Madrid, July 2009 - The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) will present on July 22, 2009 a shadow report on the discrimination faced by Roma women in Spain during the 44th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, at the Office of the High Commissioner of the UN in New York.
The fact of presenting such a specific shadow report on Roma women in Spain constitutes in itself a milestone as it will be the first time in UN history that such a hearing will take place, and furthermore by a Roma woman, Tamara Carrasco. Tamara Carrasco, Head of Gender Equality Area of the FSG, will raise her voice at the UN High Commissioner’s Office to highlight the discrimination faced by Roma women in our country.
Spain has ratified six of the seven major international human rights texts including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). These treaties are binding and therefore enforceable by the Spanish State.
Spain signed the CEDAW in 1980, which came into force on January 5, 1984. Since that date and at least every four years Spain is obliged to submit a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures taken to give effect to the provisions of the Convention, as provided in Section 18 for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, comprised by 23 experts in the field.
The Convention requests governments to assess on their own efforts to comply with the Treaty. This governmental point of view is complemented by civil society’s reports. For that reason, in the past (and to this day), the Committee has requested the input of NGOs in the form of parallel or independent reports, and informal oral presentations.
The last recommendations of the Committee to the Spanish government emphasised that national reports provided little data on Roma women and girls. Therefore the FSG has developed a shadow report to the 44th Session of CEDAW to be held next July 22 at the UN headquarters in New York. Tamara Carrasco responsible for the Gender Equality Area and Inés Cedrón, representing the International Department of the FSG, will present the Organization’s perspective on the specific discrimination suffered by Roma women in Spain.
The report itself can be downloaded in Spanish at:
http://www.gitanos.org/servicios/prensa/noticias/38410.html
and in Spanish and English at: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/cedaws44.htm
<>
