Professor Niklas Bruun re-elected to CEDAW Committee

The CEDAW Committee watches over the progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women (the CEDAW Convention) and processes complaints from individuals submitted to the Committee concerning claims of violation of rights identified in the CEDAW Convention.

The Committee has 23 members, 11 of which will end their term in the end of this year. On Tuesday 26 June in New York, 11 new members were elected among 25 candidates for the four-year term beginning on 1 January 2013. Some of the elected are new and some were re-elected, such as Professor Bruun. The Committee members are independent experts who are expected to have competence in the field covered by the CEDAW Convention.

The candidates for the CEDAW Committee elections are put forward by the States parties to the CEDAW Convention. Professor Bruun was the candidate for Finland and the other Nordic countries.

Professor Bruun has extensive experience in international law, labour law and equality issues both in Finland and international forums. Bruun has been a member of the CEDAW Committee since 2009. He's been acknowledged for his expertise as well as active and constructive participation in the Committee. Since 2011 Bruun has been an member of the Optional Protocol Working Group processing the individual complaints. Bruun is the only male among the CEDAW Committee members.

Other UN bodies monitoring the UN Human Rights Conventions don't have Finnish members at the moment.

Further information: First Secretary Suvikki Silvennoinen, Unit for Human Rights Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel.+358 9 1605 5320, email [email protected], and Professor Niklas Bruun, tel. +358 50 599 6801, email [email protected]