CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action

1

• CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action
• Shaki Sanusi
• Rights of Women 2009

2
Rights of Women

• Rights of Women is a womens voluntary
  organisation committed to informing, educating
  and empowering women on their legal rights
• We offer free confidential legal advice to women
  on our advice lines. We have two lines, our
  general legal advice line and our sexual violence
  legal advice line
• We provide education on womens rights through
  several publications. These include From A-Z A
  womans guide to the law, our handbooks and
  information sheets
• Rights of Women provide guidance for policy
  makers and work to put womens rights on the
  public policy agenda
• Training

3
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

• Womens rights are human rights

4
Beijing An important milestone

• Framework to underpin action at every level
  local, state, global
• Emphasises collaboration between Governments and
  NGOs
• Strengthens CEDAW

5
The Road to Beijing

• 1975 World Conference of International Womens
  Year, Mexico City
• 1980 Copenhagen World Conference
• 1985 Nairobi World Conference
• 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights
• 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women

6
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of
Discrimination against Women, 1979 and the
Optional Protocol, 1999
7
CEDAW

• 1981 Entered into force
• 185 ratifications/90 of UN
• Internationally accepted principles and measures
  to achieve equal rights for women everywhere.
• Scope

8
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women

• 23 experts charged with oversight of compliance
  by member states
• Sessions twice annually to consider progress
  reports by member states
• States file reports once every 4 years
• Authority to investigate violations and make
  recommendations

9
Optional protocol

• 22 December 2000 entered into force
• As of 27 November 2007, State Parties 90
• Third party complaints of state violations
• Independent investigations of grave and
  systematic violations

10
BEIJING -CRITICAL AREAS OF CONCERN

• Review/revise
• Establish
• Take measures

11
Women and Poverty

• Address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
• Ensure womens equal rights and access to
  economic resources
• Provide women with access to savings and credit
  mechanisms and institutions
• Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct
  research to address the feminization of poverty

12
Education and training of women

• Ensure equal access to education
• Eradicate illiteracy among women
• Improve womens access to vocational training,
  science and technology, and continuing education
• Non-discriminatory education and training
• Allocate resources

13
Women and health

• Increase access to affordable and quality heath
  care
• Promote womens health
• Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that
  address sexually transmitted disease, HIV/AIDS,
  and sexual and reproductive health issues
• Promote research and disseminate information on
  womens health
• Increase resources and monitor follow-up for
  womens health

14
Violence against women

• Take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate
  violence against women
• Study the causes and consequences of violence
  against women
• explore effectiveness of preventive measures
• Eliminate trafficking in women and assist victims
  of violence due to prostitution and trafficking

15
Women and armed conflict

• Increase the participation of women in conflict
  resolution
• Protect women living in armed conflicts or under
  foreign occupation
• Reduce excessive military expenditures
• Promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution
• Promote womens contribution to fostering a
  culture of peace
• Provide protection, assistance and training to
  refugee women

16
Women and the economy

• Promote womens economic rights and independence
• Facilitate womens equal access to resources,
  employment, markets and trade
• Provide business services, training and access to
  markets, information and technology
• harmonization of work and family responsibilities
  for women and men

17
Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of
women

• Create or strengthen national machineries and
  other governmental bodies
• Integrate gender perspectives in legislation,
  public policies, programmes and projects
• Generate and disseminate gender-disaggregated
  data and information for planning and evaluation

18
Women in power and decision making

• Access - equal access to and full participation
  in power structures and decision making
• Participation - Increase participation in
  decision making and leadership

19
Human rights of Women

• Promotion and protection
• Ensure equality and non-discrimination under the
  law and in practice
• Achieve legal literacy

20
Women and the media

• Participation
• Increase the participation and access of women in
  and through the media and new technologies of
  communication
• Stereotyping
• Promote a balanced a non-stereotyped portrayal of
  women in the media

21
Women and the environment

• Participation
• Involve women actively in environmental
  decision-making at all levels
• Mainstreaming
• Integrate gender concerns and perspectives
  policies and programmes for sustainable
  development

22
The Girl-child

• Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the
  girl-child

23
Institutional arrangements

• Primary responsibility of Governments
• Collaboration
• Dependent on a wide range of institutions in the
  public, private and non-governmental sectors at
  community, national, subregional/regional and
  international levels.

24
Financial Arrangements

• Allocation of resources

25
Beijing 5

• Achievements thus far
• Obstacles
• Action to overcome obstacles

26
Beijing 10

• UN Commission on Status of Women identified 2
  thematic issues for 2005
• Review of the Platform for Action and Outcome
  document of Special Session of UN
• Current challenges and forward-looking strategies
  for the advancement and empowerment of women and
  girls

27
CEDAW and Beijing Platform for Action

• The overall global framework for gender equality
  and empowerment of women remains the Beijing
  Platform for action and the outcome documents of
  the 23rd special session of the General Assembly.
• 1996 CEDAW committee revised guidelines inviting
  states parties to take account of the 12 critical
  areas of concern noting that these are compatible
  with convention rights and within mandate of
  committee. Further revised in 2002 reports to
  contain this information

28
Mutual Reinforcement between CEDAW and the
Beijing Declaration/Platform

• Reaffirmmainstreaming a gender perspective into
  all policies and programmes (Beijing5 23rd
  Special Session of UN General Assembly Political
  Declaration 8)
• Recognize that the implementation of the Beijing
  Declarationand the fulfilment of the obligations
  under CEDAW are mutually reinforcing
  (Beijing10 49th session of Commission on Women
  Declaration 4)
• Committee on CEDAW now takes into account the 12
  critical areas of the Beijing Platform in the
  progress reports submitted by the states
• We reaffirm our commitment toCEDAW (Beijing
  Declaration 8)

29
Resources

• CEDAW / Optional Protocol / Committee on the
  Elimination of Discrimination against Women /
  Country Reports
• http//www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw
• Beijing Declaration-Platform for Action /
  Beijing5 / Beijing10
• http//www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/official.
  htm
• http//www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing
  5.htm
• http//www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/english/49
  sess.htm