CEDAW China review: Committee members have repeatedly raised issues such as sexual harassment and women in chains, but the answer is that they are too hesitant to care about left and right.

The 5.5-hour 85th CEDAW China Review finally came to an end. The compact agenda included comprehensive introductory speeches by the government delegation, members’ questions in accordance with the treaty order, and responses from state parties. Due to the large number of topics involved and the long and procrastinating statements of the government representatives who responded, the chairman of the committee had to interrupt many times and ask for brief answers. Questions that did not have clear answers must be submitted in paper reports before May 15.

CEDAW members’ questions on the 16 convention articles included specific issues including: the construction of a national human rights system, the proportion of women in politics, the construction of an anti-gender violence system, domestic and cross-border human trafficking, women’s right to education, rural women’s health rights and Homestead rights, fetal gender selection, employment discrimination against working mothers and transgender people, forced labor in Xinjiang and other female labor issues, including the establishment of anti-sexual harassment system, treatment of rural women with mental disorders and combating trafficking, ratio of senior female officials participating in politics, Specific issues such as women's rights in Tibet and Xinjiang were repeatedly mentioned and questioned by many committee members from different angles under different clauses.

Different from the past practice of not mentioning individual cases, this time the members’ questions mentioned three specific cases: the Xuzhou Feng County chain girl, tennis player Peng Shuai, and the transgender employment discrimination case of Dangdang.com, but did not mention the blank paper in the private report. Cases of protesting female arrestees, including Huang Xueqin and Li Qiaochu. In addition, questions raised by Purple Ribbon Mothers about child snatching and the systemic violence experienced by sex workers and other issues mentioned in the shadow report did not appear to be heard from the committee members.

It has been observed that the opinions and information in the reports of various private NGOs, including the data that civil courts "will not divorce in the first instance" in 82% of divorce cases, have become an important basis for committee members to ask questions.

Unfortunately, many of the replies from representatives of the Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao governments lacked pertinence. The most obvious one was that the representative from the Ministry of Public Security interrupted and paused from time to time in his speech, which took a lot of time. Among the five points of the Chinese delegation’s written supplementary reply on May 15, at least two of them repeatedly emphasized that the “fight against poverty” has improved the treatment of women, especially rural women, in response to the “ "Specific protection and assistance measures for ethnic minorities, elderly and disabled women", and specifically emphasized that "systematic violence against women by the police and other state agencies" is an "unfounded accusation", but there was no clear answer at the venue about the gender of artificial intelligence. Issues such as discrimination and the three-child policy are still not mentioned in the written supplement.

Some LGBTQ+ rights advocates discovered that at least three committee members’ questions related to sexual minority issues, and one of them specifically mentioned the Dangdang transgender employment discrimination case. Although the government representative who answered could not name the case, he expressed his opinion in the judgment and called for "A more open and tolerant mentality". This case has also triggered a lot of discussions in China. CCTV12 Rule of Law Channel once reported it as a positive example and discussed its positive value in the judicial and public fields. This may also reflect the actual progress of China's domestic promotion. perspective.

In addition, the government representative from the State Council Information Office directly used the words "LGBT" and "chained women" at the end of the reply. However, the content of the reply was still official, saying that there was no discrimination and at the same time stated that "monogamy is in line with China's national conditions." The Fengxian incident mainly recounts the verdict issued only in April this year, without updates or further information.

It is worth noting that there are reports that Chinese netizens are unable to watch the link to the UN CEDAW review through WeChat, and some netizens have their accounts blocked after forwarding news about the review. When a member was about to mention this issue, he was interrupted due to time constraints.

Introductory speech by representatives of China, Hong Kong and Macao

The head of the Chinese government delegation is Huang Xiaowei, deputy director of the State Council Working Committee on Women and Children. She is also the vice chairman and first secretary of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation. She said that mainland China's national report was co-written by 29 working groups, during which "a high degree of Paying attention to NGO participation” fully reflects the attitude of being serious, responsible, open and transparent.

