The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a comprehensive international treaty addressing women’s rights in political, economic, social, cultural, and family life. During a speech at the United Nations in March 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained the importance of women’s rights when she said, “Put simply, the world cannot make lasting progress if women and girls in the 21^st century are denied their rights and left behind.” 

The CEDAW treaty was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 1979, and entered into force on September 3, 1981. A total of 186 countries have now ratified the treaty. The United States signed it on July 17, 1980, and it was submitted to the Senate later that year. However, despite playing a defining role in drafting CEDAW, the United States is one of only seven countries—along with Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Nauru, Palau, and Tonga—that has never ratified the treaty.

Background

Known as the international bill of rights for women, CEDAW seeks to secure equal rights for women and to end the discrimination that “hampers the growth of the prosperity of society and the family and makes more difficult the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of humanity.”

Its preamble and 30 articles provide a universal definition of discrimination against women and establish an agenda for action to prevent such discrimination on a broad range of issues. Countries that have ratified the Convention are obligated to take all necessary measures at the national level to implement this agenda, including providing legal protection against discrimination of women.

In order to evaluate the progress made by States Parties in advancing this agenda, the Convention established a Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women comprised of twenty-three “experts of high moral standing and competence in the field” of women’s rights who are nominated and elected by the States Parties to serve four-year terms.

States Parties must report to the CEDAW Committee on the specific measures they have adopted to further the Convention’s agenda within one year of acceding to the Convention and at least every four years thereafter. The Committee meets every year to consider these reports and make recommendations to States Parties.

Recent Developments

Although CEDAW has been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, most recently in 2002, the treaty has never been voted on by the full Senate. The Obama administration has publicly stated its commitment to ratification of CEDAW, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) has indicated his support for ratification.

Arguments in Favor of Ratification

Proponents of CEDAW stress that the Convention serves as one of the most effective means of advancing women’s rights around the world. As the most authoritative document of its kind, CEDAW establishes a universal definition for discrimination against women and provides a forum for countries to address women’s rights issues.

President Clinton said the treaty “has a proven record of helping women around the world to combat violence, gain economic opportunity, [and] strike against discriminatory laws. Its provisions are consistent with United States law, which already provides strong protections for women. It offers a means for reviewing and encouraging other nations’ compliance.”

Accordingly, ratification will strengthen United States’ efforts to improve the status of women around the world. However, by failing to ratify CEDAW, the United States loses credibility as a global leader for human rights. President Clinton said of the treaty, “If we are going to be true to our own legacy of leadership in human rights, we must ratify this treaty.”

Ratification would also enable the United States to nominate an expert to serve on the CEDAW Committee, thus allowing the U.S. to participate in the evaluation and recommendation of policies that affect women throughout the world. Through the Committee, States Parties can influence these policies to produce positive global benefits, such as improving the education and employment of over half the world’s population.

Arguments against Ratification

The opponents of U.S. ratification of CEDAW argue that the Convention infringes upon the sovereignty of the United States and seeks to implement a radical agenda that would undermine “traditional” moral and social values, including marriage, motherhood, family structure, and even Mother’s Day.

In fact, the Convention has no enforcement authority that would enable it to supersede U.S. sovereignty and, instead of promoting a radical agenda, the Committee’s 23 experts simply make recommendations for action to secure equality for women on a broad range of issues.

For example, these recommendations include the following: encouraging States Parties “to adopt education and public information programs…[to] eliminate prejudices and current practices that hinder the full operation of the principle of the social equality of women;” calling on States Parties to recognize the “common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children;” and stating that “the parents’ common responsibility [is] to promote what is in the best interest of the child.”

Lastly, CEDAW does not seek to abolish Mother’s Day and the Committee has never criticized Mother’s Day. However, the Committee did criticize Belarus in 1998 for manipulating Mother’s Day by using it to encourage “traditional” roles for women in an effort to restrict women’s right to employment.

Preamble: Notes that the U.N. Charter “reaffirms faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women” and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “affirms the principle of the inadmissibility of discrimination and proclaims that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, including distinction based on sex.”

