The South African government has tabled its first report on the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the United Nations. The report will be heard at a special session of the CEDAW Committee during the first week of July 1998 in New York.

The CEDAW Committee is not only accessible to NGOs and eager to receive their information, but encourages NGO participation in the preparation of the official government reports. Reporting states have come to expect questions from the CEDAW committee on whether women's groups and NGOs generally have been consulted or involved in the preparation of the report and whether, and in what ways, the report reflects the input of these groups. Masimanyane Women's Support Centre decided to write a CEDAW shadow report as a critique of the SA government report with a focus on violence against women.

Masimanyane Women's Support Centre hosted a Southern African Conference on violence against women in October 1997 in East London. At this conference, the South African delegation met to discuss the development of such a shadow report. Six Provinces were represented and all the delegates from these provinces indicated their willingness to assist in the development of this report. Our shadow report mainly focuses on the issue of violence against women and therefore in particular critiques general recommendation 12 and 19 on violence against women. Objectives of the report are:

• to make institutions such as government departments and media accountable;
• to evaluate the monitoring tools;
• to inform civil society about CEDAW and the government's commitments herein;
• to make recommendations to the government;
• to develop an advocacy and lobbying tool.

Two meetings have been held already and we hope to finalize the critique during our next meeting in April. The NGO shadow report on CEDAW is scheduled to be completed by May 1998 and will then be publicized and be available for interested parties. The report will be followed up by organising workshops thoughout the country, radio talks, etc.

An invitation has been extended by the International Law Group based at the United Nations to take two women through a mentoring programme which assists them to conduct an advocacy campaign at the United Nations. This mentoring programme will teach the two candidates how to critique the government input as well as how to structure questions for the committee to put to the government representative. The candidates will be introduced to the committee members and they will be shown who to approach to pose the questions decided upon. This mentoring programme will allow two women to represent the NGO sector in South Africa. We will be able to directly influence the proposals suggested by the CEDAW committee to our government. Ultimately, this gives us the opportunity to address the problems facing women with regard specifically to violence against women and to shape the further commitments of the SA government. Two delegates from the NGO shadow report meeting will be selected to participate in this mentoring programme in July 1998.