WUNRN
CEDAW Convention after 30 Years : Challenges & Achievements
Towards Advancement of Women in the Public &
Political Spheres
FERDOUS
ARA BEGUM
Former Member , UN CEDAW
Committee
Keynote Speech
at
Annual Conference on Cultural Diplomacy 2012
“The Power of the Arts & Culture to Promote
Democracy & Global Peace”
Berlin, December 13 - 16, 2012
Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates,
Colleagues,
Introduction
2012 - marks the 30th anniversary of the
CEDAW Committee and 33 years of CEDAW Convention. Today I would
like to highlight the achievements of the convention over the past three decades and its impact all over the world on the
women's advancement and true gains for women's rights and main challenges that it faced and those
now lying ahead in its enforcement with
a special focus towards the role of women in governance and underlying causes of the under-representation
of women in the public and political
spheres.
The CEDAW convention aims at achieving
uniform development for women all over the world using global normative
standards that has been enshrined in the 16 substantive articles of CEDAW and
its 28 General Recommendations and through Optional Protocol to CEDAW as well. But rate of progress in the advancement
of women varies from country to country depending on the socio economic
situation and political commitment of the States Parties.
The CEDAW committee has consistently
raised its voice and expressed
its concern against the reservations of some vital articles of the Convention ,such
as , article 2 and 16
by States Parties . The committee opined that reservation on article
no 2 goes against the object & purpose of the Convention. Practical
realization of the principle of equality cannot be achieved keeping reservation
on article no. 2. The committee has elaborately explained this view in its
General Recommendation No. 28 . As of the end of 2010, 52 States parties had
entered reservations to substantive provisions of the Convention when they ratified
or acceded to it. Conversely, 135 States parties had ratified the Convention
without reservation.
While
raising awareness on the impact of major
global trends on women ,such as violence
and trafficking against women including domestic violence and violence
in the conflict regions; also
stereotyped attitude and glass ceilings towards women's empowerment in
the decision making process and unequal opportunity in the fields of education, property rights and access to justice. The committee has
also played a crucial role in
making the United Nations more gender sensitive and promoting women's universal
human rights.
CEDAW
CONVENTION and its 23- member expert body
The Convention was adopted by the
General Assembly of the United Nations on 18 December 1979 and entered into
force on 3 September 1981 with an
aim to
prohibit all forms of discrimination against women committed by public
authorities or by any person or organization in the full range of civil,
political, economic, social & cultural areas, covering both public &
private life. The Convention also targets culture & tradition as the influential
forces shaping gender roles. CEDAW is the only legally binding
international instrument which defines
what constitute discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national
action to end such discrimination.
The
committee on the elimination of discrimination against women, a 23 person
expert body, was established in 1982, following the Convention's entry into
force in September 1981. The instrument treaty has since become part of the
international human rights treaty system, aiming to secure equality for women
in the enjoyment of all human rights & fundamental freedoms, without
discrimination on the basis of sex.
The CEDAW Convention as a land mark tool for setting
out global normative standards of gender equality ensured its implementation
nationally by the 187 States Parties who ratified CEDAW, through the monitoring
and guidance of the CEDAW committee. This has significantly enhanced States
accountabilities for women's enjoyment of their human rights & shaped
women's progress worldwide through regular reporting process to the committee
through periodic reports, concluding observations, constructive dialogues and
follow up mechanism . The process of
scrutinizing the compliances with
the treaty’s provisions, has transformed the lives of countless women and girls
globally. To ensure women’s enjoyment of
their human rights and fundamental freedoms, States Parties as party to the
Convention are under the obligation to protect, respect, promote and fulfill
these rights.
Impact analysis of CEDAW in different
regions
The
CEDAW convention's profound impact on the legal and socio political development
of States Parties is visible in the strengthening of institutional provisions
for the protection of women's rights and efforts to bring existing legislation
in to conformity with Convention principles, improvement in the capacity of
national institutions and gender budgeting
to guarantee equality between men & women. Furthermore, increasing
use of the Convention, and the committee's General Recommendations by the
States Parties provide an important roadmap in developing its short term and
long term national plan for advancement of women.
The South African and Ugandan constitutions, for instance, contained
significant provisions guaranteeing women's equality, based on the Convention
principles, Nepal 's Supreme Court had relied on the Convention in directing
the government to address discriminatory laws, and Canada 's Supreme Court had
drawn on the Convention and the committee's General Recommendations on violence
against women. Bangladesh has made an amendment in its Citizenship law to bring
equality in its application . Maldives
has changed its discriminatory law as per the requirement of Article 7(a)
(women in public life) . Now
both men and women have equal rights to run for Presidency or
highest office of the country.
