The Procedure of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

The Commission on the Status of Women and the rights protected by it

Please, read the general remarks about the special procedures first.

The Commission on the Status of Women, an organ belonging to the UN Economic and Social Council, aims at detecting tendencies and world-wide patterns concerning the rights of women.

Implementing the Procedure

The first objective of the procedure provided by the Commission on the Status of Women is not to offer a direct compensation for victims of human rights violations.

The Secretariat of the Commission receives communications from individuals and organizations. They acknowledge the receipt of them and explain the procedure briefly to the claimant. They summarize the communications then and send them to the government concerned so they can submit their observations. The names of the claimants are only communicated to the government concerned (and then to the Commission) with the explicit authorization of the persons involved.

The communications are then examined by a working group on communications which prepares a report in which the most frequently submitted categories of communications are named. The Commission on the Status of Women considers the report and submits then on its part, if the Commission deems it necessary, an accompanied report to the Economic and Social Council containing recommendations on the measures to be taken on the subject of tendencies and regularities which emerge from the communications. 

For submitting a communication, write to:

More information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/communications_procedure.html