CEDAW

March 2010 - NGO Consultation: Module One

Submissions close May 20th 2010

The National Council of Women of New Zealand invites you to respond to the issues and questions outlined in this discussion document.

New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in January 1985. Every four years the New Zealand Government reports to the CEDAW Monitoring Committee and at the same time, NGOs are also encouraged to write the Alternate Report. This reporting process provides a way for New Zealand women to tell the government and the international community if and how they are discriminated against. The 2010 Report will be presented in 2011.

Contributing to the consultations on CEDAW is your opportunity as a group representative, or an individual woman, to oppose the barriers women and girls face in this country. This work helps to keep the New Zealand Government honest. But more than that, your participation can reach beyond these shores by influencing the UN Monitoring Committee on how it critiques the performance of other countries.

The National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) is facilitating the nationwide consultation process to produce the Alternate NGO CEDAW Report 2010. Thanks to NCWNZ, Zonta and Soroptimist branches around New Zealand, depending on where you are based, you will be able to attend one or more of these Consultation Meetings.

Submissions can be written from the perspective of the individual or groups. We encourage you to complete a census form which should accompany your submission. Before you send in any response please fill out the appropriate census form (if you are responding on behalf of an organisation please only use the ‘organisation' census form). If you cannot attend a meeting please respond on an individual basis.

Participants at the meetings as well as women responding on an individual basis will also be called upon to collect concrete and anecdotal evidence of current discrimination against women.

Collection of evidence-based data and research on all aspects of women's lives for the NGO Report is on-going but anything that you or your organisation can contribute is extremely valuable to our research.

You do not have to respond to every item covered in the consultation modules; respond only to the area where you feel you have a story, an experience you wish to share, or an opinion, or specialist knowledge.

The deadline for submission for this module is Thursday May 20th. There will be no extensions offered. We need to ensure we have sufficient time to collate responses, produce a draft summary report for submitters to review, then a final summary report which can be sent to the United Nations before the end of the year.