Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
- Subscribed and ratified
- Accession or succession
- Not recognized by the state contract
- Only drawn
- Not drawn
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, abbreviated as " Women's Convention " or CEDAW (English: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ) is an international United Nations Convention on women's rights. It was adopted on 18 December 1979 by the UN General Assembly and entered into force on 3 September 1981.
To date, 187 States of 193 UN member states have ratified the Convention. Have not signed or acceded to Iran, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Niue and Tonga. The Vatican City State is not at all a member of the UN. The United States and Palau have signed but not yet ratified. The large number of signatory countries must not obscure the fact that there are an immense number of reservations ( reservations ), so not all signed states commit themselves to all articles of the CEDAW.
Definitions and content
The "discrimination against women " is defined as follows:
" Each with the gender -based distinction, exclusion or restriction which has the effect or goal that recognition founded on the equality of men and women, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms by women - regardless of their marital status - in the political, is impaired or thwarted economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field "
The States Parties condemn all forms of Discrimination against Women; They also agree to immediately pursue by all appropriate means a policy of eliminating discrimination against women ( Article 2). As measures in addition to appropriate law and protection mechanisms and tribunals and public institutions are called.
Although women were already protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights against discrimination by gender, but CEDAW went even further, by expanding the responsibility of the Contracting States for rights violations by non- state actors. This represents a major advance, because discrimination and rights violations against women usually not done by the government, but to play in the " privacy ". Another advance was the concrete program of action, the implementation of measures requires States Parties that are required to address not only the legal (de jure ), but also the actual ( de facto) equality between women and men.
The Committee of Experts
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women ( Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women / CEDAW ) consists of 23 experts from various UN member states. This expert committee aims to monitor compliance with the Convention. To this end, he meets twice a year and shall review the reports that have to submit every four years, the undersigned states.
The Additional Protocol ( Optional Protocol )
1999 wrote the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Additional Protocol to CEDAW. The protocol describes methods to report national rights violations relating directly to the CEDAW Committee by the individual women or groups. By December 2010 100 States had signed the Additional Protocol.
Implementation
Every four years, must submit a report on the policy pursued by the government equality policy, which is supplemented by so-called shadow reports of NGOs, States Parties.
Criticism
CEDAW is criticized about from any third world countries, because the convention represent liberal Western values , the non-Western cultures and political conditions would not do it justice. The reports would focus on third world countries and introduced non-Western cultures and their traditions usually negative dar. women's NGOs from third world countries reaffirm contrast, but again and again, human rights and women's rights are valid worldwide.
Islamic States argue against CEDAW also with the remark that it is a convention that is based only on Western cultures. You see contradictions between the Sharia and Article 1 of the Convention.
From various conservative- Christian Western NGOs CEDAW has been criticized for an allegedly negative attitude to religion. Next CEDAW is accused of a negative attitude to family work, traditional families and the education of children in the family. So am criticized by the Committee that in Slovenia only 30 percent of children under three years of courses stood in daycare available, while the rest were supplied by family members. Laws for the protection of mothers would be considered paternalistic, while the protection of mothers and children in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was included.
Conservative Christian groups have criticized the advocacy of the right to abortion, which is, however, nowhere directly stipulated in the Convention. In contrast, the CEDAW Committee has indeed repeatedly criticized countries that do not ensure access to abortion in cases of danger to the life or health of the pregnant woman or rape, violating the right to life and health.
Other voices criticize the fact that no sanctions are provided and compared with other UN human rights bodies of the women's convention committee only limited financial resources were made available. The processing time is very long, and many states do not come with their reporting requirements after. Furthermore, the Committee is not formally authorized to use information from NGOs. Other critics see the danger that CEDAW is a double standard of human rights is created, a normal standard for men and one with special attention BANDED, directed at women standard.