Convention On The Elimination Of Discrimination Against Women Research Articles

The Silences of International Human Rights Law: The Need for a UN Treaty on Violence Against Women

Abstract In the face of women’s disproportionate experience of violence and the growing scholarly literature and advocacy on this issue, there is no international treaty recognising violence against women (VAW) as a human rights violation in and of itself. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) does not include a definition of gender-based violence, violence against women or even domestic violence. Many soft law documents address VAW, including the CEDAW committee’s general recommendations. However, even though soft laws are persuasive in developing norms, their non-binding character effectively means that States cannot be held responsible for violations. Currently, to accommodate VAW within various treaties, certain ‘jurisdictional gymnastics’ must be done. This article argues that a critical re-characterization is necessary. The reality of women’s lives in many parts of the world necessitates an effective international legal framework that explicitly defines VAW, in all its forms, as a human rights violation.

LES PROTECTIONS DU DROIT À LA REPRODUCTION DES FEMMES EN SITUATION DE HANDICAP EN DROIT INTERNATIONAL: LES ÉCUEILS DE LEURS MISES EN APPLICATION: Portrait croisé des États-Unis et du droit international

This article focuses on forced sterilization of women living with a disability. Going back to the start of the 20th Century in the United States, the evolution of this violation will be traced back to this day. From the eugenics school of thought to the women’s liberation movement, the emphasis will be put on the women ignored for each period. Parallels will then be traced between the evolution of mentalities and of civil society in relation to the rights of persons living with disabilities, more specifically women, and the development of international law and two international legal instruments, which are the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD). From a first convention on the protection of women’s rights that is rather conservative, to the broader work of the said Convention’s Committee, the article will also look at the major progress for the rights of women living with a handicap within the CRPD. It is now up to States, such as the Unites States, to adopt their principles.

Silencing women in the digital age

In this paper I explore some of the ways in which developments in new digital technologies reproduce, and often amplify, the patriarchal structures, practices and culture of contemporary life and, in doing so, operate to silence women through exclusion and through violence. I consider how international human rights law – most notably the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – can be harnessed to counter both forms of silencing in that each is rooted in gender-based discrimination. The digital gender divide and the rise in online violence against women evidences the failure on the part of States Parties to fully commit to their legal obligations pursuant to CEDAW. Ensuring equality of access to, and use of, digital technologies cannot be anything other than the preconditions to ensuring that women can benefit from, contribute to, and influence the development of digital technologies in a meaningful manner. The digital realm may be a privatised public space that warrants a reconceptualisation of the scope and content of human rights law but the fact that much of the digital infrastructure is owned and controlled by private actors does not absolve States of their human rights responsibilities.

National Human Rights Action Planning by Azadeh Chalabi

Reviewed by: National Human Rights Action Planning by Azadeh Chalabi Aisling Swaine (bio) Azadeh Chalabi, National Human Rights Action Planning (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2018), ISBN 9780192555595, 251 pages. As discussed so very well in this timely and original book by Azadeh Chalabi, the rapid development of human rights law and norms has been "spectacular" since the middle of the last century. The founding of the United Nations both brought about and was premised on a paradigm of human rights. This was a new framework deigned to advance a global governance that not only melded the fractures caused by the world wars, but advanced a cooperative multilateralism that worked toward a humanity rooted in the dignity and prosperity of all peoples. Human rights instrument followed human rights instrument in an effort to advance these ideas. Lackluster translation of these lofty ideals into practical realities, however, meant that the generalized set of rights founded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and even those that founded civil, political and socioeconomic rights in the 1960s, were slowly followed by instruments dedicated to addressing gaps in specific areas of rights. Even these, such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while contributing to vast improvements in tackling discriminations specifically affecting women and children, continue to lack a robust implementation required to achieve the vision originally set out by the human rights ideals of the United Nations system.1 The dissonance between the ideals of the instruments and their implementation, and indeed between what different states [End Page 531] might consider to constitute full implementation on their part, is an ongoing concern. States—who are ultimately responsible for fulfilling the rights enshrined in these instruments—scholars, and the policy makers tasked with translating rights into real change, have advanced both practical ideas and the debate for implementation since the inception of the human rights field. Approaches taken to translate and implement global legal obligations into and through myriad domestic legal, political and sociocultural systems, have faced a range of challenges, many of which this book sets out to discuss very clearly. For example, the task facing the human rights committees overseeing the implementation of these instruments and the ways in which they tackle state responsibilities are discussed in the book, as are the challenges faced by states in fulfilling their obligations, whether political, economic or cultural. While the human rights system and its attempts to advance compliance with human rights laws and norms provide important context for the book, it is state engagement with action planning that is the specific subject of the book, and for very good reason. The idea of state-level action planning as a response to global commitments has proliferated across the UN system, now populates myriad fields and sub-fields of human rights, from climate change to women, peace, and security (WPS). The author argues that the idea of action planning for human rights compliance originated in the early instruments of the 1960s, which she identifies as specifically enshrined in a provision of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),2 as well as in the requirements of positive measures across the human rights instruments. She further evidences how over time through the constructive dialogues, various human rights committees have requested states to develop action plans in response to gaps in implementation of their human rights obligations. On the basis of these legal and normative advancements, the author even argues that there is a legal obligation for states to adopt action plans. Despite these developments within the human rights system and the proliferation of both the idea of action planning and action plans themselves across the human rights field, this book is the first to specifically examine the evolution of action plans, filling a curious and critical gap in human rights scholarship. In her examination of human rights action planning, Azadeh Chalabi takes as a premise that action plans are a tool critical to furthering implementation of human rights obligations, and that member states are required to adopt them as part of their ratification of global human rights laws. In doing...