The situation in mainland China is mainly divided into eight aspects:

- In terms of the legal system, relevant laws and regulations such as the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, the Rural Land Contract Law, and the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests have been improved;

- In terms of the national action plan, a special chapter has been set up to promote the comprehensive development of women, and more than 1,300 women's development indicators and gender-disaggregated economic development indicators have been established;

- Regarding the living conditions of women and children, special mention was made of the “fight against poverty” to improve the situation of poor rural women;

- In terms of women's health level, it is mentioned that the maternal mortality rate has been reduced, a green channel for pregnant women has been established during the epidemic, and breast and cervical cancer screening has been established;

- In the right to education, it is mentioned that the enrollment rate of girls, the enrollment of disabled women in ordinary schools, and the increase in the education ratio of women in Tibet and Xinjiang;

- In terms of gender violence, introduce data on special operations to combat the trafficking of women and children, and increase the intensity of punishment for rape and obscenity;

- The gender ratio of women participating in decision-making and management. Currently, women account for 26.5% of deputies to the 14th National People’s Congress, an increase of 3.1% from the last review in 2014;

- The employment ratio of women who participate in high-quality development (Internet, digital economy, technology) and other industries is basically equal to that of men, but is still slightly lower. In particular, women in the expert pool of the National Natural Science Foundation of China account for only close to 30%.

The Chinese delegation stated that there are still imbalances in the development of women between urban and rural areas, regions, and groups. There is implicit employment discrimination against women. The level of women's participation in national cultural affairs needs to be improved. Cases of violations against women occur from time to time. The development environment for women needs to be optimized. And other issues.

Hong Kong representatives introduced the issue from four aspects: legal construction, education, professional freedom, and society. They mentioned the extension of maternity leave and the provision of HK$100 million in the policy address to promote women's development. Hong Kong’s introduction did not mention any current gender inequality issues. Instead, it commented on the questions raised by some NGOs at the opening of the review on May 8, calling them “false information.” The first statement was that the police complaint system It is effective because there is no problem of police gender violence that requires independent investigation; secondly, the national security law does not interfere with women’s rights.

The Macau representative introduced the progress of revising the criminal law, labor relations law and other legal systems, establishing the Women and Children's Affairs Commission, and establishing an action plan. He also did not mention any current issues of gender inequality in the SAR.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention: Definition of Discrimination, Policy Measures

Nicole Ameline, a French national parliamentarian and former ambassador for social and gender issues, mainly asked questions about human trafficking, discrimination against minority women, the judicial protection available to women, the lack of an independent human rights institution in China, and China’s protection of human rights for private NGOs and women. protector.

Commissioner Rangita de Silva de Alwis, a Sri Lankan scholar who has collaborated with the China Women’s Federation, academic institutions and other women’s groups on many occasions, asked questions including the legal construction of Hong Kong and Macao, the application of laws on foreign domestic workers and gender equality in Hong Kong, the fact that there have never been female judges in Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, and whether Consider including "empowerment" rather than just protection in mainland China's legal framework, and whether there should be contributions from NGOs in the evaluation of gender equality policies.

China reiterated the process of the legal system mentioned previously; the Ministry of Justice of Hong Kong briefly introduced the legal system structure related to gender equality, and stated that members of the judicial department are "merit-based" and did not directly answer the question of the gender ratio of final judges; Macau read out the judicial aid Gender-disaggregated data for cases.

Representatives from the State Council Information Office specifically answered questions from independent human rights institutions and human rights defenders. He said that China does not have an independent human rights institution, "but China has a national human rights joint conference mechanism." This mechanism includes more than 40 central departments such as the public security and procuratorates, and the Women's Federation and the Trade Union Women Workers' Committee will also accept complaints.

"There are 210,000 registered journalists in China's news media, and there are hundreds of thousands of lawyers in China. They are all human rights defenders. They effectively protect women's rights through news supervision and legal assistance." The representative said.

During this period, because the article was not on topic, the chairman of the meeting interrupted the statement of the representative of the National Health Commission on fertility and the release of three children.

Articles 3 and 4 of the Convention: National mechanisms and temporary special measures

Member Bandana Rana from Nepal once again raised the two issues of why there is no independent national human rights institution and how civil society can participate in the implementation of gender equality policies. He also questioned the actual effect of the current gender equality mechanism in mainland China and the Hong Kong EOC 15, 16 Among the many laws negotiated in 2018 to establish a sexual orientation discrimination law, a sex characteristics discrimination law, why only the law on breastfeeding was passed, and the cancellation of the Hong Kong Women’s Day parade on March 8, 2023 was used as an example to ask how to ensure The National Security Law does not undermine women’s rights.

