Five international experts on women’s rights are to gather in Taipei next week to review Taiwan’s third report for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee said in the statement that the review of Taiwan’s compliance with the convention from 2013 to 2016 is to take place in Taipei for five days, beginning on Monday.

Taiwan voluntarily signed the convention in 2007. It passed a law in 2011 to bring the country’s rules and regulations in line with the convention, which has become one of the most important international codes for protecting women’s rights.

Since Taiwan is not a member of the UN, its ratification of the convention, which was adopted by the UN in 1979, is not recognized by the international body.

As with every UN convention, all signatory governments have to submit a quadrennial report to the UN.

Although Taiwan is not subject to the rule, it released its first and second reports in 2009 and 2013, each of which was followed by a review by international experts in Taiwan, who gave recommendations to Taiwan on how to promote gender equality.

According to the statement, Taiwan’s third report is to be reviewed by a group of five international experts — Heisoo Shin, a visiting professor at Ewha Womans University in South Korea; Niklas Bruun, a Finnish professor of law who served as a member of the CEDAW Committee from 2009 to 2016; Violeta Neubauer, a Slovenian member of the board of administration of the European Women’s Lobby, Silvia Pimentel, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights; and Bianca Maria Pomeranzi, an Italian who served as a member of the CEDAW Committee from 2012 to 2016.

[Taipei Times, 2018-07-13]