CEDAW Convention

Short History of CEDAW Convention:

 

Equal rights for women is a fundamental principle of the UN. The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations describes as one of its central goals the reaffirmation of "faith in fundamental human rights, dignity and worth of the human person, equal rights for men and women. Provisions in the Charter, the first international instrument to specifically refer to human rights and equal rights for men and women, all members of the United Nations are legally obliged to continue the full implementation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. the status of human rights, including the goal of gender equality is so high: a question of ethics becomes a contractual obligation of all governments and the UN. 

The International Bill of Human Rights strengthens and extends this emphasis on women's human rights. Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the right of everyone to equality before the law and exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination of any kind, and proceeds to include sex among the grounds of such an illegal distinction. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both from 1966, which translate the principles of the Declaration into legally binding form, which clearly indicates that the rights which apply to all persons without discrimination of any kind, and again, shot sex as such due to illegal distinction. In addition, each Covenant specifically binds acceding or ratifying States to commit themselves to ensuring that women and men have equal right to enjoy all the rights they create. 

The International Bill of Human Rights, combined with related human rights treaties, thus contains a comprehensive set of rights that all persons, including women, are entitled to. But the fact that women's humanity proved insufficient to secure them to enjoy their internationally recognized rights. Since its inception, the Commission sought the Status of Women (CSW) to define and formulate general guarantees of non-discrimination in these instruments from a gender perspective. CSW's work has resulted in a number of important declarations and conventions that protect and promote women's human rights. 

Originally established in 1946 as a subcommittee of the Commission on Human Rights, but quickly get the status of the full commission as a result of pressure by women activists, the mandate of the CSW included the development of recommendations for urgent problems requiring immediate attention area of women's rights in order to implement the principle that men and women should have equal rights, and to develop proposals to implement these recommendations. Between 1949 and 1959 the Commission drew up the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December 1952, the Convention on the nationality of married women, adopted by the Assembly on 29 January 1957, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, adopted minimum age for marriage and registration of marriages, 7 November 1962 and the Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of marriages, adopted 1 November 1965. Each of these treaties protecting and promoting women's rights in areas where the Commission considered these rights to be particularly vulnerable. But it was felt that, except in the areas of women's rights were best protected and promoted by the general human rights conventions.

Although these instruments reflected the growing sophistication in the UN system for the protection and promotion of human rights of women, the method they expressed were fragmented, as they failed to deal with discrimination against women in a coherent way. Furthermore, there was concern that the general human rights system was not really as good as it could to protect and promote women's rights. After the meeting on 5 December 1963, adopted its resolution 1921 (XVIII) in which it requested the Economic and Social

Council to invite CSW to prepare a draft statement, which combines in a single instrument international standards articulating the equal rights of men and women. This process was supported throughout by women activists within and outside the UN system. Elaboration of the declaration, by a committee chosen by the CSW, began in 1965 with the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to eventually be adopted by the GA on 7 November 1967. Although the declaration was only a statement of moral and political intent, without the contractual force of a treaty, its formulation is nonetheless a difficult process. Article 6, concerning equality in marriage and family, and Article 10 in relation to employment, has proved highly controversial, so the question is whether the declaration should call for the abolition of customs and laws to maintain discrimination or amendment or change.

In the 1960s, occurs in many parts of the world, a new awareness of the patterns of discrimination against women and an increasing number of organizations committed to combating the effects of such discrimination. The negative effects of some development on women has also become clear. In 1972, took five years after adoption of the Declaration, and four years after the introduction of a voluntary reporting system on implementation of the Declaration of the Economic and Social Commission CSW to prepare a binding treaty that will give normative force of the provisions of the declaration and decided to request the Secretary General to urge UN member states to submit their views on this proposal. The following year a working group was appointed to consider the establishment of such a convention. In 1974, at its twenty-fifth session and in light of the report of the Working Commission took a decision in principle to establish a common, comprehensive and internationally binding instrument to eliminate discrimination against women. This instrument should be prepared without prejudice to any future recommendations can be made by the United Nations or its specialized agencies in connection with the drafting of legal instruments to eliminate discrimination in specific fields. 

Text of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has been prepared by working groups of the Commission during 1976 and extensive discussions by a working group of the third committee of the General Assembly of 1977 to 1979. Editorial work of the Commission was encouraged by the World Action Plan for implementation of the goals of International Women's year, which was adopted at the World Conference of International Women's year was held in Mexico City in 1975, which called for a Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, with effective procedures for its implementation. Work was also encouraged by the General Assembly, which had urged the Commission the Status of Women to complete its work in 1976, so that the Convention will be completed in time for the 1980 Copenhagen mid-decade review conference (World Conference on the UN Decade for Women: Equality, Development and peace). Although the proposal was made to delay the finalization of the text for another year, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 by votes of 130 to none, and 10 abstentions. In Resolution 34/180, adopted UN General Convention, the Assembly expressed the hope that the Convention enters into force at an early stage and requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Convention text for mid-decade World Conference of UN Decade for Women.

At the special ceremony that took place at a conference in Copenhagen on 17 July 1980, 64 countries signed the Convention and two States submitted their instruments of ratification. On 3 September 1981, 30 days after the twentieth member State had ratified the Convention entered into force - faster than any previous Convention on Human Rights had done - thus bringing to a climax United Nations efforts to codify comprehensive international legal standards for women.