CEDAW ratification provided the framework for a long-sought reform of
family laws in Morocco, Tunisia and
Turkey to bring equality in the family
relationship. The ground breaking introduction of Morocco's new family code in
2004 gave women greater equality and protection of their human rights within
marriage and divorce, as mandated by article 16 of the Convention.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations recently cited a particularly representative example of these achievements in the case of Rwanda, which has made huge gains in women’s political participation since the genocide and accompanying violence against women in 1994.
A strong political will of
the executive body in reviewing the existing laws and practices
against the standards of the CEDAW
Convention in the countries like
Rwanda, Kenya, Maldives, Laos PDR, Kyrgyzstan, Venezuela, Ecuador,
Nepal, India , Bangladesh and many other countries is visible through the Government action.
Also through
the CEDAW reporting process, the dialogue involving governments and the CEDAW Committee and follow-up
actions by governments in response to
CEDAW recommendations, in conjunction with domestic political advocacy, created
positive impact on women in both developed and developing countries . Civil society groups also gained
confidence through the adoption of CEDAW standards as a basis for advocacy and
critique of governments and private
actions in the reporting countries.
CEDAW
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
The 28 General Recommendations of the committee provided its members collective view of appropriate measures to fulfill States' obligations under the Convention. It helps to clarify and promote understanding of the rights protected by the Convention and the specific nature of discrimination against women. Its General Recommendation on female genital mutilation was the first attempt from United Nations treaty body on that practice. Similarly the CEDAW committee was also the first to adopt a General Recommendation on HIV/AIDS.
Its General Recommendation on violence
against women provided the impetus for the adoption of the declaration on the
elimination of violence against women. The establishment of a Special
Rapporteur on violence against women, and various regional human rights
instruments , its General Recommendations on equality in marriage and family
relations, women in political & public life and health, contributed
significantly towards shaping the women's status.
The CEDAW Committee adopted the General Recommendation
No 27, on the protection of Human Rights of Older Women in its 47th
session in October, 2010. It is considered as the complete protection strategy
for older women which would enable the
Committee to focus on the country specific issues, so that effective
recommendations and guidance could be provided to the States Parties and older
women can participate fully in the society without discrimination and on the
basis of equality with men. It would also give older women and their rights a
greater visibility and priority amongst States Parties, NGO’s and the wider UN
Human Rights System. In 2012, UK NGO's submitted a shadow report on the basis
of the GR 27 and raised issues that were concerned to UK older women and which
were not mentioned in the UK Government report.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND NGOs with CEDAW Commitments
Its expanding commitment to dialogue with civil society allowed the CEDAW committee to examine issues from a rights perspective. It's concluding comments provided a framework for monitoring states actions and showed the committee's rigorous engagement with States Parties, as well as its commitment to supporting protection in the context of national realities.
The committee's 28 General Recommendations bore testimony to its ongoing commitment, increasingly being used around the world as sources of evolving standards of human rights, reflective of emerging issues and offering possibilities for overcoming obstacles to the realization of human rights. CEDAW and NGOs working together in strong relationship achieved the major gains of the past 30 years, through the contributions of NGOs in reporting, observing and monitoring implementation of the Convention.
OPTIONAL
PROTOCOL TO THE CEDAW CONVENTION
The Committee's jurisprudence under the Optional Protocol is an emerging area of importance which has proved to be influential in the creation of international women's rights jurisprudence. In 1999, the General Assembly adopted an Optional Protocol to the Convention, thereby allowing for a communication and an inquiry procedure to be added to the list of monitoring systems, which empowers the CEDAW Committee to hear complaints of rights violations brought by individuals. The Optional Protocol currently have been ratified by 102 states parties.
Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the CEDAW on 9 July 2012, stated that "during the past 30 years, the Convention, particularly the work of the CEDAW Committee, has had remarkable impact. States have changed laws, policies and programmes to address violence against women and trafficking, to advance reproductive rights, to ensure women’s rights in marriage and in divorce, to advance women’s rights in the workplace, and to land, property and inheritance. And women’s rights have been enshrined in national constitutions."
CHALLENGES
However, discrimination against women still persists all over the world
and in very few countries have the
Convention directly been applied to the courts. Also very few Judges and policy
makers have knowledge about the treaty and the de facto discrimination against
women remains universal. Though the Convention has attained almost universal ratification by 187 countries of
the world but the powerful country like USA still has not
ratified CEDAW.
Barriers to gender equality are considerable challenges in
most countries. Many women face daily obstacles to their empowerment and
advancement, and constraints on their freedoms. These include stark educational
and economic disparities between men and women; poor female representation in
politics and public life; entrenched discriminatory practices towards women in
law enforcement and judicial decisions; and the persistence of cultural and
religious practices that legitimize discrimination against women and girls in
society.
