KATHMANDU, Feb 18: Nepal's Bandana Rana has been elected as vice-chairperson at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for two years.

Rana was elected during the 72nd CEDAW session held in Geneva on Monday. She was unanimously elected representing the Asia Pacific group until December 2020.

This is the first time that a representative from Nepal has been the vice chairperson of a UN treaty body. In 2016, she was elected as an expert member of the committee. 

The CEDAW Committee has a bureau comprising of chair and three vice chairs that are elected among the CEDAW Committee members for two years.

Starting her career as a media person, Rana turned toward social issues and has been leading advocacy, research, and public outreach and community mobilization programs for women rights for many years. She is the founder of Saathi, a nonprofit organization committed to ending all kinds of violence and discrimination against women and girls in Nepal. She is currently working as a strategic director at the organization.

CEDAW is an expert body established in 1982. It is composed of 23 experts on women's issues from around the world.  The committee monitors the progress for women made in CEDAW ratifying UN state member countries. The expert body is also responsible for monitoring the implementation of national measures to fulfil the obligation related to women's issues agreed in the convention.

 
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