Section 3 - Educating and Partnering for CEDAW

Section 3
Introduction
Partnership is the basis for building awareness of an “old” and unknown treaty.
Getting to know CEDAW was a concerted effort on the part of all the partners – in
trainings, forums, media briefings and other forms of public education such as rock
concerts, mall exhibits, ‘zines and other materials. This section deals with initial
efforts in influencing cultural norms and practices and mobilizing partnerships.
Culture, although changeable, is hard to fight, since social norms and tradition lag
behind human rights recognized in conventions or treaties like CEDAW. One way
to influence culture is through formal education. The UPCWS has successfully
integrated CEDAW in the curriculum in general subjects in the college level.
Changing attitudes and roles of men and women as defined by society is slow in
coming. But we are working at it – through multi-stakeholders consultations by
WAGI and popular media like CFA’s Film Festival, CEDAW Watch’s Eve-olution
Concert and WFS’ traveling mall exhibits in partnership with CEDAW Watch and
others. Many spin-offs have resulted from the members of CEDAW Watch.
As we have seen in the first two sections, once CEDAW is understood, it is very
easy, almost automatic even, for people to join in its advocacy for women’s
rights.
The UN Joint Programme is unique in that it’s the first pooled fund resource
towards the implementation of a treaty in the country. And CEDAW is the unifying
factor.
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