FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF CEDAW: ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

1
FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF CEDAW ISSUES AND
STRATEGIES

• Salma Khan
• Former Member and Chairperson of CEDAW Committee

2

• Characteristic of the CEDAW Convention
• a) A multilateral human rights treaty aimed at
  establishing substantive equality of women with
  men removing all forms of discrimination against
  women.
• b) CEDAW is the only treaty covering all
  categories of human rights
• c) The Convention defines what constitutes
  discrimination against women
• d) The constituents of CEDAW consist of the
  provision of 16 substantive articles, General
  Recommendations, andConcluding Comments made by
  the Committee during the review process of the
  report
• e) Being an International Human Rights Treaty,
  CEDAW has a force of law

3
Implication of Ratification of the Convention by
the Government (State Party)

• a) Upon ratification the State Party voluntarily
  accepts a range of legally binding obligations to
  eliminate discrimination against women.
• b) The State party agrees to pursue International
  Human Rights Standards as the principal normative
  points of reference.
• c) The State is obligated to act to remove
  discrimination against women by the State itself,
  organizations or private individuals.
• d) The State Party must take the appropriate
  measures to eliminate discrimination against
  women without delay
• e) The State is to impose sanction on
  perpetrators.
• f) Mandatory on the state Party to report as per
  schedule to the CEDAW Committee on compliance of
  the Convention.
• g) to accelerate the process of de facto
  equality, the State may introduce temporary
  special measures.
• Because of existing inequalities, there may be
  need for additional measures to overcome the
  effect of past discrimination.

4
Major barriers to the implementation of CEDAW

• a) Lack of political commitments and proper
  understanding of the Convention
• b) Legal obstacles
• c) Reservation to substantive articles of the
  Convention
• d) Weak national machinery and lack of resources
• e) Adverse social and cultural practices
• f) CEDAW overshadowed by MDGs

5
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• a. Political Commitment
• State Parties must politically commit themselves
  to abide by the norms and principles of the
  Convention
• Review all existing laws to determine their
  compatibility with the Convention
• Amend Constitution to guarantee equality and non
  discrimination
• Incorporate CEDAW in the domestic law, civil,
  penal and labor code

6
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• b. Remove Legal Obstacles
• To achieve equality between men and women State
  must establish legal protection of the rights of
  women on equal basis with men
• Amnesty International study shows that in more
  than 45 countries discriminatory laws are in
  existence
• State must modify abolish all discriminatory laws
  and regulations
• The State must repeal all national penal
  provisions which constitute discrimination
  against women

7
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• c. Withdrawal of Reservations
• Convention allows State Parties to enter
  reservation to articles if such reservations are
  not incompatible with the objects and purpose of
  the Convention.
• But many countries enter reservation to
  substantive articles (2, 9, 16, etc) relating to
  inheritance, marriage, divorce rights, child
  custody, citizenship and reproductive rights.
• Countries apparently enter reservation due to
  non-conformity of domestic law with the
  convention or due to religious based policy (Arab
  or Islamic Countries) or customary practices
  (African Countries). Some Countries also enter
  reservations to control womens reproductive
  rights (Philippines)
• Countries having a secular law but not a uniform
  family code also enter reservations (Bangladesh)
  or declaration (India)

8
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• d. Justification for withdrawal of Reservations
• CEDAW has largest number of reservations
• Reservations are meant to be temporary
• Justifications used for reservations on similar
  ground defer widely between countries
• Some Muslims Countries using sharia as a basis
  of reservations do not practice sharia law
  (Bangladesh)
• (Continued)

9
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• d. Justification for withdrawal of Reservations
• Continuation
• The State Parties often do not put reservations
  to analogous provisions of other treaties. This
  indicates a gender biased attitude
• Withdrawal of reservations is not likely to pose
  a political or religious problems in the country.
  Indonesia, being the largest Muslim country and
  Syria, being an Arab country did not enter
  reservation to article (2) or (16)
• Sensitize Parliamentarians, Judges, Police
  Forces, Womens group, religious based
  organizations that reservation significantly
  limit, state obligations to establish gender
  equality (General recommendations 3, 6 and 10)
• State parties should set up committees to review
  consistency of Islamic laws, customary laws, and
  womens access to reproductive rights and take
  necessary remedial measures, also follow the best
  practices in other countries ( e.g. polygamy band
  in Tunisia, Morocco has reform family status code
  and inheritance law, Indonesia has modified its
  citizenship law)

