Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

144 Chapter 12
The reporting
obligation
established in
CEDAW creates
the conditions
for enabling
women to
fully enjoy
their rights
the country level to hold their governments accountable for meeting Goal 3.
The reporting obligation established in the convention, supported by the work
of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (the
body of 23 experts that monitors implementation of the convention) and of
civil society organizations, creates the conditions for enabling women to fully
enjoy their rights. Frequently, this reporting process has created partnerships
among government, NGOs, and UN agencies to work together to achieve the
goals of the convention.
Good practices exist in many countries for reporting on actions to eliminate
discrimination against women and for following up on CEDAW reports
and their recommendations. In the Netherlands the government is required
to report to Parliament every four years on implementation of the convention
before the state party’s report is submitted to the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women, and the concluding comments of the
committee are also presented to the Parliament. Uruguay’s Parliament organizes
a session to follow up on the committee’s recommendations and calls
on members of the government to discuss them. Mexico and Sweden convene
seminars or special meetings to discuss the committee’s concluding comments.
Many state parties publish their reports, together with the committee’s comments,
to give wide publicity to the convention and its implementation.
With the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention in
December 2000, the mandate of the committee was expanded to complaints by
or on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals who claim that their rights
under the convention have been violated. As of November 2004, 76 states were
signatories to the Optional Protocol. The Optional Protocol is the most visible
means for women to seek redress at the international level when domestic judicial
systems are faulty and discriminatory laws against women still exist. The
Optional Protocol strengthens national mechanisms for ensuring women’s full
enjoyment of their rights by providing a path to relief for individual grievances
and by improving understanding of the obligations imposed by the convention.
The convention has had a positive impact in countries throughout the
world. It has led to the strengthening of constitutional provisions in many
countries guaranteeing equality between women and men and providing a
constitutional basis for the protection of women’s human rights. The revised
Brazilian Constitution includes extensive guarantees reflecting the convention,
and the South African Constitution contains strong provisions guaranteeing
women’s equality.
National courts have also used the convention as a basis for decisionmaking.
The Botswana Court of Appeal drew on international treaties, including
the convention, to uphold a challenge to the nationality law which prevented
Botswanan women married to non-Botswanan nationals to pass on their
nationality to their children. The Supreme Court of Nepal referenced the convention
in ordering the government to introduce a bill to remedy discriminatory