In a world where gender-based discrimination and violence persist, advancing women's rights through the strategic utilisation of international frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Istanbul Convention are international agreements that should serve as powerful tools for promoting gender equality and protecting women's rights. CEO Vivienne Hayes delves into the significance of these international agreements and explores how they can be leveraged to drive meaningful change at both the national and grassroots levels.

Understanding CEDAW and the Istanbul Convention

As we continue to be subjected to institutional racism and sexism, we need to better exact international obligations such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Istanbul Convention to advance our movement with a distinct analysis based on sex, race and class, amplifying the voices of marginalised communities of women and resisting systemic inequalities. Women’s Resource Centre has led the production of the CEDAW shadow report for England for over a decade, and we have also worked with Wen Wales, NIWEP and Engender to present a four-nations report.

I call CEDAW “the best-kept secret in the country” because although the government has a duty to raise awareness of it, it does almost nothing to do so. Unless you work within the women’s sector, you probably have never heard of it. CEDAW is the UN convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. For short, we call it the ‘UN Bill of Rights for Women’, and it is critical.

Importance of Incorporating CEDAW into Domestic Law

With the potential loss of other human rights laws and conventions through Brexit, now more than ever, we need to get behind it. We have been asking for years and years and years for the incorporation of CEDAW into domestic law, which the government have continually pushed back against, saying, ‘Oh, we’re giving women extra rights’. Don't make me laugh, please!

The thing with CEDAW is it is only as strong as the ability of women's human rights defenders to collectively advocate to the government, and again, we go back to a lack of resourcing. 

Addressing Resource Constraints and Funding Challenges

There is also a question to be answered about how to make sure that minoritised women's voices are heard in CEDAW. This has been a continuous challenge because a lot of the women who have been engaged in CEDAW hitherto have been white middle-class women. Because if you want to go to Geneva or New York to attend the committee, you must mostly pay for yourself. So, the women who get there are the ones with money who are generally white, middle-class women.

With the support of Rosie Lewis (independent VAWG consultant and activist specialising in work with marginalised women and children), WRC has held a CEDAW Working Group, which was targeted at Black and minoritised women's organisations to try and redress that balance and to make sure their voices and concerns were central in the report. There is so much more to be done. We need to really push on CEDAW because it can make changes in government policy, but again it is about us doing the work around the recommendations that are made from the committee.

 

Vivienne Hayes, CEO
Women’s Resource Centre