La Strada Documentation Center

Passport to Equality

Document number
1392
Date
2006
Title
Passport to Equality
Author/publisher
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Summary
A major step towards the attainment of the goal of equalrights for women was taken on 18 December 1979, whenthe General Assembly adopted the Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.The Passport to Equality is issued by virtue of the right ofevery human being, without distinction of sex, to enjoythe basic rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights. The purpose of the Passport is to makewomen and men all over the world aware of the existenceof the Convention.CEDAW establishes the universality of the principle ofequality of rights between men and women and makesprovision for measures to ensure equality of rights forwomen throughout the world. It reflects the depth of theexclusion and restriction practised against women solelyon the basis of their gender.Very open in outlook, the Convention seeks to establishequality of rights for women, whatever their marital status,in all fields - political, economic, social, cultural and civil.It provides for the adoption at the national level oflegislation prohibiting discrimination and for the adoptionof special temporary measures to accelerate theestablishment of de facto equality between women andmen, including changing the paradigms and models ofsociocultural behaviour that perpetuate discrimination.
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