A Call for an End to Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities Under International and Regional Human Rights Law

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that “girls and women of all ages with any form of disability are generally among the more vulnerable and marginalized of society.” Since then, the issue of violence against women and girls with disabilities has gained greater attention on the international stage. In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a study on violence and disability, recognizing that disability can be both a cause and consequence of violence against women with disabilities. In addition, activists and policymakers, alike, began to call for applying the protections of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to women and girls with disabilities, respectively. Moreover, in 2006, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which is the first international treaty to specifically protect the rights of all people with disabilities, including women and girls with disabilities. Among other provisions, the CRPD requires States Parties to develop and implement programs designed to stop violence, abuse, and exploitation of women and girls with disabilities, including involuntary sterilization and forced abortion. Despite the widespread adoption of the CRPD, the CEDAW, the CRC, as well as domestic laws, violence, abuse, and exploitation of women and girls with disabilities continues in most, if not all, countries throughout the world. Moreover, most women and girls who experience violence remain unable to access a system of justice that should provide them with protection from violence as well as redress and reparations. Even in those countries in which the domestic laws appear to ensure access to justice, formidable barriers exist which prevent many women and girls with disabilities who experience violence from enforcing their rights under law. This article analyzes the role of international and regional human rights law in protecting the rights of women and girls with disabilities to be free from violence and to access justice. Part I of the article presents an overview of the problem of violence against women with disabilities, followed by Part II which identifies and discusses the many legal, physical, and attitudinal barriers that prevent women and girls with disabilities from exercising their right to access the judicial system. Part III discusses the CEDAW, the CRC, and the CRPD, which provide some protections for women and girls with disabilities who experience violence. Part IV discusses related regional legal protections for women and girls with disabilities within the regional human rights systems of the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Part V of the article discusses Peru as an example of a country that has ratified all relevant international and regional treaties on the rights of women with disabilities, and has enacted new domestic laws and policies to address discrimination and violence against women with disabilities. However, even Peru continues to apply discriminatory laws and policies that deprive women with disabilities access to justice. As the Peruvian example illustrates, so long as domestic laws deprive women of their legal capacity, the vision and protections for them under domestic as well as international and regional human rights treaties will not be realized. Part VI of the article, therefore, provides recommendations that should be implemented to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities and ensure their access to justice. The article concludes with a call for greater international, regional and country- specific laws, policies, and advocacy to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities and ensure their access to justice.

