The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international human rights treaty that defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets out measures that states must undertake to end discrimination against women. Often recognized as "an international bill of rights for women," the Convention was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and entered into force on 3 September 1981.
The Optional Protocol, which includes both a communications (complaints) procedure and an inquiry procedure, entered into force on 22 December 2000.
Scholarly commentaries provide article-by-article analysis of a convention, including citations to relevant cases, general comments, concluding observations, travaux préparatoires (preparatory works), and other documents.
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women by
This volume is the first comprehensive commentary on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol. The Convention is a key international human rights instrument and the only one exclusively addressed to women. It has been described asthe United Nations' 'landmark treaty in the struggle for women's rights'.The Commentary describes the application of the Convention through the work of its monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. It comprises detailed analyses of the Preamble and each article of the Convention and of the Optional Protocol. It also includes aseparate chapter on the cross-cutting substantive issue of violence against women. The sources relied on are the treaty language and the general recommendations, concluding observations and case law under the Optional Protocol, through which the Committee has interpreted and applied the Convention.Each chapter is self-contained but the Commentary is conceived of as an integral whole. The book also includes an Introduction which provides an overview of the Convention and its embedding in the international law of human rights.
CEDAW Committee monitors implementation of the CEDAW by State parties. The website for the Committee provides access to general recommendations, state party reports, concluding observations, and other materials.
General Recommendations: The CEDAW Committee publishes general recommendations that offer interpretations of the provisions in the convention.
State Party Reports: State party reports are submitted by state parties to the Committee to describe the efforts they have made or problems they have encountered when implementing the treaty's provisions.
Concluding Observations: Concluding observations consist of observations and recommendations issued by the Committee after consideration of a state party's report. These include recommendations for how a State should take further action to implement the treaty.
Jurisprudence: CEDAW Committee may consider individual communications alleging violations of the CEDAW.
Other international treaties also provide protection for the rights of women. For a detailed overview and research guidance for the core UN human rights instruments (e.g., ICCPR, ICESR, etc.), see the PLRC International Human Rights Law Research Guide.
The special procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with thematic mandates (e.g., violence against women, arbitrary detention) or country-specific mandates.