UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

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Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Short title: Women's convention
Title: Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
Cedaw.jpg
Date: March 1, 1980
Come into effect: 3rd September 1981
Reference: German text from CEDAW
Federal Law Gazette No. 443/1982
Contract type: Multinational
Legal matter: Human rights
Signing: 99
Ratification : 189

Germany: July 10, 1985
Liechtenstein: December 22, 1995
Austria: March 31, 1982
Switzerland: March 27, 1997
Please note the note on the applicable version of the contract .

participation
  • signed and ratified
  • Accession or succession
  • unrecognized state according to the contract
  • just signed
  • not signed

    • The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women , or "Women's Convention", English Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention is an international United Nations to women's rights . It was passed by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 1979 and came into force on September 3, 1981.

    This convention was adopted primarily on the initiative of women's organizations from Africa , Latin America and Asia ; many of them came from post-conflict countries and formed up in anti-colonial struggles. With the adoption of the CEDAW Convention, the international community of states expressed its will to express the motto of the ongoing UN women's decade (1975–1985) "Equality, Development and Peace" in a declaration that is binding under international law.

    So far 189 states have ratified the convention, including the non-UN member states Cook Islands and Palestine . The Vatican , Iran , Somalia , Sudan , Niue and Tonga have not signed or acceded . The US and Palau have signed but not yet ratified. The large number of signatory states should not hide the fact that there are an immense number of reservations, meaning that not all signed states commit to all articles of the convention.

    Definitions and content

    At the time of the adoption of the convention, there was controversy between women's rights activists; Representatives from Latin America and Africa were particularly interested in peace building in their own countries and accused women's rights activists from the USA and Western Europe of concentrating too much on emancipatory rights, such as the right to abortion . These differences of opinion are also reflected in the preamble to the convention, which allowed different interpretations of the role of women in family, society and politics.

    "Discrimination against women" is defined in the Convention as follows:

    "Any distinction, exclusion or restriction based on gender, which has the result or the aim that the recognition, use or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms by women based on the equality of men and women - regardless of their marital status - in political, economic, social, cultural, civic or any other area is impaired or thwarted "

    - Article 1

    The States parties condemn all forms of discrimination against women. They agree to immediately pursue, by all appropriate means, a policy to eliminate discrimination against women (Article 2). In addition to corresponding legal and protective mechanisms, tribunals and public institutions are also named as measures. Special maternity protection measures do not count as discrimination (Article 4, Paragraph 2).

    While women were protected from gender discrimination by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , CEDAW went further by extending the responsibility of states parties for violations of the law to non-state actors. This represents a great step forward, since discrimination and violations of rights against women are mostly not carried out by the state, but rather take place in the "private sphere". A further step forward was the concrete action program, which obliges the contracting states to implement measures which are intended not only to bring about legal ( de jure ) but also actual ( de facto ) equality between women and men .

    The Committee of Experts

    The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women ) consists of 23 experts from different UN member states. The aim of this committee of experts is to monitor compliance with the convention. To this end, it meets twice a year and examines the reports that the signatory states have to submit every four years.

    The additional protocol (optional protocol)

    The Optional Protocol of October 6, 1999 to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II pp. 1237, 1238 ) describes procedures through which individual women or groups can report national violations of law with regard to CEDAW directly to the committee (“Communications "Respectively called Communications ). By October 2016, 108 states had ratified the protocol. This includes all German-speaking countries.

    Among the first cases to be assessed by the committee in 2007 were two complaints of violence against women in Austria.

    implementation

    Infographic from the Heinrich Böll Foundation for the ratification of international CEDAW treaties in Latin America in 1979, 1994 and 1999

    Every four years the contracting states have to submit a report on the gender equality policy pursued by the government, which is supplemented by non-governmental organizations with so-called shadow reports .

