ABSTRACT
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations in 1980. Today it enjoys the participation of more countries than any other human rights instrument and the active engagement of a robust monitoring committee. Widely considered an innovative contribution to feminist jurisprudence on the ground, it is also celebrated for having helped shape a global development discourse informed by principles of non-discrimination and inclusion. Critics on both the right and left have, however, long attacked CEDAW as a tool of cultural imperialism imposed by Western feminists on countries of the global south in disrespect of local traditions. But research reveals a different story that gives agency to women from the developing world who forged consensus on what they saw as a necessary building block of peace and prosperity in newly independent states. This chapter begins an overdue historical reconstruction by profiling Annie Jiagge of Ghana and Letitia Ramos Shahani of the Philippines.
