Gender, Crime and Justice

The Global Issue – Human Rights Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Not ‘equality’ but ‘rights’ “If you think equality is the goal, your standards are too low.” It is not enough to be equal to men, when the men are acting like beasts. It is not enough to assimilate. We need to create a world worth assimilating into. Barbara Ehrenreich, What Abu Ghraib Taught Me, Alternet, May 20, Abu Ghraib Taught Me

CEDAW Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and came into force in 1981: "discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity, is an obstacle to the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries, 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." (Preamble)

2 Nov 2008, 185 countries - ninety percent of the members of the United Nations - are party to the Convention Full details are available at

USA The USA, which signed the Convention in July 1980, has never yet ratified it. “Women around the world need the United States to speak loudly and clearly in support of CEDAW so that it becomes a stronger instrument in support of their struggles. Without U.S. ratification, some other governments feel free to ignore CEDAW’s mandate and their obligations under it.” Human Rights for All. Amnesty International, 2001:7

Why human rights for women? Modern human rights are firmly rooted in western liberalism, concentrating on political and civil rights as opposed to economic and social rights. Western liberalism has thus transported to human rights instruments the public/private divide. Many women still operate in the private sphere, whilst the public sphere of work, politics, law and economics is the domain of men. The transportation of the public/private divide into the politics and the law of human rights has ensured that women have remained in their subservient position to men.

Is CEDAW effective? Paper rights or real substantive and enforceable rights? There are 3 main issues to discuss: reservations, petition mechanisms and; delays. Article 2 of the Convention states that nations: “agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women.” Specifically Article 2(f) states that all state parties should: “Take all appropriate measures including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women.”

Weiss (2003) points out that there are 23 Muslim majority states that are party to the Convention. The Independent Centre for Strategic Studies and Analysis (ICSSA) describes itself as a “research organisation that undertakes timely and critical analyses of major economic, political, and social issues that affect the Muslim world”. They are critical of UN conventions and treaties, which they claim: “have been used to browbeat nations with moral objections into submission”.

Asia/Africa/Pacific “In the Africa region, UNIFEM's support led to CEDAW's adoption as a tool for the Constitutional and Legislative Review Commission in Rwanda. The successful and effective use of CEDAW in facilitating efforts to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Senegal is being replicated by NGOs in Burkina Faso at the community level. In Malawi, government representatives participating in a UNIFEM-sponsored workshop on CEDAW committed to review national laws to bring them into compliance with the Convention” UNIFEM, Areas of Work (emphasis in original)

Cases Zimbabwe Mongolia

Conclusion It is better to dance in the normative margins of international law than to ‘sit it out’.