Meeting at UN, States elect 12 experts to monitor women's anti-discrimination accord

Meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York, countries party to a major international treaty protecting women's rights have elected a dozen experts to serve on the committee monitoring implementation of the accord.

In two rounds of voting on Thursday, the States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women elected 9 new members and re-elected 3 current members to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Although nominated by governments, the 23 expert members of the Committee serve in their personal capacity.

Often described as an "international bill of rights for women," the Convention provides for equality between women and men in the enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee is mandated to consider reports from the treaty's 170 States parties and to make suggestions and general recommendations in response.

The new experts are Cornelis Flinterman of the Netherlands, Huguette Bokpe Gnancadja of Benin, Meriem Belmihoub-Zerdani of Algeria, Akua Kuenyehia of Ghana and Krisztina Morvai of Hungary.

Also elected to the Committee for the first time were Salma Khan of Bangladesh, Pramila Patten of Mauritius, Victoria Popescu Sandru of Romania and Dubravka Simonovic of Croatia.

Fumiko Saiga of Japan, Naela Mohamed Gabr of Egypt and Rosario Manalo of the Philippines were re-elected to the Committee.