WUNRN
Direct Link to Full 12-Page Report:
SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE
ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
On the occasion of the
review of Bahrain's Third Periodic Report at the Committee’s pre-sessional
working group, July 2013
Submitted by The Bahrain
Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) with the support of FIDH
Excerpt:
Chapter I. A
discriminatory legal framework
By ratifying the CEDAW
Convention, Bahrain undertook to eliminate all forms of discrimination against
women. However, many forms of gender-based discrimination remain evident in
Bahrain.
Women in Bahrain continue to be
victims of discriminatory laws and practices, in both the public and the
private spheres.
1. Impact of the
reservations to CEDAW on women’s rights
Bahrain ratified the CEDAW
Convention in 2002 with reservations to key provisions. According to the
reservations, the following provisions apply only as far as they are compatible
with the provi -sions of Sharia: article 2 (adoption of measures to eliminate
discrimination); article 9(2) (transmission of nationality to children);
article 15(4) (freedom of movement and the choice of residence); and article 16
(marriage and divorce).
In its concluding observations
of October 2008, the CEDAW Committee called on Bahrain to withdraw its
reservations, stressing that these reservations are “contrary to the object and
purpose of the Convention”. Yet, the Government of Bahrain has not carried out
any action in this regard since the 2008 review.
These reservations echo back a
discriminatory legal framework as well as practices that undermine gender
equality and the human rights of women in Bahrain.
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