Attending it was a DPRK delegation headed by the permanent representative of the DPRK at the UN Office and international organizations in Geneva.

At the meeting the head of the DPRK delegation made, first of all, a keynote speech on the measures taken by the DPRK government to implement the convention and its efforts for doing so and on how the women are enjoying their rights in the DPRK.

Noting that the DPRK submitted the Second and Fourth combined report on the implementation of the CEDAW, which covers the period of 2002-2015, the head of the delegation said:

As stated in the report, during the period under consideration, the DPRK government took a number of legal and administrative measures for the development of women and the protection and promotion of their rights in all fields of state activities and social life, thereby achieving considerable successes.

Several laws including the Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Women and the Law on Labor Protection were adopted and amended and women are exercising equal rights with men in state activities and all fabrics of social life. Preferential treatment is made by the State for women such as maternity leave, exemption of women from arduous and harmful work, prohibition of their night shift and overtime work.

Thanks to the policy of attaching importance to, respecting and loving the people enforced by respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, the national measures and social efforts for the protection and promotion of the women's rights are further enhanced in the DPRK today.

Noting that the efforts to fully implement the CEDAW are being seriously affected by the harsh economic blockade and sanctions of the hostile forces against the DPRK, he went on to say:

The unethical sanctions running counter to humanitarian ideal and human rights are unjustifiable and should be lifted unconditionally and immediately.

We categorically reject the extremely politicized human rights dialogue based on false testimonies of "defectors" on the international arena, but we are willing to engage in dialogue and cooperation for protection and promotion of genuine human rights.

As a state party to the CEDAW, we will, in the future, too make active efforts to fulfill its obligations to the international community.

At the meeting, members of the CEDAW appreciated the measures taken for the protection and promotion of the rights of women in the DPRK during the period under consideration and successes made in that course and raised a number of questions which were fully answered by the DPRK delegation.

The DPRK delegation's participation in the 68th meeting of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women marked an important occasion in promoting international understanding and cognition of how the women are enjoying the genuine rights in the DPRK and showing the DPRK's will to cooperate on the UN human rights arena.