The Convention is
mostly remains off the political
agenda or been a low priority issue in many countries, despite their
governments having become signatories. Governments and civil society stakeholders
have lacked sufficient knowledge, capacity and expertise to implement CEDAW,
which in turn has had a negative impact on the sense of national ownership of
the process. There has also been discomfort and resistance in some societies
where CEDAW has been perceived as a challenge to accepted socio cultural and
religious norms.
I would like to conclude the first part of my presentation quoting Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN
Women again :
"We all know that, despite the fact that
some progress has been realized in national legislations and the global
consensus reached on women's rights, we need to maintain common struggle.
Progress should never be taken for granted. It is crucial that we remain
vigilant regarding important remaining challenges. We are fully aware of the
constant challenges that concern all of humanity, including women's access to
justice, to education, to health, and to decision-making positions in the political sphere."
Now
I will focus on the issues of women in the public and political arena:
Participation of women in the public and
political life
The last two decades have witnessed
an increase in the women’s representation in politics. Quotas have been
introduced and have become an important mechanism to trigger
women’s access to political offices. Before 1985, there were only 4 countries
introduced quotas for women whereas today there are over 100 countries that
adopted some kind of quota in the world.
Despite massive adoption of quotas, the increase in women’s
representation has been remained limited. Global average of women’s participation in politics at
present is 19.5 % only
and need to be balanced towards more equal representation. Women constitute 51 percent of the
world’s population, yet they are under-represented in the political arena, that make key decisions affecting their
lives.
As per
the 2008 Report of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women , only 17.7%
of parliamentarians worldwide and 16.1% ministers were women. Women's participation at the highest
levels of decision-making remains extremely weak: that is 4.7% of women were heads of state, 4.2% of women were heads of government and 10.7% of women were speakers of parliament.
A statistical breakdown by region of women in parliament in 2010 are provided by the Inter-Parliamentary Union as follows :
Nordic countries : 42.1%, Americas :22.6%,
Europe including Nordic :21.8%, Europe excluding Nordic 19.9 %, Asia :18.7%,
Sub-Saharan Africa :18.4%, Pacific :13.4%, Arab States: 10.1 %
At the Rio+20 Conference of Women Heads of State and Governments in 2012
, Ms. Michelle Bachelet of UN
WOMEN stated that democracy is “not only about the right
to vote but also about the right to be elected,” pointing out that
male-dominated parliaments and governments could not have a level of
sensitivity to women’s concerns and rights equal to that of fully
representative governing bodies.
She also mentioned that at present more than 30 countries have 30 per cent or more women politicians and stressed in the fulfillment of her goal “30-30-30,” that is gender parity in politics can be achieved by 2030.
CEDAW
Convention, Application of Quota and Temporary Special Measures
The
CEDAW Convention prescribed application of quota through temporary
special measures, to accelerate women’s full and equal participation in
governance at all levels and women’s leadership in all decision-making process
.
Articles 7 and 8 of CEDAW explicitly cover the rights of women to
non-discrimination in a country’s public and political spheres, as well as
their right to equality with men in regard to
the right to vote; the right to be eligible for election to all publicly
elected bodies; the right to participate in the formulation of government
policy and its implementation; the right to hold public office and to perform
all public functions at all levels of government; the right to participate in
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and associations concerned with the
public and political life of the country; and the right to represent the
national government at the international level and to participate in the work
of international organizations.
General Recommendations number 5, 8, 23 and 25 of the CEDAW Committee are important for the discussion on quota systems to increase the participation of women in public and political life . General Recommendations 5 and 8 of 1988 are important due to the fact that the instrument of temporary special measures, including quota systems, was suggested at such an early stage of the Committee’s work.
General Recommendation 23 of 1997 explicitly
deals with Articles 7 and 8. It echoes relevant paragraphs of the Beijing
Platform for Action and points to the historical and structural causes of
discrimination against women in public and political life. Application of quota
systems is greatly emphasized in the
General Recommendation 25 of 2004 concerning Article 4 (1) regarding the
application of temporary special
measures. A discussion on the
application of quota systems to achieve and maintain gender balance in public
and political life must be positioned in a human rights framework.
The Committee has consistently advised State parties to consider the adoption of temporary special measures through quota as a necessary strategy directed towards the acceleration of the attainment of substantive equality between women and men in the public and political spheres. Women in their own countries have relied on the authority of CEDAW when advocating for these measures which seen as a positive discrimination towards women.
