National Women’s Council of Ireland: Women’s Rights and CEDAW – 6 October, Dublin

Date: 6 October 2016

Time: Registration from 10:00 (Seminar 10:30am-1:00pm and roundtable 2:00 pm-4:00pm)

Venue: Oak Room, the Mansion House

Ireland’s commitment to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, (CEDAW), will next be examined in early 2017. As part of this process, the State submitted, on the 15 September 2016, a written response to a list of issues identified by an independent expert body within the United Nations, (the CEDAW Committee). (See here for Ireland’s combined sixth and seventh periodic Report to the UN CEDAW Committee, along with an Annex of statistical data.)

NWCI considers CEDAW to be an extremely important tool to aid the advancement of women’s rights in Ireland, as it provides a framework by which Ireland can take responsibility for confronting and eliminating (often embedded and historical) discrimination against women.

The purpose of the event is to highlight the importance of CEDAW, its relationship to Ireland and the women’s movement as well as highlighting the practical ways it can be harnessed for campaigning and lobbying work. In that respect the seminar will be addressed by:

• Violeta Neubauer, independent women’s human rights and gender equality expert from Slovenia who was a member of the CEDAW Committee from 2007 to 2014, The Importance and Relevance of CEDAW

•  Dr. Patricia Conlan, chair of the Feminism and International Law Committee of the International Law Association, Ireland and CEDAW – some contemporary developments 

• Sinéad Lucey, Managing Solicitor FLAC (the Free Legal Advice Centres), Harnessing CEDAW – a practitioner’s guide to using international complaint mechanisms 

A light lunch will follow the presentations with a roundtable consultation from 2:00-4:00pm. The Round Table Event is designed to obtain attendees reactions to the official State Report to the CEDAW Committee and to highlight any issues that you or your organisation would like to see reflected in NWCI’s Shadow Report to the CEDAW Committee. 

Registration for the event will take place from 10.00am and proceedings will start at 10:30 am. A light lunch will be served at 1pm and round table consultation sessions will run from 2pm to 4pm.

To register for the event please follow the link here.

If you have any queries please contact Denise Roche at deniser@nwci.ie.