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104 Personal Reflection: Pers i stent Discr imination Christine K a pa lata, Un ited Republic of Tanzania I joined the CEDAW Committee in January 2002 after the Tanzanian expert, Dr. Asha Rose Migiro, who had been elected to the Committee in August 2000, resigned by virtue of being appointed Minister of Community Development, Gender and Children. The Committee accepted my nomination as a replacement, and I was expected to serve the remaining two years of her term. I was sworn in as a member of the Committee at its twenty-sixth session. Taking the oath that all new members are required to take, I knew that I had undertaken a commitment as an independent expert that required me to put the human rights of women above any feelings I might have about my own government or the government of the reporting State. I soon found out that serving on the Committee requires a lot of reading and understanding of the political, social, as well as economic systems of the States Parties. During the first few days of my membership, I burned a lot of midnight oil trying to catch up with a rigorous examination of the reports. I later found out that, because members of the Committee come from different disciplines, it is possible for each expert to concentrate on her or his area of expertise in the examination of States Parties’ reports while at the same time acquiring general knowledge of the country. This “unofficial distribution of expertise” enriched the debate and produced a comprehensive examination of the reports before the Committee. It was a veritable revelation to learn that from north to south and from east to west, discrimination against women existed. Women in poor countries often die because they do not have access to medical facilities, and conversely, women in developed countries may be denied positions in some professions or denied equal pay for work of equal value. Forms of discrimination are found in both poor and wealthy countries, in developed and developing countries alike. I was particularly perturbed at the discrimination in developed countries where people were no longer struggling for the bare basics of life, as they are in developing countries. For example, France to me (naïvely, I now know) was the land of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and so I was surprised to discover that women could not vote until 1944. Canada and Japan, to cite two other examples, also surprised me when I learned of their discrimination against Inuit personal reflection l 105 women and the women of the social minority group “buraku,” respectively. Clearly, levels of development were not necessarily synonymous with respect for human rights, particularly those of women. When the Committee took up the examination of the third and fourth periodic report of Tunisia, I learned that Tunisia has been able to harmonize the provisions of Islam with human rights tenets. In order to improve the situation of women in the family, Tunisia first prohibited polygamy by law and later introduced the concept of partnership in marriage. To me, these were brave and practical steps. In January 2003 after a year’s experience, I became Rapporteur in the Bureau of the Committee. My assignment was to take notes faithfully of the discussions of the Committee to be summarized in the concluding comments to each State Party. While this task somewhat limited my participation in the debate, I never missed an opportunity to make an intervention when seized by an issue. Serving on the Committee is both a privilege and a service. The long hours spent discussing States Parties’ reports are rewarded by the fact that delegations return enlightened, if not totally determined to implement the recommendations coming from the Committee’s concluding comments. Tanzania, my country, has, for example, amended provisions of its Constitution to increase the number of women members of parliament from 15 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 2000. While this is not the optimum, it has nonetheless been possible because of a combination of pressures, in part from the Committee, in part from the Beijing Platform for Action and other international documents. As the Committee celebrates its twenty-five years of existence, it is heartwarming—particularly for anyone who has served on the Committee—to see the number of amendments that countries are making in their laws to bring them in line with respect for women’s rights, which are indeed human rights, required under the Convention. The crowning glory comes from the...

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