WUNRN
New
Website on the Optional Protocol to CEDAW
20 March 2012 - An exciting
website has been launched recently on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The website aims to encourage
greater engagement with the Optional Protocol by providing a central hub of
material for women, advocates, academics, lawyers, students, NGOs and others.
The website brings together in an accessible format all of the Optional
Protocol decisions and inquiry findings. It lists them by country, subject
matter, decision type and year.
It provides summaries of each of
the Committee’s decisions and inquiry findings and provides links to original
submissions, amicus briefs and case comments. Included on the site is
information about how to use the Optional Protocol. In addition, the website
contains a list of scholarship and resources on the Optional Protocol and the
Committee’s jurisprudence.
Also available are some great
videos on the potential of the Optional Protocol for advancing women’s human
rights. Two of the videos concern the CEDAW
Committee’s recent decision in L.C.
v. Peru on the rights of
a young rape survivor to access abortion services and essential health care.
Coming soon are guest posts from
international women’s rights experts. The guest posts will explore recent
developments related to the Optional Protocol, potential uses of the Optional
Protocol for protecting and promoting women’s human rights, and analyses of the
CEDAW Committee’s jurisprudence.
To see what materials are available on the website and to ‘follow’ to receive notifications about new developments, see: http://opcedaw.wordpress.com/. The site is also linked to Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/OPCEDAW
If you have information that you
would like to be included on the website (e.g., scholarship, communications,
requests for an inquiry, amicus briefs), please email the relevant material to simone_cusack@yahoo.com.
Media contact: Simone Cusack – simone_cusack@yahoo.com