CEDAW – History

Short History of CEDAW Convention

Equality of rights for women is a basic principle of the
United Nations. The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations sets as one
of the Organization’s central goals the reaffirmation of “faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in
the equal rights of men and women”. Article 1 proclaims that one of the
purposes of the United Nations is to achieve international cooperation in
promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental
freedoms for all without distinction as to, inter alia, sex. By the
terms of the Charter, the first international instrument to refer
specifically to human rights and to the equal rights of men and women, all
members of the United Nations are legally bound to strive towards the full
realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The status of human
rights, including the goal of equality between women and men, is thereby
elevated: a matter of ethics becomes a contractual obligation of all
Governments and of the UN.

The International Bill of Human Rights strengthens and
extends this emphasis on the human rights of women. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights proclaims the entitlement of everyone to equality before the
law and to the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms without
distinction of any kind and proceeds to include sex among the grounds of such
impermissible distinction. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
both of 1966, which translate the principles of the Declaration into legally
binding form, clearly state that the rights set forth are applicable to all
persons without distinction of any kind and, again, put forth sex as such a
ground of impermissible distinction. In addition, each Covenant specifically
binds acceding or ratifying States to undertake to ensure that women and men
have equal right to the enjoyment of all the rights they establish.

The International Bill of Human Rights, combined with
related human rights treaties, thus lays down a comprehensive set of rights
to which all persons, including women, are entitled. However, the fact of
women’s humanity proved insufficient to guarantee them the enjoyment of their
internationally agreed rights. Since its establishment, the Commission on the
Status of Women (CSW) has sought to define and elaborate the general
guarantees of non-discrimination in these instruments from a gender
perspective. The work of CSW has resulted in a number of important
declarations and conventions that protect and promote the human rights of
women.

Originally established in 1946 as a subcommission of the
Commission on Human Rights, but quickly granted the status of full commission
as a result of the pressure exerted by women’s activists, the mandate of the
CSW included the preparation of recommendations relating to urgent problems
requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights with the object
of implementing the principle that men and women should have equal rights,
and the development of proposals to give effect to such recommendations.
Between 1949 and 1959, the Commission elaborated the Convention on the
Political Rights of Women, adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December
1952, the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, adopted by the
Assembly on 29 January 1957, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum
Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages adopted on 7 November 1962,
and the Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages adopted on 1 November 1965. Each of these treaties
protected and promoted the rights of women in areas in which the Commission
considered such rights to be particularly vulnerable. But it was believed
that, except in those areas, women’s rights were best protected and promoted
by the general human rights treaties.

Although these instruments reflected the growing
sophistication of the UN system with regard to the protection and promotion
of women’s human rights, the approach they reflected was fragmentary, as they
failed to deal with discrimination against women in a comprehensive way. In
addition, there was concern that the general human rights regime was not, in
fact, working as well as it might to protect and promote the rights of women.
Thus, the General Assembly, on 5 December 1963, adopted its resolution 1921
(XVIII), in which it requested the Economic and Social Council to invite the
CSW to prepare a draft declaration that would combine in a single instrument
international standards articulating the equal rights of men and women. This
process was supported throughout by women activists within and outside the UN
system. Drafting of the declaration, by a committee selected from within the
CSW, began in 1965, with the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women ultimately being adopted by the GA on 7 November 1967. Although
the Declaration amounted only to a statement of moral and political intent,
without the contractual force of a treaty, its drafting was none the less a
difficult process. Article 6, concerning equality in marriage and the family,
and article 10, relating to employment, proved to be particularly
controversial, as did the question of whether the Declaration should call for
the abolition of the customs and laws perpetuating discrimination or for
their modification or change.

The 1960s saw the emergence, in many parts of the world,
of a new consciousness of the patterns of discrimination against women and a
rise in the number of organizations committed to combating the effect of such
discrimination. The adverse impact of some development policies on women also
became apparent. In 1972, five years after the adoption of the Declaration
and four years after the introduction of a voluntary reporting system on the
implementation of the Declaration by the Economic and Social Commission, the
CSW considered the possibility of preparing a binding treaty that would give
normative force to the provisions of the Declaration and decided to request
the Secretary-General to call upon UN Member States to transmit their views
on such a proposal. The following year, a working group was appointed to
consider the elaboration of such a convention. In 1974, at its twenty-fifth
session and in the light of the report of this working group, the Commission
decided, in principle, to prepare a single, comprehensive and internationally
binding instrument to eliminate discrimination against women. This instrument
was to be prepared without prejudice to any future recommendations that might
be made by the United Nations or its specialized agencies with respect to the
preparation of legal instruments to eliminate discrimination in specific
fields.

The text of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women was prepared by working groups within
the Commission during 1976 and extensive deliberations by a working group of
the Third Committee of the General Assembly from 1977 to 1979. Drafting work
within the Commission was encouraged by the World Plan of Action for the
Implementation of the Objectives of the International Women’s Year, adopted
by the World Conference of the International Women’s Year held in Mexico City
in 1975, which called for a convention on the elimination of discrimination
against women, with effective procedures for its implementation. Work was
also encouraged by the General Assembly which had urged the Commission on the
Status of Women to finish its work by 1976, so that the Convention would be
completed in time for the 1980 Copenhagen mid-decade review conference (World
Conference on the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and
Peace). Although suggestions were made to delay completion of the text for
another year, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 by
votes of 130 to none, with 10 abstentions. In resolution 34/180, in which the
General Assembly adopted the Convention, the Assembly expressed the hope that
the Convention would come into force at an early date and requested the
Secretary-General to present the text of the Convention to the mid-decade
World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women.

At the special ceremony that took place at the
Copenhagen Conference on 17 July 1980, 64 States signed the Convention and
two States submitted their instruments of ratification. On 3 September 1981,
30 days after the twentieth member State had ratified it, the Convention
entered into force – faster than any previous human rights convention had
done – thus bringing to a climax United Nations efforts to codify
comprehensively international legal standards for women.

* extracted from Progress achieved in the implementation
of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women: Report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (A/CONF.177/7).

Published by the United Nations Department of Public
Information