E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2
page 64
and her dependants that such marriages ought to be discouraged and prohibited” (emphasis
added).
73
The Committee is referring in particular to Economic and Social Council resolution 884 D
(XXXIV) (para. 34).
74
The Committee has expressed its concern at the persistence of many practices, including
female excision, in some African countries, including Benin, Chad, Guinea and Yemen
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 43).
75
As at 31 December 1999, the Convention was binding on 191 States. Only the United States
and Somalia have not ratified it.
76
For example, the reservations and declarations by Brunei Darussalam, Iran, Mauritania, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria. See ST/LEG/SER.E/17, vol. I, part I, chaps. I to XI, pp. 229 ff.
77
For example, the reservations by Algeria, the Holy See, Iraq, Maldives, Morocco, Oman,
Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. See ST/LEG/SER.E/17, pp. 229 ff.
78
See ST/LEG/SER.E/17, pp. 238 ff. The Vienna Convention is not in fact of great assistance in
the matter. Under its provisions, a reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of a
treaty if it seeks to derogate from provisions whose application is essential to the execution of
the object and purpose of the treaty (art. 19).
79
See Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women (chapter I, resolution 1, annex II,
para. 113). The Commission on the Status of Women subscribes to the same broad concept of
violence but the particular focus is on female genital mutilation (E/1998/27, E/CN.6/1998/12).
80
See report of this Working Group submitted to the Commission on Human Rights in 1986
(E/CN.4/1986/42).
81
See E/CN.4/Sub.2/1991/48 and E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/10. See also the Plan of Action adopted
by the Subcommission on the basis of these two seminars (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/10/Add.1
and Corr.1). Regarding the traditional practices examined at the two seminars, see
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/14, paras. 27 ff.
82
On the subject, see report of the Secretary-General on traditional or customary practices …
(A/53/354, para. 23).
83
84
For example, Lesotho and Tanzania. See E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, paras. 43 and 44.
The courts have had to rule on the legal classification of certain practices harmful to women’s
health. For example, the Administrative Court of Lyons rendered a judgment, on 5 April 1996,
overturning a decision to remove a mother and her two young daughters of Guinean nationality,
who were illegally in French territory, on the ground that the two girls would be at risk of genital
mutilation on returning to Guinea. The Court based its judgment on the classification of the ritual
of excision as inhuman and degrading treatment within the meaning of the European Convention
on Human Rights and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or