10
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• e. To Set Up Appropriate Institutional Mechanism
• In many countries there is inadequacy of gender
  equality architecture
• Changes in the law and policy must be accompanied
  by an appropriate institutional mechanism able to
  carry out intended reforms
• The National machinery must be an independent
  agency highly positioned and well resourced with
  field staffs
• The National machinery must have a capacity to
  advise all ministries and departments of the
  Government on needed policy reforms

11
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• f. Allocations of Resources
• Normally Womens programmes are the first ones to
  get cuts in government expenditures resulting
  from economic restructure
• To strengthened the national machinery and to
  give effect to needed support services, adequate
  resources must be allocated to womens
  development
• To have womens specific programmes as well as
  gender mainstreaming (to address challenges
  related to broader economic and social issues)
• Proper gender budgeting and gender audit must be
  introduced (South Africa, Bangladesh)

12
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• g. Publicity of the Convention
• Often the Convention is not well known to
  government officials, judges, police forces, etc.
  
• Public information programmes and human rights
  education are essential to sensitize institutions
  and procedures and to formulate a new policy and
  programmes
• State parties to undertake programmes including
  seminars, human rights educations and publicity
  campaigns to develop a proper understanding of
  the Convention. Many countries have found
  positive results from this.
• National womens Organizations and NGOs can play
  critical role to disseminate the Convention

13
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• h. Assesment of Progress of Women and
  implementation of CEDAW
• Some countries have developed CEDAW assessment
  tool (Moldova) CEDAW indicator (developed by DAW)
  which may be used
• Gender gap index developed by World Economic
  Forum may be used effectively to measure ranking
  in gender gap (Bangladesh)
• CEDAW monitoring body may be set up (Philippines,
  Nepal)

14
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• i. Follow up of the Concluding Comments
• Concluding comments provide use full feedbacks
• State parties should follow up the concluding
  comments made on their reports to formulate
  policies and programmes
• Suggested recommendations should be complied with
  before the next report is submitted

15
Strategies to Give Further Impetus to
Implementation of the CEDAW

• j. Preparation of Action Plan
• State parties should prepare an Action Plan for
  full implementation of CEDAW with priority
  objectives and targets
• Action Plans should be updated periodically
• Implementation of CEDAW should be the road map of
  the Action Plan (not PFA or MDGs)

16
Special Focus on few Issues

• A. Violence against women
• Enact the special law to combat domestic violence
  
• There must be strong legislative platform where
  women can seek justice against gender based
  violence and crimes
• Factors which contribute gender based violence in
  the society should be addressed adequately
  (inequality, absence of woman in decision making,
  cultural subjugation, restriction in womens
  ability to leave family setting)

17
Special Focus on few Issues

• B. Use of Affirmative Policy for women
• As per article 4.1 and GR 24 State Parties
  should use temporary special measures to
  accelerate the process of de facto equality of
  women (Bangladesh uses affirmative policy in
  reserved seats in the parliament, in government
  job, housing allocation, admission in State
  Universities and educational support for poor
  girls in rural areas - food for education)

18
Special Focus on few Issues

• C. CEDAW vs. PFA and MDGs
• State Parties must give priority to International
  legal obligations rather than global political
  commitment
• PFA and MDGs which do not recognize womens
  substantive equality as a right should not take
  precedence to CEDAW
• MDGs lack rights-based approach and womens human
  rights as a development goals

19
Special Focus on few Issues

• D. Ratification of Optional Protocol
• State parties must understand that optional
  protocol is part of a larger and more effective
  strategy to strengthen and promote womens human
  rights
• Since OP relates to communication and enquiry
  procedures involving independent human right
  actors, ratification of OP makes a state parties
  more alert to protects womens rights and not to
  be subjected to outside inquiry procedures
• OP ensures relevance of international law at
  local level and thus make CEDAW more effective
• When women fail to receive domestics remedies, OP
  is the only mechanism to bring justice home.