Gender and global justice: Lu’s justice and reconciliation in world politics

ABSTRACTCatherine Lu’s important book argues that global justice must be conceived in structural terms, paying special attention to the way this approach applies to colonialism and its legacies. Lu shows how our states system perpetuates colonial injustice, and how deconstructing or disaggregating nation states reveal the ways that colonial legacies continue to permeate contemporary problems of justice. In this essay, I apply these arguments to key issues and institutions of global gender justice, that is, issues of ‘equality and autonomy for people of all sex groups and gender identities,’ focusing especially on problems of women’s rights and problems with global dimensions, which can be thought of as a subcategory of gender justice (Htun and Weldon 2018). Drawing on recent feminist analyses of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), I show how Lu’s approach illuminates our thinking about the justice of these institutions. Considering the problem of missing and murdered indigenous women (violence against Native American and Indigenous women more generally) further highlights the limitations of these institutions and the strength of the structural approach to global justice. Conversely, I also use these examples to assess the adequacy of Lu’s approach for guiding action, especially for those grappling with questions of institutional design and policy development. In each case, understanding gender justice initiatives as attempts to address structural injustice helps to understand the advantages and limits of various strategies of institutional design and reform.

Rights and Role of Indigenous Women in Climate Change Regime

The Rights and Role of Indigenous Women in The Climate Change Regime
 Climate change has direct and indirect consequences for individuals and their human rights (McInerney-Lankford et al. 2011). With the Arctic warming at twice the global rate, its inhabitants already experience many of these challenges. Marginalized groups, like women and indigenous peoples, are particularly vulnerable, with existing research providing evidence of ongoing and potential threats to their roles in community adaptation and in shaping change (Cameron 2011, Arctic Resilience Report 2016). While women’s rights are formally codified as human rights under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and indigenous peoples’ human rights are codified and recognized in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), indigenous women’s rights are often neglected at both the international and local level. In this article, we apply an intersectional lens to demonstrate that indigenous and non-indigenous women are agents of change. In doing so, we examine how a human rights based approach might ensure indigenous women’s participatory role and legal status in the international climate change regime, as well as its related programs.

(Scientific Approach in the Discussion About the Importance of the Gender Studies and the Gender Legislation for Russia)

Russian Abstract: Вопрос о значении для России решения проблемы гендерного неравенства является дискуссионным. Это связано с тем, что в стране есть социальные группы, которые считают, что использование опыта европейских стран по проведению политики гендерного равенства приведет к разрушению традиционных ценностей и культурного кода страны. Данная точка зрения отражена в статье «Гендерные стратегии «мягкой силы» НПО как инструмент переформатирования культурного года общества и государства в России». Не все согласны с выводами, к которым приходят ее авторы, поэтому и появилась данная статья, в которой обсуждается степень научной обоснованности подобных суждений, а также слабые места в аргументации авторов.English Abstract: The question of importance of solving the problem of the gender inequality for Russia is controversial in national science today. This related to the fact that there are social groups in the country, who believe that the usage of the experience of European countries in the implementation of the gender equality policy will lead to the destruction of the traditional values and cultural code of the country. This point of view is reflected in the article Gender soft power strategy of NGO as a tool of reformatting the cultural code of society and state in The authors discuss the activity of NGO, which have status as a foreign agent, and their researches of the gender issues in Russia. Not all scientists agree with the conclusions of these authors. As a result this paper was written. The degree of scientific validity of such conclusions is discussed in it. In order to show the weak points of the argumentation of her opponents the author argues the following statements: 1.There are many examples of violation of the women rights in Russia. Some of Russian gender issues are presented in this article too. Therefore, the gender legislation is necessary. And it is not only related with the protection of the rights of sexual minorities. 2. Adoption of the gender equality law is the duty of the State, which have signed the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). 3. Involvement of the church institution into conduction of social policy, including the family policy, it may destroy the concept of the separation of church and state. 4. Underestimation of the importance of solutions of gender issues for social development caused by the gender incompetence of the decision-makers and ordinary citizens.

Putting Global Gender Issues on the US Foreign Policy Agenda

Gender & Foreign Policy in the Clinton Administration. By Garner Karen. Boulder, CO: FirstForumPress, 2013. 331 pp., $69.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-935049-60-9). Contrary to popular assumptions, the United States ranked only 27th on the UN Development Program Gender Inequality Index in 2012, 23rd on the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index in 2013, and 83rd in terms of women's representation in national legislatures in 2014 according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It also remains one of only seven countries that have not ratified the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Although the United States still lags behind most other Western countries (if not most of the world) on such indicators, Karen Garner argues in Gender & Foreign Policy in the Clinton Administration the turning point for getting the US government to take gender equality seriously as a foreign policy matter and a global norm can be traced to the work of savvy American feminists inside and outside the Clinton Administration, who took advantage of the post-Cold War moment and accompanying temporary absence of Republican administrations hostile to women's rights and the rise of a more feminist-friendly Democratic administration. They were a part of, and greatly aided by, the rise of a global women's movement facilitated by the UN Decade for Women conferences held between 1975 and 1985 and subsequent UN conferences held during the Clinton years on Environment and Development (1992), Human Rights (1993), Population and Development (1994), and Social Development (1995), as well as two more UN Women's Conferences (Beijing in 1995 and Beijing plus Five in 2000). The political opportunities these international …

Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Prospect of Development of Muslim Personal Law in Singapore

This paper examines Singapore's partial reservations to Articles 2 and 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It contends that the reservations justified on the basis of protecting the rights of the Muslim minority community to practice its personal law has unwittingly impeded the potential of reviewing and addressing significant gaps and limitations in the ways in which the laws are conceived and administered. More pertinently, the policy reinforces the dominance of traditionalism in the thinking of dominant stakeholders of the law. Taking the standpoint that the values of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of gender espoused by CEDAW are compatible with the objectives of Muslim law, this paper maintains that ratifying the relevant Articles of CEDAW will strengthen the process of the development of the Muslim personal law and address essentialist presumptions of the law. This perspective departs from the dominant discourse on the Muslim law and CEDAW which is framed in terms of conflict and polarity between the law and human rights, religious law and women's rights, and universal values versus cultural relativism.

Stereotipe, dampak, dan perlindungan hukum bagi SPG (Sales Promotion Girl)

Stereotyping was still affecting the company to recruit employees. However, these stereotypes did not alwaysgive positive results as expected the company to its employees. This often lead employees to be abuse, whichlater affected the performance. Stereotypes were not supported by facilities and protection of the company, orfrom a legal perspective. These made women as Sales Promotion Girl (SPG) increasingly vulnerable to do thejob. The Convention on The Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) should help to providelegal protection for this SPG but what happened the application of CEDAW was not implemented by thecompany. Besides social security program, workers were often violated as well. This research was based onrandom sample to 25 (twenty five) SPGs in Mall Margo City, Mall Depok Town Square, Plaza Depok, Depok,Jawa Barat. The results showed that the stereotype the company had, increase the chance for those women toexperience sexual harassment. The nation should regulate the guideline in this matter, so that those women areprotected from sexual harassment in the workplace.

MEMBINCANG AGAMA DAN NEGARA TANPA KEKERASAN GENDER

Violence towards women in Indonesia which is conducted whether by individual, family, society and state (itself) is a continuing phenomenon. Various concepts on this sort of case are offered by experts, seminars, discussions to give solution. Furthermore, CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) has been ratified since May, 1982 by Indonesia as legal platform to eliminate the violence. On the contrary, the state involves in several violence cases(particularly in new order era) such as the case in Aceh, East Timor, Irian Jaya and chaos in May, 1998 of which most women are the victims. Domestic violence is another feature of women’s condition under the banner of state ideology and religious ideology that are supported by patriarchal system. This paper points out that democratizing country and reinterpreting religious texts (which are more gender sensitive) are the alternative solutions for aforementioned problems.

Cultural idiosyncrasies and religion: Why it is difficult to implement the third Millennium Development Goal

abstract The BBC highlighted in 2011 that Libyan women and girls raped by pro-Gaddafi forces faced another cultural challenge of honour killing. Harter (BBC, 14 June, 2011) claims that raped women have shamed their families by dishonouring their male relatives and this dishonour can only be cleansed by murdering the victims. Such events highlight the complex nature of religious and cultural beliefs within conservative societies. What is interpreted as religion and lays claim to Islamic teachings, is often the result of the integration of cultural peculiarities within religion. The question posed in this Open Forum is whether the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women's achievement of MDG 3 - promote gender equality and empower women - are obstructed by non-secular cultural expression and practices in many Africa countries, even if the MDGs have political support. The objectives of this Open Forum are firstly, to assert that, as in the case of the Musawah Project, that reviewed documents for 44 countries from 2005–2010, has examined the reluctance of governments to implement the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the approach to the MDGs needs to be mediated with sensitivity in the context of non-secular community cultural interpretations of gender equality and women's empowerment. Secondly, it is asserted that when culture is fused with religion, the practice of confining women to primary spaces in the private sphere is legitimated with problematic consequences for women's involvement in education, politics and the economy. It is argued that the implementation of the MDG relating to gender equality in many African countries needs to be viewed in conjunction with CEDAW to understand the influence of culture and religion upon women's lives and the specific contexts in which women's equality and gender empowerment hold social relevance and meaning.

