CEDAW Alive in Women’s Lives!

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

The review of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) on the occasion of the 8th African Regional Women’s Conference scheduled to take place on 16-20 November 2009 in Banjul is an opportunity to take stock of the contributions of CEDAW in ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment for the last 30 years. The commemoration of CEDAW’s 30th anniversary, among others, will show forth the linkages between the CEDAW and BPFA, and will facilitate the articulation of the strategies for employing the advanced implementation mechanisms of the CEDAW to track the implementation of BPFA

The Convention moves beyond guarantees of equality and equal protection before the law in existing legal instruments and sets out measures for the achievement of equality between men and women, regardless of their marital status, in all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. States parties have an obligation to eliminate discrimination against women through legal, policy and programmatic measures. The obligation applies to all spheres of life, as well as matters relating to marriage and family relations, and includes obligations to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person or organization. Currently 185 countries, over ninety percent of the members of the United Nations, are party to the Convention, thus pledging to ensure equality between men and women in all spheres of life. Those States also committed themselves to reporting to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on steps taken to fulfill their obligations.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was established to consider the progress made in the implementation of the Convention. The Committee reviews national reports submitted by States parties, which will be discussed with state officials leading to recommendations on measures taken with the view to ensuring that state parties fulfill their obligations under the Convention. The Committee also makes general recommendations on any issue affecting women to which it believes the States parties should devote more attention to.

In Africa, 51 countries became party to the Convention. To this end, many African Constitutions have entrenched the principles of gender equality and incorporated CEDAW’s definition of discrimination on the basis of sex. National laws and policies have been adopted on gender equality, and women’s international human rights have inspired new laws in areas ranging from electoral reform, land, property and inheritance rights, criminal protection against gender based violence, and nationality and citizenship.

CEDAW has also inspired the adoption of various continental women’s rights frameworks. Notably, the adoption of the African Women’s Rights Protocol (The Maputo Protocol) in July 2003 is a result of a wide consensus on the urgency to address the specific concerns and needs of African women that could not be able to be addressed by the Convention. Important lessons can be drawn from the challenges faced in the implementation of CEDAW to ensure that the challenges can be circumvented in implementing the Protocol.

The commemoration of CEDAW’s 30th anniversary aims to:

  • Celebrate the achievements and progress made at national, sub-regional and regional levels in the implementation of CEDAW by giving the personal accounts of women on the positive impacts of CEDAW;
  • Share good practices and lessons learned in implementation and reporting of CEDAW in Africa;
  • Give visibility to the UN system’s work in support of CEDAW implementation, especially tools that can support further actions at national and sub-regional levels;
  • Provide a forum for discussion on emerging issues and the role CEDAW can play in addressing them.

The preparation in the run up to the review meeting involves the support of other UN Agencies, the AUC, member agencies of the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM), CSOs and development partners. The overall organization of the celebration of CEDAW ‘s 30th anniversary is led by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in collaboration with the other partners.

Activities

The commemoration is a half-day event scheduled to take place on 18th November 2009. Accordingly, the following activities will form part of the commemorations:

  • A presentation focusing on the achievements and progress made in the implementation of CEDAW in Africa;
  • A presentation on the challenges that the implementation process is facing, to be made by a CEDAW Committee member from Africa;
  • Positive stories to be shared by three (3) women on the impact of CEDAW on their lives.


Expected Participants

  • African ministers of women’s Affairs and other relevant sector ministers invited for the Beijing +15 ministerial conference
  • The Vice-president of Malawi
  • The Vice-president of the Gambia
  • The African Union
  • OHCHR
  • CEDAW Committee members
  • Women’s rights Network/CSOs
  • UN agencies
  • Development partners
  • Others: Faith based organizations, traditional leaders, private sector, community based organizations.