Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)
The CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women represents a foundational modern document from 1979 developed for the furtherance of the equality of the sexes in a number of domains, of which Canada ratified and thus becomes a vanguard to uphold its stated values through the implied set of actions and developments in individuals and structures within the society.
These include the ability of women to be able to work in and represent the government on the international level as well as the ability to work in the international organizations. It is important to note that the basis for women’s equality comes not only in the political and public life, as in Article 7, but also in the representation of the country – as representing one face of Canada, for instance – through the international community.
In Article 8, we find a single statement about the equality of the sexes, where the same emphasis is on all appropriate or reasonable measures pertaining to the nation’s bound to the document. For the gender equality desired by much of the world, the ability of women to participate in the international landscape through the national documents remains an important aspect to the equality of the sexes.
The women and men in accordance with the document deserve and reserve the same right to work on the same terms. Men, historically and in much of the present, do not have to work on equal terms with women; women have had to work extra hard to get the respect, education, and experience necessary to garner the equal terms with the men.
It was, and is, no doubt harder for women with fewer opportunities to be able to move up the ladder and with a smaller number of role models from which to take a cue. That then makes each individual woman needs to build their own plan and work their own course in life. Of course, some will not make it; life becomes harder without much of a roadmap in the form of a living idol.
The emphasis in Article 8 is relevant to all women but most importantly to the women wanting to take the place in governments and thus also participate in the work of the international organizations of the world. This makes the inclusion of women in the world of international relations and politics of utmost importance and something of which they can strive for.
No joke: the women of the world were shut out of some of the highest decision-making bodies of the world for centuries and centuries, and continue to be right into the present. Let’s make no mistake about it. The role of women for a long history of the world was as subordinates and never as real leaders.
The modern world and documents such as the CEDAW provide, at least, some basis from which women can take their aims and stake their claims for the highest offices in the world. But then the next parts of the problems come not from the statements of the CEDAW but, rather, from the implementation of the social and cultural, and especially in this case the political, reactions to the work of women trying to enter into the political world of work in governments and in the international organizations.
The fundamental nature of the equality of the sexes with women wanting to treated as men are treated in the world of governmental work and in international relations comes through in Article 8 of the CEDAW in clear, ditinct language and needing no more than a single statement about it. The questions that may arise for some people about the gender equality the future will come from three directions.
One will be the ability of women to be able to compete equally with men in these domains and so the social and cultural questions around the right for equal work. Some men may feel uncomfortable and so make women feel the same when they work with them.
A second will be in the potential for these rights being removed or retracted in some form. That may take the form of a formal process of elimination of the documents that fight for the elimination of discrimination against women themselves.
A third issue will be what form the future documents will take in order to ensure wome are treated equally in the world of governmental work and the new ways of life that may necessitate new documents to cover the needed extension of the fundamental rights stipulated in Article 8 of the CEDAW.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3 and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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Image Credits: Pixabay