Women
leadership in different countries
There
have been some truly ground breaking results, in countries such as Rwanda,
Sweden, South Africa, Nicaragua, Timor-Leste,
Liberia and Nepal . Quotas are very effective in those countries. Nepal has the highest level of women’s
participation in Parliament in the Asia-Pacific region with 33 per cent of
parliamentary seats. Gender quota is
mandated by the Interim Constitution. As in the case of Uganda. The
women leadership positions,
including Vice-President and senior posts in the key ministries of finance and
planning, health, and education, have
had a positive impact on social attitudes on women’s political
participation in Uganda. Women are now more visible in leadership posts, having
risen from under 10 percent in 2001 to about 35 percent in 2010.
Bangladesh is an unique example of having
women both as
Prime Minister and as Opposition
Leader for more than a decade. They are
elected by popular vote. President Dilma
Rousseff is the first female President in the history of Brazil. Besides, Australia, Germany, Finland , Thailand, Liberia and
some other countries also have
female heads of the Governments and heads of States. In the recent past India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom
and Israel had women leadership in the
top government positions.
Female leadership has altered the traditional notions of
male-dominated politics and transformed social norms of who should be in
leadership positions. A 2007 study in
India found that the increased presence and visibility of female politicians in
local government raised the academic performance and career aspirations of
young women. It also changed the
social attitudes towards women. In Bangladesh , reservation of seats for
women at the local government levels has increased the number of women in
politics at the grassroots level.
CHALLENGES
Despite some progress in women's
representation in the public and
political arena and massive adoption of
quotas, women are still
under- represented in the public and
political spheres due to highest levels of gender discrimination and the
least protection to women’s political as well as social and economic rights in
the society. In most cases educated and
eligible women cannot move further due
to glass ceilings .Government top positions ,secrataries, head of the
institutions or corporations are mostly occupied by men though gender quotas
are accepted as a principal of
governance. The level of participation of women as members of boards of
directors is considerably lower than their representation in the overall
workforce. Where legislated quotas are being introduced, but parliamentarians
cannot agree on placement rules for female candidates, women may still end up
on the bottom of election lists.
In some countries muscle power is
important in politics, where
women 's control is very weak. Political violence and sexual harassment of
women are important barriers in discharging their rights as a candidate or
rights to vote. In the male dominated society women mostly have no control over
money and finance due to lack of
inheritance and right to the property and
power. This is an important obstacle for women in politics as money
plays an important role in the election process.
Besides, the implementation of
quotas remain complex, requiring a number of
parallel processes and measures. In order to be effective, they require
concerted efforts of political parties, parliaments, electoral management
bodies, public administration and civil society members. It’s also true
that quotas are controversial. Despite successes, opponents argue that
quotas are discriminatory, or undemocratic. We need to see more awareness of
the positive effects of quotas through active participation of government
institutions, election commission
, as well as the broader involvement of
general public .
Many gender advocates are focused on promoting
gender-responsive governance and greater female involvement in the electoral
process, by encouraging women to stand for election, training and mentoring
female electoral candidates, and educating voters about the importance of women’s
participation in public life. They have particularly advocated for the use of
temporary special measures, such as quotas to guarantee female representation
in the parliament also requiring political parties to nominate a certain
numbers of women as candidates .
In countries with legislated quotas it is usually the electoral
management bodies that ensure compliance with quotas. They may have to refuse
candidate lists from political parties that don’t comply with quotas – but they
may also require additional capacities to implement quota legislation.
And if legislation is not being implemented, civil society should function as an important watchdog. Parliamentarians and political party members may also require additional capacities and skills, such as support for women candidates in campaigning and developing the right messages, and harmonizing legislation of quotas with other laws. Finding progressive male allies among parliamentarians, political parties and civil society members could make a big difference in leading the awareness raising efforts to increase participation of women in political arena in both national and grassroots level.
THANK YOU
References
1. The
Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women ( CEDAW )was adopted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations on 18 December 1979 and entered into force on 3
September
2." The
Policy Dialogue on the Implementation of
CEDAW in Bangladesh" Keynote Presentation,
Ferdous Ara Begum, Member,
UN CEDAW Committee , Dhaka, Bangladesh.
3. “The Role of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Monitoring Procedures for Achieving Gender Equality in Political Representation” Hanna Beate Schöpp-Schilling ,Expert Member of the CEDAW Committee .
4. "Converging tracks: the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Platform for Action and
the Way Forward for Gender Equality" Ms. Dubravka Šimonović, Member,
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
5. "THE IMPACT OF THE CEDAW CONVENTION: PATHS TO
EQUALITY"
Andrew Byrnes and Marsha A. Freeman
6. Gender
Quotas and Women’s Representation in Muslim Countries
by Senem Ertan
7. INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION :
Report of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to the United Nations
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 2008 and 2010.
8 . Statement of
Ms. Michelle
Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women
at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the CEDAW Convention on 9
July 2012.
9. Statement of Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women at the Rio+20 Conference of Women Heads of State and Governments in 2012.
10. Beijing Platform for Action on the participation of women in public
and political spheres.