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Introducing India's Second NGO Shadow
Report on CEDAW November 2006
India ratified and signed the Convention on the
Elimination of All Discriminations against Women (CEDAW) in July 1993,
making it thereby obligatory that the country report periodically (every 4
years) to the 23 member UN CEDAW Committee ( independent experts) on the
state actions taken for the removal of discrimination against women in the
country.
The Initial/first periodic report on CEDAW submitted by
the Government of India (GOI), came up for hearing in January 2000. The
second and third periodic report of the GOI was ready in
The
Second NGO Shadow Report on CEDAW prepared by Indian groups was completed
in November 2006. The Report has been coordinated by the National Alliance
of Women (NAWO-India). In January 2000, NAWO had similarly prepared the
First NGO Alternate report on CEDAW.
The present Shadow Report is
a 233-page document in which different women's groups/organizations have
contributed in an attempt to record the de facto position of women in
India and how they face different kinds of discriminations in public and
private life. The report has been the outcome of extensive national and
state level consultations between expert groups working on different
issues of women's concern. Basically the report reviews gender
discrimination in the framework of CEDAW; addressing each article and
examining the discriminations that persist despite the State guarantees of
non discrimination assured by the Constitution of India. The report
locates the different causes that underlie these discriminations and
suggests recommendations on how best these can be eliminated.
The
37th UN CEDAW Committee Session is scheduled for its sitting from 15
January to 2 February 2007 at UN HQs in New York, USA. India is due to
report on 18th January (Thursday) 2007 to UN CEDAW Committee.
The NGO Process during this reporting session gives an
important space to civil society groups to facilitate a better
understanding of the de facto situation of women's discrimination and to
enable the CEDAW Committee to examine the country's shadow reports too.
This year a 20-member delegation of women's rights experts and activists
(the names of delegates will soon be posted on this site), will be using
the recommendations of the Second shadow report on CEDAW to lobby for
integration of critical concerns into the GOI agenda for CEDAW
implementation in India.
We wish the Indian NGO team, under the
leadership of Dr. Ruth Manorama success in all its endeavours on CEDAW.
The National Alliance of Women (NAWO) acknowledges with gratitude
the support of all its partners of the NGO process on CEDAW in India. We
record our special thanks for the resource facilitation of UNIFEM South
Asia Office and the CEDAW expertise and technical facilitation of the
International Women's Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP) at all
times. Ford Foundation is being acknowledged as a source of great support
for all those working on women's human rights concerns and the CEDAW
Process in India has received both timely and ample facilitation of the
Ford Foundation. Many thanks to all partners once again.
Nasreen Faiyaz
The National Alliance of Women
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