1. Promote and protect the human rights of women by putting into effect all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

You have the same human rights and freedoms as everyone else in the world. These rights are inherent in being a human being. They cannot be taken away from you. Everybody, no matter who we are or where we live, should be treated with equal dignity. UDHR 1

Countries must take steps to ensure that the rights recognised in international human rights conventions are enjoyed by everyone. They must adopt appropriate legislation and use all other appropriate means to ensure full enjoyment of human rights. ICCPR 2:2; ICESCR 2:1; CEDAW 2, 3, 24; ICERD 2; CRC 4

Reservations (allowing governments to opt-out of selected human rights obligations) that are incompatible with the aims and purposes of a human rights convention are not permitted. CEDAW 28:2; ICERD 20:2; CRC 51:2

Countries that have entered reservations to CEDAW, especially about equality in marriage and family relations, should progress to a stage where they are able to withdraw their reservations. CEDAW GR 21:44

ACTIONS:

• Ratify international and regional human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and ensure that their provisions are complied with.
  
  
• Ensure that women and men enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms fully and equally.
  
  

2. Ensure that women have equal rights and are not discriminated against either under law or in practice.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

You should not be treated differently or have your rights denied because of your race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. ICCPR 2:1, 3; ICESCR 2:2, 3; CEDAW 2; ICERD 2; CRC 2

You have the right to be recognized as a person before the law, in the same way as men. UDHR 6; ICCPR 16; CEDAW 15:2,3

You have the right to be treated equally by the law, in the same way as everyone else, and to be protected by the law without discrimination. UDHR 7; ICCPR 14:1, 26; CEDAW 2c, 15:1; ICERD 5a; DEVAW 3d; CEDAW GR 21

You have the right to enter a marriage only when you have given your full and free consent. CCM 1; ICCPR 23:3; CEDAW 16b; CEDAW GR 21:16; HRC GC 19:4

If you are married, you have equal rights with your husband in the marriage, in family responsibilities, and at the dissolution of marriage. UDHR 16; ICCPR 23; CEDAW 16:1; ICERD 5d:iv; CEDAW GR 21

You have the same rights as your spouse to family planning services and to all matters relating to your children. CEDAW 12:1; 14:2b; 16:1d,e,f; CRC 18; CEDAW GR 21

If your human rights are violated under the law, you have the right to an effective remedy. UDHR 8; ICERD 6

ACTIONS:

• Review national laws for gender bias.
  
  
• Ensure that women are equal under the law and provide constitutional guarantees against discrimination on the basis of sex.
  
  
• Provide gender-sensitive human rights education and training to public officials including police and military personnel.
  
  
• Investigate violations of human rights by public officials.
  
  
• Review and amend criminal laws and procedures to ensure non-discrimination.
  
  
• Ensure women's participation in the justice system as judges, police and detention officers.
  
  

3. Achieve legal literacy.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

Education must include developing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. UDHR 26; ICESCR 13:1; ICERD 7; CRC 29:1b; CDE 5b

Information about human rights conventions should be made widely available in the community. ICERD 7

ACTIONS:

• Translate information on human rights into local and indigenous languages and in formats available for disabled women.
  
  
• Undertake public campaigns on equality between the sexes in public and private life.
  
  
• Include human rights studies in school curricula.
  
  HUMAN RIGHTS: ACHIEVEMENTS
  
  
• Legal reforms to prohibit discrimination or eliminate discriminatory provisions in civil, penal and personal status laws governing marriage and family relations, all forms of violence, women’s property and ownership rights and women’s political, work and employment rights.
  
  
• Steps taken––including policy measures, improved enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, and legal literacy and awareness campaigns at all levels––to create an enabling environment in which women can enjoy their human rights.
  
  
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has been ratified or acceded to by 165 countries.
  
  
• The Optional Protocol to CEDAW was adopted, allowing women who have been victims of discrimination to submit their claims to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
  
  
• Women NGOs have raised awareness that women’s rights are human rights and generated support for the inclusion of a gender perspective in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
  
  
• Progress in integrating women’s human rights and a gender perspective into the UN system, including the work of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and of the Commission on Human Rights.
  
  HUMAN RIGHTS: OBSTACLES
  
  

• Continued gender discrimination and all other forms of discrimination, especially racism and xenophobia.
  
  
• Situations of armed conflict and foreign occupation cause women’s human rights to be extensively violated.
  
  
• The goal of universal ratification of CEDAW by 2000 was not achieved and there are a large number of reservations to the convention. Most countries have not fully implemented its provisions.
  
  
• Persistence of discriminatory laws, harmful traditional and customary practices and negative stereotyping of women, as well as the introduction of new discriminatory laws in some countries.
  
  
• Family, civil, penal, labour and commercial laws and administrative regulations have not integrated a gender perspective
  
  
• Women have inadequate access to the law due to illiteracy, lack of legal literacy, information and resources, insensitivity and gender bias, and the lack of awareness of women’s human rights by law enforcement officers and the judiciary.
  
  
• Insufficient recognition of women’s and girls’ reproductive rights, as well as barriers to their full enjoyment of these rights.
  
  
• Lack of access by women to justice or human rights because of race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability of socio-economic class, or because they are indigenous people, migrants (including migrant workers), displaced women or refugees.