Also takes note of the many resolutions, declarations, and recommendations adopted by UN bodies that promote equal rights for men and women, yet expresses concern that “extensive discrimination against women continues to exist.”

Article 1: Defines discrimination against women as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”

Article 2: Instructs States Parties to condemn discrimination against women in all forms and pursue its elimination by all appropriate means, including changing national constitutions and enacting legislation.

Article 3: Mandates that States Parties take all appropriate measures in all fields to “ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them [equal rights].”

Article 4: Allows States Parties to adopt “temporary special measures” to promote equality for women.

Article 5: Requires that States Parties take all appropriate measures to modify social and cultural patterns of behavior to eliminate prejudices, practices and customs based on the inequality of, or prejudices against, either of the sexes and to ensure that family education provides a proper description of the social function of motherhood and the “common responsibility” of both men and women in child rearing and development.

Article 6: Mandates States Parties to prevent trafficking in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.

Article 7: Instructs States Parties to end discrimination against women in political and public life, including providing women the right to vote in all elections, to run for public office and to participate in nongovernmental organizations and associations.

Article 8: Obligates States Parties to provide women, on equal status with men, the opportunity to represent their country at the international level and to participate in the work of international organizations.

Article 9: Declares that States Parties must provide women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality and that of their children.

Article 10: Mandates States Parties grant women equal rights with men in all aspects of the field of education.

Article 11: Requires States Parties to prevent discrimination against women in all aspects of employment, including employment opportunities, hiring criteria, promotion, job security, benefits, remuneration, working conditions, and to protect these rights in the event of marriage or maternity.

Article 12: Instructs States Parties to provide women equal rights with men in all aspects of health care.

Article 13: Declares that States Parties shall eliminate discrimination against women in all aspects of economic and social life, including family benefits, financial transactions such as loans and mortgages, and recreational and sporting activities.

Article 14: Highlights the particular problems and contributions of rural women and instructs States Parties to ensure the provisions of the present Convention are applied to them.

Article 15: Mandates that States Parties provide women equal status with men before the law, including with respect to contracts, the administration of property, the movement of persons, and choice of residence.

Article 16: Instructs States Parties to eliminate discrimination against women in all aspects of marriage and family relations, including providing equal rights with men to enter into marriage, to choose a spouse, to dissolve a marriage, in matters of child rearing, in the number and spacing of children, in personal matters such as choosing a family name and profession, and for property ownership and management.

Article 17: Establishes the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to evaluate, and make recommendations to further States Parties’ progress in implementing the provisions of this treaty.

Article 18: Instructs States Parties to report to the Committee on their progress within one year of becoming a party to the Convention and at least every four years thereafter, including when the Committee so requests.

Article 19: States the Committee shall adopt its own rules of procedure and elect officers for two-year terms.

Article 20: Declares the Committee shall meet at U.N. Headquarters each year for no more than two weeks.

Article 21: Mandates that the Committee report annually on its activities to the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council, and may make “suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from the States Parties.”

Article 22: Allows for relevant U.N. specialized agencies to be represented at meetings of the Committee and authorizes the Committee to invite them to “submit reports on the implementation of the Convention.”

Article 23: States that nothing in the present Convention will “affect any provisions that are more conducive to the achievement of equality between men and women” that may be contained in a State Party’s legislation or in any other international treaty.

Article 24: Requires States Parties to “adopt all necessary measures at the national level aimed at achieving the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Convention.”

Article 25: Declares that CEDAW will be open for signature, ratification and accession by all states.

Article 26: Allows for any State Party to request a revision of the Convention at any time and states that the General Assembly “shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such a request.”

Article 27: Declares that the Convention will enter into force thirty days after the twentieth ratification has been deposited and for countries ratifying thereafter, it will be thirty days before the treaty enters into force.

Article 28: Establishes procedures for reservations made by countries at the time of ratification or accession.

Article 29: Allows for disputes between States Parties to be submitted to arbitration.

Article 30: Instructs the Convention to be deposited with the Secretary General of the United Nations.


For further information, visit www.womenstreaty.org.

May 2010