CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, is an international convention at the United Nations level. The basis of the Convention is to fight to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and is considered one of the basic human rights conventions within the UN. The UN ratified the Convention in 1979, and took effect in 1981. On the other hand, Turkey became a signatory to the present Convention in 1985.
The Convention takes its basic building blocks from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be regarded as its predecessors, and the 1967 Declarations on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. With the help of these two conventions, awareness of the prevention of discrimination against women has increased, and a wider convention is needed.
WHAT OBJECTIVES?
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the primary purpose of CEDAW is to fight all kinds of discrimination against women. CEDAW aims to ensure that every human being is equipped with equal rights, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly gender equality. When evaluated in this context, it is a very detailed contract that focuses on issues such as gender equality, combating discrimination, increasing women's participation in social and economic life, and improving social and economic conditions.
The first article of the Convention is devoted to defining discrimination against women.
According to the Convention, discrimination against women is defined as any gender-based discrimination or deprivation that prevents women from enjoying their fundamental rights and freedoms in the social, economic, political, cultural, civil, or other fields. And to combat this situation, it holds the signatory states responsible by entrusting them with making laws and following appropriate policies. By 2021, there will be 189 countries that are party to the Convention. One of the binding obligations of the states party to the Convention, apart from making policies and laws to prevent discrimination against women mentioned above, is to regularly report to the CEDAW committee to evaluate the practices. In this context, we can state that CEDAW aims to hold states accountable for fighting discrimination and evaluate the conditions' practices through the committee.
IMPORTANCE OF CEDAW
First of all, CEDAW is an international convention that claims to deal with a significant problem worldwide. When we look at the data presented by the UN in 2020, data collected from 95 countries show that more than half of the international parliaments do not set quotas for women, 63% do not have laws on rape based on consent, and about half have restrictions that prevent women from working in certain sectors. All these show us that the fight against discrimination against women has a critical place today.
CEDAW defines discrimination against women to combat this critical problem. At this point, it imposes various responsibilities on the state parties, evaluates their development, and emerges as an essential international convention that fights discrimination.
Author:
Irem Derya
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