Conference Celebrates 30 Years of UN Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women
ECA Press Release No. 66/2009
Banjul, The Gambia, 18 November 2009 (ECA) – Participants of the Eighth African Regional Conference on Women celebrated in words and songs the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). They also urged full adoption of the Convention.
Ms. Micheline Ravololonarisa, UNIFEM Chief for Africa noted that CEDAW had gone from being a bold commitment on paper to being a powerful force for actual change.
“As we celebrate the birth of this instrument, the changes that we seek today are the result of women’s mobilization over many years,” she said. “Today women’s equal rights and gender equality are part of the political debate,”
Speaking on behalf of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ms Thokozile Ruzvidzo, ECA Chief of the Gender and Women in Development said delegates were celebrating and reflecting on all the CEDAW had done.
“It has been a precursor in all our countries on all the work we’ve done on gender equality and women’s rights,” she said.
Addressing the critical issue of financing for gender equality, Dr. Monique Rakotomalala, Director of the ECA African Centre for Gender and Social Development, said there was concern on the “paucity of funding provided by states to provide substantive positive policy positions and frame work to promote gender equality and empowerment of women.”
Speaking on behalf of African Union Commission Chairperson Mr. Jean Ping, Ms Litha Musyimi-Ogana, Director for Women, Gender and Development at the African Union Commission, called CEDAW the “Women’s Bill of Rights” and its adoption “was a great achievement for women’s rights advocates.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice-President of The Gambia said her country has learned a great deal from ratification of CEDAW, most importantly that understanding is key to the acceptance of a women’s rights bill, especially the understanding by women.
“I want to clarify that sometimes it’s the women who reject these bills,” she said. “The women you are trying to help need to be sensitized so they appreciate the provisions encapsulated in the bill.”
Focusing on ensuring that all countries ratified CEDAW, Ms Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary- General on Gender Issues urged those African member states that had not done so to do it.
“These instruments really transform words into obligations, obligations on states to ensure that the rights of women all over the world are respected,” she said.
Ms Hanna Foster, Director of the Africa Centre for Democracy and Human Rights launched a vibrant appeal for governments to realize that the private is public when it comes to women’s rights. Gender inequality occurs in all spheres including culture, religion and tradition.
“Therefore state parties need to tackle discrimination in the private lives and relationships of their citizens… and move from non-interference to non-indifference,” she said.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the international human rights treaty for women, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 30 years ago, on 18 December 1979. To date, 186 countries have ratified the Convention and 98 of these countries have ratified its Optional Protocol, which allows the CEDAW Committee to hear individual complaints of rights violations.
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