    However, the provisions of the Convention also develop independently of the reporting and notifications to the UN Committee through private effects, namely in particular when national courts refer to CEDAW and oblige the legislature. In its judgment of November 21, 2011 (BGE 137 I 305) , the Swiss Federal Supreme Court stated in recital 6.6 that “all levels of the state, ie not only the federal government but also all cantons, are obliged to implement the convention and The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the Confederation and the cantons "must have positions with the necessary specialist knowledge, skills and resources to effectively perform the task required by the Convention." Federal Supreme Court an obligation of the Canton of Zug to provide for a replacement for the previous committee (which was de facto repealed by a resolution of the cantonal parliament) for equal opportunities for women and men. However, the Federal Supreme Court did not dictate to the canton of Zug which institutional measures it had to take (commission, specialist body, etc.).

    In the Liechtenstein Law on the State Court of Justice (StGHG) it is expressly stated (see Art. 15 StGHG) that complaints can be made against violations of the CEDAW in the same way as against violations of constitutional rights.

    Several Islamic states have only ratified the convention with reservations. For example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reserves the right to disregard the convention, where it conflicts with the norms of Islamic law.

    criticism

    CEDAW has been criticized by third world countries. They claimed that the convention represented liberal Western and European values; these would not do justice to non-European and non-Western cultures and political conditions. The reports would focus on third world countries and portray non-Western cultures and their traditions in a generally negative way. Women's NGOs from third world countries repeatedly affirm that human and women's rights apply worldwide.

    Islamic states have claimed that CEDAW is a convention based only on Western cultures. There are contradictions between Sharia law and Article 1 of the Convention.

    Some Christian conservative Western NGOs have criticized CEDAW for allegedly having a negative attitude towards religion. CEDAW has a negative attitude towards family work , traditional families and the upbringing of children in the family.

    Conservative Christian groups have claimed that CEDAW advocates abortion rights. This is not directly stipulated in the convention. The CEDAW committee has repeatedly criticized countries that do not guarantee access to abortion in cases of danger to the life or health of the pregnant woman or after rape and thus violate the right to life and health.

    Other voices have criticized the lack of sanctions and the fact that the Women's Convention Committee has received less money than other UN human rights organs. The processing time is very long and many countries do not comply with their reporting obligations. Furthermore, the committee is not formally authorized to use information from non-governmental organizations .

    See also

    literature

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g United Nations Treaty Collection, CEDAW (accessed November 12, 2015)
    2. ↑ Women's Rights Convention (CEDAW). German Institute for Human Rights, institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de, accessed on September 3, 2021 [1]
    3. ↑ Women's Convention, German translation (PDF; 152 kB)
    4. ^ Rita Schäfer: Resolution of the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (2000). In: Sources on the history of human rights. Working Group Human Rights in the 20th Century, October 2017, accessed on November 2, 2017 .
    5. ↑ United Nations Treaty Collection: 8. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women . treaties.un.org. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
    6. ^ Rita Schäfer: Resolution of the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (2000). In: Sources on the history of human rights. Working Group Human Rights in the 20th Century, October 2017, accessed on November 2, 2017 .
    7. ↑ (accessed: October 12, 2016)
    8. ↑ CEDAW: Communication 006/2005 and Communication 005/2005. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .
    9. ↑ CEDAW and the implementation of equality as a cross-sectional task, GenderKompetenzZentrum www.genderkompetenz.info (accessed on December 9, 2007)
    10. ↑ BGE 137 I 305. November 21, 2011, accessed on September 8, 2017 .
    11. ↑ Art. 15 Act of November 27, 2003 on the State Court of Justice (StGHG). Retrieved November 30, 2019 .
    12. ↑ On the position of women and men in Islamic law. Hrsg: Humanrights.ch , December 19, 2016, accessed on February 18, 2018 : “In case of contradiction between any term of the Convention and the norms of islamic law, the Kingdom is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention . "
    13. ↑ Makau Mutua: A Third World Critique of Human Rights ( Memento from June 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
    14. ↑ Kathryn Balmforth: Human Rights and the Family ( Memento from January 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
    15. ↑ Conservative NGOs Caution Governments Against Women's Rights Treaty  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.c-fam.org  
    16. ↑ CEDAW criticism of various country reports