Member Maya Morsy, who serves as the chairperson of the National Council for Women of the Egyptian government, mainly asked about the gender ratio of women participating in politics and public affairs, and how to extend women’s maternity leave without further damaging women’s employment situation.

The Chinese government responded by stating that not establishing an independent human rights institution can more comprehensively mobilize resources from various departments and is more in line with China's national conditions; and the participation of non-governmental organizations and NGOs in the implementation of gender equality policies mainly involves the introduction of women's federations, listening to the opinions of women's representatives, inviting female scholars, Legislative contact points have been set up in various places, and draft bills have been publicly solicited for national opinions. On the issue of political participation, the proportion of women in the 14th National People's Congress has increased, and provinces, cities and counties have proportional requirements for female cadres.

The Women's Committee of Hong Kong and the Political and Mainland Affairs Bureau reiterated that the Hong Kong government will allocate 100 million yuan to fund gender equality and strengthen the protection of breastfeeding women. The National Security Bureau of Hong Kong responded to the issue of the cancellation of the Women's Day parade by saying that it "will not comment further on individual cases", saying that this is a professional decision made by the police after reviewing all aspects and involves protecting the interests of all parties. The applicant can choose to appeal against this.

Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention: Stereotyping, violence against women, human trafficking, prostitution

Commissioner Marion Bethel, a lawyer from the Bahamas, raised the issues of sex-selective abortion, how to improve the image of women using the example of women in chains, and how to punish advertisements that sexualize women/girls.

Member Genoveva Tisheva, Director of the Bulgarian Feminist NGO Organization, raised questions about the harassment of NGOs and women’s rights activists by state agencies. She also cited data to ask about anti-domestic violence police training, the inclusion of economic violence in the definition of domestic violence, the non-judgment of civil courts in the first instance, and LBTQ rights and remedies for cross-discrimination groups, relief for female refugees, etc.

Commissioner Dalia Leinarte, a scholar from Lithuania who studies feminism and totalitarian governments, raised six questions, including how to respond to the trafficking of mentally disabled women, how to respond to the large number of rejections of visa applications for foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, and how to respond to the criminal law which only mentions trafficking but does not involve forced marriage. , how to protect the legal status of women who defect from North Korea, how to respond to the forced labor and gender-based violence of Uyghur women, and how to reduce gender-based violence in prostitution in Macau from the demand side?

The Chinese government responded that the sex ratio at birth has dropped significantly in the past. All towns and villages have launched psychological service systems to support rural mental health construction, strengthened legal aid for women, strengthened domestic violence shelters, elaborated on several special actions such as combating trafficking, and introduced Specific data on domestic violence and habeas corpus orders. During this period, the representative of the Ministry of Public Security was interrupted from time to time for 3 to 5 seconds, making his speech too long without much actual content.

Regarding female North Korean defectors, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that most North Korean women who come to China are "economic immigrants" and are not "refugees", so there is no legal status issue. The United Front Work Department responded to the Uyghurs by saying that there are no re-education camps, forced labor and forced marriages in China. All students from the former vocational education colleges have graduated and the schools have been closed.

Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the Convention: Political and public life, representation, nationality

Lebanese member Nahla Haidar, who has more than 30 years of experience in the United Nations, asked about the proportion of female senior leaders participating in politics, the proportion of women on corporate boards, etc., and once again proposed how to protect female human rights defenders.

Azerbaijani lawyer and scholar Elgun Safarov once again directly raised the issue of the confiscation of passports of Uyghur women and the living conditions of women who defect from North Korea.

Representatives from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee cited data on female political participation among grassroots cadres, newly recruited civil servants and judges. The member’s question points to the fact that currently there is not a single woman among the 24 members of China’s 14th Politburo, which is the first time in 20 years. There are also no women among the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, but women have previously served as members of the Politburo Standing Committee. In this regard, a representative from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said that “the cultivation and growth of senior leaders requires a process.” The Ministry of Public Security’s response regarding passports and nationality restrictions listed legal provisions without mentioning any actual situations.

