A BOOK REVIEW FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

“The Circle of Empowerment; Twenty-Five Years of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women”, edited by Hanna Beate Schopp-Schilling and Cees Flinterman (New York: Feminist Press a the City University of New York, 2007)

CRISTINA GIORDANO, UNOG LIBRARY

After twenty-five year of its existence, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women moved to Geneva and met here from 14 January to 1 February. The Committee is one of the eight human rights treaty bodies that monitor the implementation of the core UN international human rights treaties. It has been established by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that was adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 1979 and entered into force on 3 September 1981. The Convention has been so far ratified by 185 States and is considered as the most important human rights treaty for women.
The Committee that monitors its implementation is composed of twenty-three experts, nominated and elected by States parties. Until this year, the Committee used to meet in New York. Its move to Geneva consolidates and rationalizes the UN human rights system, bringing all the treaty bodies under the aegis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
One could hardly think of a better time for a book like “The Circle of Empowerment : Twenty-Five Years of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women”, edited by Hanna Beate Schöpp-Schilling and Cess Flinterman, both longterm members of the CEDAW Committee.

The Committee has not had an easy life and its work has often been underestimated within the UN system. One of the reasons lies in the fact that CEDAW is one of the most innovative conventions ever approved and one of the most difficult to implement. The heart of CEDAW is its article #1 that acknowledges the real nature of discrimination against women. Women have suffered and continue to suffer from discrimination just because they are women. General obligations for the States that have ratified CEDAW arise from article 2 and they go well beyond the task of embodying the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions and legislations. States parties should also work, “without delay” to eliminate the roots and causes of discrimination against women, changing not only their laws, but also their customs and practices. This is a call for quite a radical change of mentality and often of deeply rooted traditional institutions. Numerous violations of women’ rights happen within the family or within marriage, two very private spheres. It is not surprising that “the Convention is also the UN human rights treaty to which the highest number of reservations has been entered”. The United States of America has yet to ratify it (and this book, in a clear and concise manner, explains why).

When the Convention was approved in 1979, its contents were seen in the light of the political discourse of the time : peace and development, a new international economic order, disarmament, struggle against apartheid and neocolonialism. In the course of time, it became clearer that the most important message of CEDAW is linked to human rights. To affirm and promote women’s rights is to recognize their dignity as human beings. This simple concept is still far from being a reality.

Article #1 of CEDAW gives a very wide and open definition of discrimination against women. Over the years, the CEDAW Committee has worked on interpreting the Convention in a progressive way, through General Comments that, although not legally binding, provide clear guidelines for State parties towards the realization of its principles. In spite of their perplexities and reservations, the Committee has decided to engage in a positive dialogue with governments, which has often led to changes in national legislations and to improvement in women’s conditions around the world. The Committee’s evolving interpretation of CEDAW has allowed it to examine, for example, the issue of violence against women, which is not explicitly mentioned in the text, including phenomena such as trafficking in women and girls or sexual harassment at work.

The CEDAW Committee activities, supported by NGOs and women’s movements worldwide, have slowly become the basis for action by other UN entities such as the UN World Conferences for Women and the UN World Conference on Human Rights (held in Vienna in 1993). Even the Millennium Development Goals include gender equality among those to be attained by 2015. In 1999, the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the CEDAW Convention gave the Committee two new monitoring instruments : the communications and the inquiry procedures. Individuals or groups of individuals that claim to be victims of violations of rights protected under the Convention can now submit their case to the Committee for examination.

“The circle of empowerment” retraces the story of CEDAW and its Committee in a thorough, but easy to follow way, that makes this book pleasant and informative for everybody. The CEDAW Committee’s work and its relations with the rest of the UN system are well outlined, in simple, yet precise language. The real value of “The Circle of Empowerment”, though, lies in its unique combination of academic chapters with personal reflections of women from all over the world that served in CEDAW as experts. Their different cultural backgrounds, their experiences, their contributions, their commitment and passion give an extremely human, down-to-earth and often moving touch to the written pages. Women’s rights are definitely not an abstract concept. They touch the lives of a large part of humanity and they are still far away from having become a reality. The new globalized world seems actually to pose new threats. The CEDAW Committee’s work is a constant “work in progress”. But after twenty-five years the battle is not lost and there is reason to hope.

Other recommended reading : The unfinished story of women and the United Nations/by Hilkka Pietila. – New York ; Geneva : UN, Non-Governmental Liaison Service, 2007