The General Assembly,
Bearing in mind that one of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter, is to promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of any kind, including distinction as to sex,
Affirming that women and men should participate equally in social, economic and political development, should contribute equally to such development and should share equally in improved conditions of life,
Recalling its resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979, by which it adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Recalling also its previous resolutions on the Convention, and taking note of Economic and Social Council resolution 1992/17 of 30 July 1992,
Taking note of the decisions adopted at the Sixth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, on 4 February 1992,
Aware of the important contribution that the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women can make to eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and to achieving legal and de facto equality between women and men,
Noting the emphasis placed by the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, on the ratification of and accession to the Convention,
Having considered the reports of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on its tenth and eleventh sessions,
Noting that the Committee agreed, in examining reports, to take due account of the different cultural and socio-economic systems of States parties to the Convention,
Noting also the importance of the monitoring function of the Committee, as demonstrated most recently in its general recommendation No. 19 on violence against women, adopted at its eleventh session,
Concerned about the increased workload of the Committee,
Convinced of the need to adopt measures to enable the Committee to deal in a thorough and timely manner with reports submitted by States parties,
Recalling that, under article 17, paragraph 9, of the Convention, the Secretary-General is required to provide the necessary staff and facilities for the effective performance of the functions of the Committee,
Recalling its resolutions 44/73 of 8 December 1989 and 45/124 of 14 December 1990, in which, inter alia, it strongly supported the view of the Committee that the Secretary-General should accord higher priority to strengthening support for the Committee,
Strongly supporting general recommendation No. 19 of the Committee on violence against women, and calling upon States parties to prepare their periodic reports in accordance with this and other general recommendations of the Committee,
Noting with satisfaction that the inter-sessional working group of the Commission on the Status of Women has completed its consideration of the draft declaration on the elimination of violence against women,
Welcoming other general recommendations contained in the reports of the Committee on its tenth and eleventh sessions,
1. Expresses its satisfaction with the increasing number of States that have ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and supports the recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to draw attention to those reservations which are incompatible with the objective and purpose of the Convention;
2. Urges all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to do so as soon as possible;
3. Emphasizes the importance of the strictest compliance by States parties with their obligations under the Convention;
4. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and requests him to submit annually to the General Assembly a report on the status of the Convention;
5. Takes note also of the reports of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on its tenth and eleventh sessions;
6. Invites States parties to the Convention to make all possible efforts to submit their initial as well as their second and subsequent periodic reports on the implementation of the Convention, in accordance with article 18 thereof and with the guidelines provided by the Committee, and to cooperate fully with the Committee in the presentation of their reports;
7. Welcomes the efforts made by the Committee to rationalize its procedures and expedite the consideration of periodic reports and to develop procedures and guidelines for the consideration of second and subsequent periodic reports, and strongly encourages the Committee to continue those efforts;
8. Welcomes also, in accordance with general recommendation No. 11 of the Committee, the initiatives taken to provide regional training courses on the preparation and drafting of reports of States parties for government officials and training and information seminars for States considering acceding to the Convention, and urges the relevant organs and organizations of the United Nations to support such initiatives;
9. Recognizes the special relevance of the periodic reports of States parties to the Convention to the efforts of the Commission on the Status of Women to review and appraise the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women in those countries;
10. Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to provide secretariat staff, including legal staff members expert in human rights treaty implementation, and technical resources for the effective performance by the Committee of its functions;
11. Strongly supports the view of the Committee that the Secretary-General should accord higher priority within existing resources to strengthening technical and substantive support for the Committee, in particular to assist in preparatory research;
12. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide for, facilitate and encourage, within existing resources, the dissemination of information relating to the Committee, its decisions and recommendations, the Convention and the concept of legal literacy, taking into account the Committee's own recommendations to that end;
13. Supports the request of the Committee for additional meeting time and requests that the twelfth and thirteenth sessions of the Committee should be of three weeks' duration;
14. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure adequate support to the Committee, and also requests that sufficient resources from within the existing regular budget be provided for that purpose to enable the Committee to deal in a thorough and timely manner with reports submitted by States parties;
15. Decides that, at its forty-ninth session, it will review whether the backlog of the Committee in considering reports has been reduced;
16. Recommends that meetings of the Committee should be scheduled, whenever possible, to allow for the timely transmission of the results of its work to the Commission on the Status of Women, for information, in the same year;
17. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution and to make the report available to the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-ninth session.
89th plenary meeting
16 December 1992
