| Overview : The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the most comprehensive international treaty for ensuring the rights of women. Often referred to as the international women’s bill of rights, CEDAW has been ratified or acceded to by 187 countries to date.
The CEDAW provides a powerful framework and legal obligation for countries to move towards achieving gender equality. It obligates States Parties to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay, a policy of eliminating discrimination against women. Implementation of the Convention by States Parties has been uneven however, and more effort is needed to ensure its principles are implemented at the national level. The judiciary is an important mechanism for ensuring CEDAW implementation, as judges have the opportunity to interpret and apply the provisions of the Convention in domestic court decisions, and thus send a powerful message to society that discrimination against women cannot be tolerated.
Unfortunately however, international human rights standards, including the CEDAW, are not sufficiently well known among many members of the judiciary. This is in part because lawyers and judges are not always adequately trained in international and regional human rights norms, and it is often difficult for them to access information or obtain advice about human rights jurisprudence. In addition to limited training and knowledge sharing opportunities, CEDAW implementation in the justice sector is also impeded by judicial decisions that are based on stereotypical notions about the nature and role of women, and by the view that human rights applies only to the public sphere, and not the private sphere ‐ where women often experience violations. Moreover, in many countries, implementation of CEDAW principles may also be hindered by certain traditional or customary practices and cultural prejudices that violate women’s human rights. Judges also frequently fail to recognize that equal treatment of persons in unequal situations may perpetuate rather than alleviate injustice. Often, formal equality rather than substantive equality is the focus of judicial decision making.
All ASEAN member states are States Parties to the CEDAW, thus it is important to ensure that judiciaries in the region respect the norms and standards stated within the Convention. In other words, judges should be guided by the CEDAW when interpreting and applying the provisions of the national constitutions and laws, including customary law. In order to do so, judges must familiarize themselves with the growing international jurisprudence of human rights and particularly with the expanding material on the protection and promotion of the human rights of women. The CEDAW Committee often recommends in Concluding Comments that State parties implement measures to create awareness about the Convention among judges and judicial personnel, so as to ensure that the spirit, objectives and provisions of the Convention are well known and used in judicial processes.
UN Women is implementing the Regional Programme on Improving Women’s Human Rights in Southeast Asia (CEDAW SEAP) supported by the Government of Canada through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), covering eight countries ‐ Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam. One of the key focus areas of the Programme is enhancing women’s access to justice through awareness raising and capacity development of government (executive, legislative and judiciary) as well as of civil society organizations.
UN Women has been working with the justice sector in participating countries to improve understanding of the CEDAW Convention among judges and court personnel, and promote its use in courts. The Programme intends to enhance regional exchange and learning among judiciaries in Southeast Asia. UN Women is also working with ICJ in the development of two documents‐ one is a manual on gender stereotyping affecting judicial decision making and second is a research document on citing CEDAW in judicial decisions – both to provide reference and resource to judicial training curriculums in training institutes. The need for these products arises from the discussions in the Regional Judicial Colloquium organized by UN Women in partnership with Thai Office of Judiciary and ICJ.
Please see ToR as attached for more detail. |
