address below).
With the practicalities
in mind, be sure to shape your report to be focused and
provide a good framework for developing very specific
points for lobbying. While your report may be ultimately
intended for a large audience, including government officials
and the public, it should be planned for effectiveness
with the CEDAW Committee. As an audience the CEDAW Committee
has particular requirements:
- CEDAW experts
read the shadow report to obtain specific information
that can help them evaluate the government report.
- The Committee
experts cannot be familiar with the political and economic
background of every country. They may need contextual
information to understand the issues.
- CEDAW experts
always have a limited amount of time and want to receive
information about the most pressing issues in a concise
format.
CONVEYING
THE REPORT TO CEDAW MEMBERS
To be most
useful, a shadow report should be sent to the CEDAW chairperson
and country rapporteur directly by courier at least six
weeks prior to the session at which the country is to
be reviewed. The Division for the Advancement of Women
has indicated that it will distribute NGO reports to the
CEDAW experts, but will not guarantee that it will distribute
the reports prior to the opening of the CEDAW session.
To be sure of distribution at the session, send 24 copies
to the Division. NGOs attending the session also should
bring 24 copies with them, as members frequently need
an extra copy.
Language
The working
language of a majority of the Committee members is English.
Many speak more than one UN language. Several of the members
use only Spanish, French, or English. If possible, NGOs
should consider translating at least the executive summary
of their report into at least one language other than
the one in which it was written.
ADDENDUM:
CEDAW GUIDELINES FOR GOVERNMENT REPORTS
CEDAW has
adopted guidelines for the form and content of initial
and periodic reports to assist State Parties in the preparation
of reports and to ensure that reports are presented in
a manner that allows CEDAW and State Parties to obtain
a complete picture of Convention implementation. CEDAW
has issued two guidelines, one for initial report, the
other for second and subsequent reports.
Initial reports
should be in two parts. Part I should clearly describe
the country in all its aspects. It is to provide general
information on the land and people of the State, its general
political structure, general legal framework concerning
the protection of human rights, and a description of efforts
made to promote awareness among the public and the relevant
authorities regarding the content of rights. Part II should
provide specific information in relation to each provision
of the Women's Convention. The following issues should
be addressed with particular attention:
- The constitutional,
legislative and administrative provisions or other measures
in force;
- Progress
that has been made, including the programs and institutions
that have been established since the entry into force
of the CEDAW Convention;
- Any other
progress made in the fulfillment of each right;
- The gaps
between women's legal status and their status in fact;
- Any restrictions
or limitations, even of a temporary nature, imposed
by law, practice or tradition or in any other manner
on the enjoyment of each right.
The Committee's
guidelines for second and subsequent reports indicate
that they should focus on progress and new problems that
have occurred since the submission of the preceding report.
Particular attention should be paid to the following issues:
- If the government
report lists laws adopted in recent years with the purpose
of eliminating discrimination, does it discuss realities
of and remedies for noncompliance?
- Are enough
data disaggregated by sex?
- Does the
government report deal with the CEDAW comment on the
preceding report? If so, is it adequate?
- Has the
government made serious efforts to implement the Convention
since the submission of the preceding report?
- If the government
has entered reservations, does the government report
address the reservations? Do the reasons for reservations
still hold?
UN DIVISION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN:
Two United Nations Plaza
Room DC2-1236
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: (212) 963-3153
Fax: (212) 963-3463
E-mail (for passes to UN): miyaoi@un.org
Web site: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
IWRAW:
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
301-19th Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455 USA
Tel: (612) 625-5093
Fax: (612) 624-0068
E-mail: iwraw@hhh.umn.edu
Web site: http://www.igc.org/iwraw/
OTHER USEFUL
WEB SITES:
United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.unhchr.ch/
University
of Minnesota Human Rights Library: http://hrlibrary.law.umn.edu/
United Nations
Treaty Database: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf
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