Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Overview
The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. CEDAW is one of the first and only international conventions to provide a broad statement of women’s human rights. Today, 186 countries have ratified CEDAW.
What CEDAW says
- Women have the right to equality before the law. Laws which discriminate against women must be abolished or reformed. Laws must be established to prevent discrimination against women.
- Women have the right to participate fully in public and political life.
- Women have equal rights with men regarding nationality, and the nationality of their children.
- Women have the right to equal access to all levels of education.
- Women have the right to have equal access to work, to choice of profession, job security and benefits, vocational training, social security and paid leave, and equal pay for work of equal value.
- Women have the right to equal access to health care services, including family planning.
- Women have full economic rights, including access to family benefits, bank loans, mortgages and other forms of credit.
- Women have the right to make decisions about marriage, divorce, parental rights and responsibilities, the number and spacing of children, guardianship and adoption, and property ownership.
CEDAW’s Beginnings
On December 18, 1979 the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, also known as CEDAW or the “Treaty for the Rights of Women”.
CEDAW is the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Until the General Assembly adopted the Convention in 1979, no international document comprehensively addressed women’s rights within the political, cultural, economic, social, and family realms.
The Convention is inspired by the fundamental principles that all human beings are equal in dignity and worth and that women and men are equal in all respects. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines discrimination against women and provides an outline for national action to end discrimination.
Implementation
Any state which has signed and ratified CEDAW is required to take “all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men” (Article 3).
CEDAW calls on state parties to introduce policies that change attitudes, practices and procedures within governments, to ensure that private organizations and individual citizens do not discriminate against women, and to change oppressive cultural stereotypes.
States that have ratified CEDAW must report every four years to the United NationsCEDAW Committee on its progress implementing CEDAW domestically.
Civil society organizations may also submit reports and testimony to the CEDAW Committee at the time of the four-year review.
For more information:
The full text of CEDAW: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm
The CEDAW Committee:http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/committee.htm
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