All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has been campaigning against the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, over her interpretation of women’s sex-based rights under CEDAW.
Remarks by former Ambassador for Gender Equality Stephanie Campbell, contained in a departmental transcript released under FOI (reference LEX 1781, unpublished) reveal that DFAT was “directly engaging through various different mechanisms” because the Special Rapporteur had taken a “fairly difficult position on transgender rights” that “doesn’t conform with our views.”
Ms Campbell’s language suggests she and the Government view Ms Stott Despoja less as an independent member of the Committee than as a conduit for advancing Australian Government priorities.
CEDAW Committee members are elected to serve as independent experts, not as representatives of their governments (Article 17). This independence is foundational to how UN human rights mechanisms operate, and although Committee members are nominated by their governments, they are expected to assess human rights issues based on evidence and international law, not on instructions from the government that nominated them. Once appointed, they are supposed to vote and act according to their own expert judgment, and are accountable to the international human rights system.
By referring to concerns that are “on Natasha’s agenda” and that “she takes very seriously and is taking forward,” former Ambassador Campbell blurs the line between an independent committee member and a government representative, undermining the principle that CEDAW Committee members serve in a personal capacity under international law.
If Ms Stott Despoja regards the independence and accountability of her mandate as important, we would welcome her saying so – and explaining her position on CEDAW’s function in protecting women on the basis of sex.
Source: DFAT reinterprets CEDAW, campaigns against UN expert who “doesn’t conform with our views”