[women-rights] 25th anniversary of adoption of CEDAW

***The full text of the CEDAW Convention can be found:
http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=483


United Nations
Press Release

STATEMENT BY COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS
(Issued on 14 October 2004.)

Following is the statement released by the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women on 13 October to commemorate the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW):

The year 2004 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1979. Since its entry into
force two years later, the Convention has been ratified by 178 States. It
contains human rights standards for women and girls in the civil,
political, economic, social, cultural, and any other area. This
comprehensive scope underlines the interdependence and indivisibility of
human rights. The Convention aims at the universal enjoyment of these
rights by all women, in all parts of the world, in public and in private life.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which is
mandated to monitor implementation of the Convention by States parties,
wishes to use the opportunity this anniversary year provides to encourage
all States to increase their efforts at protecting and promoting the human
rights of women. The Convention creates binding legal obligations to pursue
"by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating
discrimination against women". It also constitutes a powerful advocacy and
awareness raising tool to increase women's knowledge of their rights and
capacity to claim these rights.

Since the Convention's adoption, there has been significant progress in the
recognition and implementation of the human rights of women. The legal
framework for equality has been strengthened in many countries, ensuring
that de jure equality for women is now better established. Constitutions in
many countries include provisions guaranteeing equality on grounds of sex.
Legislation prohibiting discrimination in general, and in regard to
specific areas such as employment, has become a standard component of
regulatory frameworks. Many countries have repealed discriminatory
provisions in civil, penal and personal status codes to bring them into
conformity with the Convention. Equal opportunity acts aim at improving
women's legal and de facto position. New laws have been adopted on violence
against women, especially domestic violence, to create protection and
remedies for women.

Progress has also been made in putting in place institutional mechanisms
that act as catalysts for the promotion and protection of the human rights
of women. National machineries for the advancement of women, gender
equality commissions and ombudspersons are among the mechanisms that now
exist in many countries, and which, at different levels and with different
mandates, actively work to make implementation of the Convention a priority
of national development. Courts and judicial procedures have likewise
become more attuned to the requirements of the Convention, and are
increasingly developing a jurisprudence of gender equality informed and
guided by the Convention. Civil society, and especially women's groups and
organizations have become essential actors in awareness-raising and
lobbying efforts concerning the human rights of women.

Legislative advancements are supported in many countries by policies,
programmes and other measures to ensure that women's de jure equality
becomes a de facto reality. Temporary special measures are in place in many
countries to accelerate achievement of de facto equality. The number of
women in the formal labour force is growing, and measures to reconcile
better work and family responsibilities for women and men are becoming more
common. Programmes are in place to support women's entrepreneurship, and to
strengthen their position in the informal sector. This participation in the
formal and informal labour market has also been accelerated by increasing
levels of access to, and quality of education for girls and women. Their
health status has benefited from policies that respond effectively to
women's overall health needs as well as to their reproductive health needs.
States are also increasingly implementing specific measures targeted at
disadvantaged groups of women who experience multiple forms of
discrimination. To that end, women living in rural areas or in immigrant
communities, indigenous, older and disabled women as well as refugee women,
women victims of trafficking or of armed conflict, or who suffer
discrimination on additional grounds such as race or ethnic identity, are
being brought more fully within the realm of the Convention's protective
framework.

It must, however, also be pointed out that in no country in the world has
women's full de jure and de facto equality been achieved. Discriminatory
laws are still on the statute books of many States parties. The
co-existence of multiple legal systems, with customary and religious laws
governing personal status and private life and prevailing over positive law
and even constitutional provisions of equality, remains a source of great
concern. Nationality laws also continue to discriminate against women by
curtailing their capacity to confer their nationality to their children.
Women continue to experience discrimination and disadvantage in the
enjoyment of rights to own and inherit property, to access economic
resources and social benefits and services. Women are far from enjoying
equal and full participation in political and public spheres, especially at
decision-making levels. Criminal law, especially in relation to sexual
violence and crimes, continues to be discriminatory, inadequate or poorly
enforced.

Discriminatory social norms, cultural practices, traditions, customs, and
stereotypical roles of women and men continue to be major impediments to
women's enjoyment of their human rights in societies around the world.
Insufficient political will to bring about gender equality, the extensive
under-representation of women in decision-making positions, and a lack of
resources to support mechanisms entrusted with gender equality work are
further impediments to progress. Women themselves are often unaware of the
rights they have under the law, and they may not be empowered to claim them
effectively. Women's lack of empowerment to assert their rights is often
compounded by insufficient or ineffective means of redress for violations
at the national level. Although violence against women -– a form of
discrimination that seriously inhibits women's ability to enjoy rights and
freedoms on a basis of equality with men –- is now widely recognized as a
public concern, it remains pervasive in all societies and is aggravated in
situations of conflict and other forms of social upheaval.

Failure to achieve the goal of universal ratification of the Convention by
the year 2000 should be an issue of concern to all States that participated
in the Vienna and Beijing Conferences. The significant number of
reservations to the Convention is highly problematic, particularly with
regard to broad-based reservations to articles such as 2 and 16, which must
be considered as incompatible with the object and purpose of the
Convention, and States parties are encouraged to review and withdraw them.
The lack of adherence to the reporting obligation by a number of States
parties, and the significant delays in timely compliance with this
obligation by others are also cause for concern as they jeopardize the
Committee's ability to monitor effectively the implementation of the
Convention. There is also a need to address the constraints imposed on the
Committee in the discharge of its responsibilities in a timely and
effective manner, such as limited meeting time.

In this anniversary year, the Committee wishes to recognize the
enthusiastic cooperation which reporting States have consistently
demonstrated in the constructive dialogue. This is a clear indication that
States parties see this process not only as a formal requirement under
international law, but also as a useful and rewarding part of an ongoing
review of the status of women. On this occasion, the Committee wishes to
underline the critical contribution of full and timely reporting under the
Convention to its effective implementation at the national level.

The Committee wishes to highlight the importance it attaches to the
availability of the right to petition, as well as of an inquiry procedure,
under the Optional Protocol to the Convention. It welcomes the fact that 67
States parties to the Convention have thus far ratified the Optional
Protocol, providing individual women and groups of women with a means of
redress for claims of violations of rights protected under the Convention,
and invites all other States parties to do likewise. The Committee
emphasizes the positive role which it expects the Optional Protocol to play
in the national implementation and realization of the provisions of the
Convention.

Over the last 25 years, the proper and consistent implementation of the
Convention has proven to be a most effective tool for women in their quest
for equality. It will continue to play this pivotal role in the fight
against old and persistent forms of discrimination against women and in
staving off new forms of inequality, subordination and disadvantage. The
Committee urges governments, civil society, women's groups, and all
individuals committed to equality between women and men to use the
Convention to accelerate the achievement of substantive equality for women.

The Committee calls on all States parties to hold public debates about
equality for women on December 18 –- the anniversary day of the adoption of
the Convention by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1979 –-,
and launch new initiatives to increase compliance with the Convention.





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