ABSTRACT
Convention on the Political Rights of Women (20 December 1952, into effect 7 July 1957) Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict (14 December 1974) Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (7 November 1967, into effect 3 September 1981) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (20 November 1989) Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (20 December 1993) Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (10 December 1999, into effect 22 December 2000)
For full texts of the documents, follow links at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3
PART I Article 1 defines ‘discrimination against women’ as meaning ‘any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field’. Article 2 commits States to condemn ‘discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake: (a) To embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions or other appropriate legislation if not yet incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle; (b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women; (c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination; (d) To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation;
(e) To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise; (f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women; (g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women.’ Article 3 commits States to ‘take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men’. Article 4 states that special measures aimed at ‘accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved’. It also states that special measures ‘aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory’. Article 5 commits States to take appropriate measures: (a) ‘To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women; (b) To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, it being understood that the interest of the children is the primordial consideration in all cases.’ Article 6 commits States to ‘take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women’.