When Azerbaijani scholar Safarov continued to ask questions about nationality and passports, why China had not adopted the United Nations Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons in 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 1961, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs frankly stated that he “really doesn’t understand.” He stated that he would bring the issue back to the relevant departments, but emphasized that there are two articles in the Nationality Law regarding how stateless persons can obtain legal status in China, and believed that this was not a legal gap.

Articles 10 and 11 of the Convention: Education, Employment

Japanese scholar Akizuki Hiroko raised the issue of gender stereotypes in education, how to teach human rights in textbooks, whether mother-tongue education for ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang and other areas is guaranteed, how to solve the imbalance of gender ratios among teachers and school management, women’s vocational education and training, schools How to prevent and treat sexual harassment and other issues.

Representative of the Australian Senator Natasha Stott Despoja mainly asked about sexual harassment in the workplace and division of labor at home. In sexual harassment, she mentioned the case of athlete Peng Shuai being investigated. Commissioner Marianne Mikko, an Estonian journalist, mentioned the issues of women’s home care, the gap in the quality of employment between men and women, and Uyghur forced labor.

The Ministry of Education introduced China's situation on human rights education, elimination of relevant stereotypes in education, data classification in education, sexual harassment on campus and other issues. Because of too much elaboration, the chairman interrupted and asked for a concise answer. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that on Women's Day this year, it worked with relevant departments to issue a reference text on the system for eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace to guide companies to improve relevant systems. The United Front Work Department completely denies the issue of forced labor in Xinjiang.

Articles 12 and 13 of the Convention: Health, economic and social interests

Commissioner Hilary Gbedemah, a law teacher in Ghana, asked how to take care of the reproductive health needs of older women, how to improve women's reproductive rights, and how to respond to the declining birth rate of ethnic minorities. Nigerian member Esther Eghobamien-Mshelia asked about the social security situation of vulnerable groups such as migrant workers and ethnic minorities.

The National Health Commission took the opportunity to introduce the comprehensive three-child situation that had not been fully explained before, and classified the low fertility rate of ethnic minorities into the universal problem of low fertility rate around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced measures for women during the epidemic. The United Front Department introduced the situation of boarding schools in Tibet, but was interrupted by the chairman, who asked to answer the question directly.

At the end of this session, the Chairman of the Committee noted that the State party had not answered all questions, especially regarding specific protection and assistance measures for ethnic minorities, elderly and disabled women, as well as the situation in which women with mental disorders were shackled and even tortured. He requested the State party to Submit written responses within 24 hours.

Articles 14, 15, 16 of the Convention: Rural women, law, family life

Commissioner Yamila González Ferrer of Cuba asked about poor rural women, rural gender stereotypes, rural women’s land tenure rights, and LGBTQ+ rights in marriage and family.

Member Rangita de Silva de Alwis, a Sri Lankan scholar who had asked questions before, once again asked about the lack of women in the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, and asked about the gender breakdown of petitions, the protection of domestic violence victims testifying, and the inclusion of transgender employment discrimination cases in typical cases of the Supreme Court. Cases of promoting gender equality, gender discrimination in government artificial intelligence, whether the three-child policy encourages women to return to the family and embrace traditional values, the incident of chained girls in Feng County, the land rights of rural married women, the protection of women’s property in marriage, Hong Kong’s 16-year-old minimum There are several issues such as the age of marriage and Hong Kong’s small house policy.

The Chinese government responded to issues such as poverty alleviation, legal aid, domestic violence judge training, and the sharing of family responsibilities between men and women. The Hong Kong representative stated that the minimum age for marriage would be maintained on the grounds that the proportion of first-married women aged 16-17 was less than 0.08%. The small house policy is said to “involve land policies and needs” and requires careful and time-consuming review.

These responses did not specifically touch on issues such as gender discrimination in artificial intelligence, the three-child policy, and the protection of women’s property in marriage.

The full English transcript (United Nations) is available at: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FSR.1977&Lang=en (morning)

https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FSR.1978&Lang=en (Afternoon)

For the entire Chinese recording, please see: https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/edit/iWfgnyLokfOB0wkgiCsUq0Q3/