Egypt’s Reservations to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and Women’s Rights in Egypt

This paper addresses the role that the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) can play to improve women’s conditions and secure their rights in Egypt, in light of that country’s religious-based reservations to the UN convention and its recent constitutional amendment making the Shari`ah its principle source of legislation. Specifically, it addresses Egypt’s reservations to Article 16, which concerns the eradication of discrimination against women in cases of divorce, as this area has been the focus of recent legislative reform. The paper is limited to Egypt, because it is the leading Muslim state in providing women’s rights in the area of family law.

The Emergence of a Global Gender Equity Regime

INTRODUCTIONInternational regimes embody mutually accepted principles and practices on which there is, for the most part, compliance. Thus, a regime constitutes a high level of acceptance by states and comes close to international law. Gender issues have recently emerged as a global concern, but scholars have not yet asked whether there is a global gender equality regime or, if there is, how it can be identified, how it arose, and how it is being implemented.Since the early 1980s, gender equality has received unprecedented attention at international forums. There is a growing international understanding that gender equality is a prerequisite to achieving human and sustainable development. Over the past quarter century, the United Nations has convened five world conferences on women's issues: Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), Beijing (1995), and New York (2000). Each marked a stage in a process that has raised gender equality to the centre of the global agenda.(1) Together they underscored the fact that women lag behind in virtually all aspects of life (education, health, literacy, access to income, labour markets, and so on) and established platforms of action to promote gender equality.(2) They also provided a platform for women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global women's networks to lobby for a gender perspective in development policies and strategies. The cross-cutting coalitions they generated from all classes and economic groups from North and South have had an unprecedented and indisputable effect on changing awareness and programmes for women in many countries.(3)In the two decades between Mexico City and Beijing, gender equality has been embodied in an international legal instrument, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which entered into force in 1981 and has been ratified by 169 countries - more than two-thirds of the members of the United Nations.(4) Signature of CEDAW, the various platforms of action, and other regional conventions constitute a set of norms and rules related to gender equality. Some states have established national women's mechanisms on gender issues (bureaucracies, departments, policies, and programmes) and some have changed laws and policies to follow up on global commitments. Together these actions point to the possibility of a regime.Fields as diverse as international financial exchanges, security, and climate change have tried in recent years to utilize 'regimes' to address global problems.(5) They have drawn on a wide literature on the factors that lead to regime formation, affect regime maintenance, and determine how regimes can be utilized to address global problems in the future.(6) International relations scholars are also exploring the tensions and contradictions among normative principles in international life and how states are embedded in dense networks of transnational and international relations that shape their perceptions and their preferences. But, surprisingly, even though there is an extensive literature on global women's networks and the role of the United Nations as an ally, gender issues have not been systematically explored from the perspective of international regimes.IDENTIFYING A GENDER REGIMEOne could examine the rise and maintenance of a gender equality regime in terms of both its legal instruments and compliance mechanisms and its underlying normative principles, that is, the tensions and contradictions of gender equality that have begun to shape perceptions and preferences of states.Virtually all discussions of international regimes proceed from Stephen Krasner's 'consensus definition' in which regimes are 'implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations. Principles are beliefs of fact, causation and rectitude. Norms are standards of behavior defined in terms of rights and obligations. …

Equality and the Truth of Brahma

This article focuses on the need to revive the tool of equality for more effective decision making in cases of violence against women in India, and suggests that feminists and judicial decision makers need to adopt attitudinal shifts. It begins with a living model of equality at the grassroots level and moves to the theoretical premise of substantive equality provided by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The third part looks at Project Equality—designed and delivered by Sakshi, a Delhi-based nongovernment organization (NGO) in the Asia-Pacific region—which illustrates how collaborative and inclusive education between NGOs and judges can better equip judges for effective decision making in women's rights cases. Finally, the article concludes with the impact that a shift from scientific to rights-based judicial decision making can have for women in situations of violence.