26 November 2008 - The National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) is pleased to announce that it will be again facilitating the shadow non governmental organisation (NGO) CEDAW report.

The next New Zealand report to the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) committee is due in 2010.

One of the reasons that NCWNZ has decided to facilitate the report is to minimise the cost to other organisations in the sector allowing more groups to be involved in the process.

NCWNZ will doing all it can to get groups involved that have in the past felt disenfranchised by the process.

"NCWNZ will be consulting with Maori, Pacifica ethnic, rural and other marginalised groups to identify areas that in the past may have been underrepresented in previous reports," says NCWNZ National President, Elizabeth Bang.

NCWNZ is pleased that it has the backing of United Nations Development Fund for Women New Zealand (UNIFEM NZ).

'The United Nations Development Fund for Women New Zealand ( UNIFEM NZ), strongly supports the work of the National Council of Women of New Zealand and is proud to be associated with previous CEDAW Shadow/NGO reports co-ordinated by NCWNZ. UNIFEM NZ strongly endorses the continuation of NCWNZ's leadership role in the facilitation of the next CEDAW Shadow /NGO Report," says Jean Corbin Thomas, President, National Committee, UNIFEM NZ.

NCWNZ announcement coincides with the presentation on the CEDAW process, presented by Anne Todd Lambie at the Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research (ANZTSR) Conference today in Auckland.