La Strada Documentation Center

Project on a Mechanism to address Laws that discriminate against Women

Document number
2242
Date
2008
Title
Project on a Mechanism to address Laws that discriminate against Women
Author/publisher
Consultant: Dr. Fareda Banda, Office of the High Commissiooner on Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports, Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Commissioned by Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Women's Rights & Gender Unit,
Summary

The aim of the project was to examine the advisability of creating a new mechanism to address laws that discriminate against women. The terms of reference specified two key objectives. The first was to overview existing UN mechanisms to ascertain the extent to which they addressed the issue of discriminatory laws. This involved interviewing UN human rights and agency officials working in both Geneva and New York and also reviewing the reports and jurisprudence of human rights committees and special procedure mechanisms. The second was to try to get national data on laws that discriminate against women. This was to be done by means of a questionnaire.

The report assesses how reservations entered by States parties when ratifying human rights treaties have impacted upon the attainment of equality and specifically women's ability to enjoy their rights. The fact that some reservations entrench legal discrimination against women calls into question the commitment of States parties to the principle of non-discrimination.

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