A/HRC/35/29
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
19 April 2017
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-fifth session
6-23 June 2017
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination
against women in law and in practice
Note by the Secretariat
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of
the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice,
pursuant to Council resolutions 15/23, 26/5 and 32/4. In the report, the Working Group
proposes an analysis on good practices for the elimination of discrimination against women
in law and in practice and for women’s empowerment. The question of how to identify
good practices in ending discrimination against women is particularly poignant at this
historical juncture, where a profound backlash against hard-won progress is occurring in all
spheres. The continuing rise of fundamentalisms of all kinds and openly misogynistic,
racist, xenophobic and populist voices, including Governments, is of grave concern to the
Group. Efforts to re-entrench patriarchal understandings of sex, gender and family into the
law point to important questions about sustaining progress and ensuring that good practices
continue to be possible in fraught contexts. Ongoing attacks on autonomous women’s
movements, civil society organizations, independent academia, public interest lawyers and
women’s human rights defenders by State and non-State actors alike underscore the
importance of identifying those good practices that uphold human rights gains.
GE.17-06247(E)