Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

1.1
1.2
1.3
Article 1 – Overarching approach to the elimination of
discrimination
Despite recommendations from the CEDAW Committee in 1999 and 2008 there is still
no unified national strategy to implement CEDAW in the UK. At the same time uncertainty
surrounds the future of the domestic human rights framework (laws such as the Human
Rights Act 1 and the Equality Act 2010 2 and the Equality and Human Rights Commission). In the
absence of incorporation of CEDAW this domestic framework provides important protection
for women’s human rights. We are concerned that across the UK there may not be sufficiently
developed commitment and leadership, co-ordination of strategies, and systematic monitoring
of outcomes to ensure that CEDAW obligations are implemented, and these geographical
inconsistencies could hamper overall national progress on the realisation of rights guaranteed
by CEDAW. There may be laws to address equality and human rights but they do not always
include specific information prohibiting discrimination against women. The emphasis on
localism means that funding for many programmes is determined by local government but this
decentralization of power and decision making should not detract from the responsibility of
central government to fulfil its obligations to all women within its jurisdiction, including those in
the devolved administrations, Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. 3 (See Annex 2)
Recommendation:
Remove reservation to Article 1
Very few of the Government’s strategies mention CEDAW or what their obligations are under
the Convention therefore the concluding observation to “raise awareness among women
of their rights under the convention and the communications and inquiry procedure under
the Optional Protocol” 4 has not been advanced. There has also been no integration of the
strategies, objectives and activities recommended in the Beijing Platform for Action 5 under the
relevant articles of the Convention. Few steps have been taken by the Government to ensure
that women are informed about their rights and the limited education on human rights currently
provided in schools as part of Citizenship education risks being lost by proposed changes
to the curriculum 6 which removes reference to human rights and does not explicitly refer to
gender inequality or discrimination. The avenues for recourse to justice are also being removed
(e.g. cuts to legal aid support and advice services See Article 15 and Appendix: 28 for more
information).
Recommendations:
• Develop a national CEDAW Action Plan and report on this in one year
• CEDAW should be compulsorily taught in schools along with other international
human rights mechanisms and domestic human rights legislation so that the
population understand their rights and how to access them
At the 2012 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) examination the Government admitted that there
1. Human Rights Act 1998 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/contents
2. Equality Act 2010 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
3. CEDAW General Recommendation No. 28 The Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of CEDAW (forty-seventh session, 2010)
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/comments.htm Paragraph 39
4. CEDAW Committee (2008) Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Forty-first session http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/555/92/PDF/
N0955592.pdf?OpenElement
5. Beijing Platform for Action http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/
6. British Institute of Human Rights (2013) Human rights education in schools: Time to make your voice heard. BIHR: London http://www.bihr.
org.uk/sites/default/files/BIHRBrief%20HR%20Ed%20April2013.doc
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