CEDAW – Ratification & Reservations – Specific UN Member State Reservations

The Convention permits ratification subject to
reservations, provided that the reservations are not incompatible with the
object and purpose of the Convention. Some States parties that enter
reservations to the Convention do not enter reservations to analogous
provisions in other human rights treaties. A number of States enter
reservations to particular articles on the ground that national law,
tradition, religion or culture are not congruent with Convention principles,
and purport to justify the reservation on that basis. Some States enter a
reservation to article 2, although their national constitutions or laws
prohibit discrimination. There is therefore an inherent conflict between the
provisions of the State’s constitution and its reservation to the Convention.
Some reservations are drawn so widely that their effect cannot be limited to
specific provisions in the Convention.

For specific reservations by country, click here.

To download a PDF version of CEDAW/SP/2006/2:
Declarations, reservations, objections and notifications of withdrawal of
reservations relating to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, click on the preferred language link: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm

Impermissible Reservations to CEDAW:

Article 28, paragraph 2, of the Convention adopts the
impermissibility principle contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties. It states that a reservation incompatible with the object and
purpose of the present Convention shall not be permitted.

Although the Convention does not prohibit the entering
of reservations, those which challenge the central principles of the
Convention are contrary to the provisions of the Convention and to general
international law. As such they may be challenged by other States parties.

Articles 2 and 16 are considered by the Committee to be
core provisions of the Convention. Although some States parties have
withdrawn reservations to those articles, the Committee is particularly
concerned at the number and extent of reservations entered to those articles.

The Committee holds the view that article 2 is central
to the objects and purpose of the Convention. States parties which ratify the
Convention do so because they agree that discrimination against women in all
its forms should be condemned and that the strategies set out in article 2,
subparagraphs (a) to (g), should be implemented by States parties to
eliminate it.

Neither traditional, religious or cultural practice nor
incompatible domestic laws and policies can justify violations of the
Convention. The Committee also remains convinced that reservations to article
16, whether lodged for national, traditional, religious or cultural reasons,
are incompatible with the Convention and therefore impermissible and should
be reviewed and modified or withdrawn.