a Somali woman living in a refugee camp in Ethiopia? What changes the Covenant
can bring to the live of a North Korean woman trafficked in China, or an
Aboriginal woman living in a reservation camp in Canada? Not much really, unless
she knows what her rights are and demand her government and the international
community to make sure her rights are protected. Yesterday morning you have
discussed minority women‟s and girls‟ right to education, but education should not
limited to girl‟s education in schools or literacy classes for adult women. Education
should also be about their basic human rights in economic, social and cultural
areas.
Challenge No. 2 would be to make a better and active use of the treaty body
monitoring system currently in operation. As I said, the Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights is widely open to NGOs. You can submit NGO reports;
you can attend the Committee meetings, and can orally deliver your opinions to
the Committee. NGOs can also have a lunchtime briefing in an informal setting
and explain the issues in more detail. However, this system is not widely used by
minority women at the level of the CESCR. The Committee needs to know the
realities of minority women, so that it can recommend to the government in its
Concluding Observations exactly what needs to be done to improve the lives of
minority women at the grassroots level. Minority women then can use these
recommendations in demanding their government to implement them at the
national and local levels.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the new procedure on individual
complaints under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights. An Optional Protocol to the Covenant was adopted in 2008, but it has not
become effective yet. The Committee is awaiting for at least 5 more States parties‟
ratification so that the Optional Protocol can go into effect.
In conclusion, I would very much like to see that minority women take the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in their hands and
use it as a tool to protect and promote their rights. At the same time, the