What are human rights treaties?Unlike world conference documents and United Nations declarations (such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), human rights treaties carry a continuing legal obligation for the countries that ratify them. There are currently seven human rights treaties and each treaty has a panel of experts (treaty monitoring body) which reviews the countries that have ratified the treaty (States parties).
- The Human Rights Committee (CCPR) monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) monitors the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
- The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
- The Committee Against Torture (CAT) monitors the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
- The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) monitors the Convention on the Rights of the Child
- The Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) monitors the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
- The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) monitors the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Women’s Human Rights Treaties
States that ratify the CEDAW Convention (States parties) agree to take all appropriate measures to improve the status of women and to change both laws and customs that impede women’s advancement in political, economic, social, cultural, civil, and all other fields. As of February 2008, the CEDAW Convention had been ratified by 185 countries. Ratification of other human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CESCR), also imposes an obligation to eliminate discrimination and to provide for women’s equal enjoyment of those rights. Most countries have ratified one or more of the human rights treaties—so women from almost everywhere can use the treaties to help enforce their human rights.
The CEDAW Convention is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a human rights treaty protecting women’s human rights. The sixteen substantive articles of the Convention outline the obligations to eliminate discrimination and pursue equality in education, health care, employment, family life, and participation in public and political life. Most significantly, ratifying countries (States parties) undertake to eliminate prejudices and customs that perpetuate stereotyped gender roles and inequality.
States parties are obligated to report on the status of women and girls within one year of ratification and every four years thereafter. A 23-member group of independent experts, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), monitors implementation of the CEDAW Convention, reviewing country reports on implementation and addressing individual complaints. When a State party’s report is scheduled for review, any NGO with knowledge of sex discrimination issues in that country may submit a shadow report to be considered by the CEDAW Committee. Assessing the Status of Women in the 21st Century: a Guide to Reporting under the CEDAW Convention is the IWRAW publication providing guidance on how to write a shadow report for the CEDAW Convention.
The CEDAW Committee issues Concluding Observations (previously called Concluding Comments) at the end of every Session. These remarks are the official opinion of the CEDAW Committee on the progress the reporting States Parties have made in compliance with the obligations of the CEDAW Convention.
With the adoption in 2000 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, women from States parties gained an avenue for individual claims of Convention violations as well as an opportunity to request a CEDAW Committee inquiry into situations of “grave or systematic” violations of women’s rights. Under the complaints procedure, when a woman’s human rights have been violated, and she has exhausted all possible remedies within her country, she may petition the CEDAW Committee to hear her complaint. Under the inquiry procedure, the Committee may initiate inquiries into situations of “grave or systematic” violations of women’s rights. For more information on the Optional Protocol, please see:
United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is the treaty that outlines generally the rights to education, health care, employment, and family life stated in the CEDAW Convention. It includes a clear and fundamental obligation of equality that complements the terms of the CEDAW Convention and provides women with another, broader venue—the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights—for claiming their rights. NGO voices are multiplied by having more than one venue for human rights advocacy, and governments pay greater attention when more than one body underscores the obligation to implement women’s human rights. IWRAW’s Equality and Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Guide to Implementation and Monitoring under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is designed to assist NGOs in using the Covenant.
A shadow report is a document written by NGOs evaluating government efforts to meet the obligations of a human rights treaty.
The reporting process for all human rights treaties includes a requirement that the States parties to present an official document describing their successes in and challenges to satisfying their treaty obligations. A treaty monitoring body, elected according to the terms of the particular treaty, reviews the report and conducts a dialogue with the government officials who present it. NGOs also have the opportunity to present a written report on implementation of the treaty. The NGO report is called a shadow report and provides a response to the State party report, including clarifications of factual issues, indications of misleading information, or information on a situation that is absent from the State party report. Each of the treaty monitoring bodies has established a process for NGOs to present their information orally as well as in writing.
Any NGO with credible information may present a shadow report. For information on:
- CEDAW shadow reports: consult "Assessing the Status of Women"
- CESCR shadow reports: consult "Equality and Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Guide to Implementation and Monitoring under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights"
- Common core document (CCD) shadow reports: consult "New Guidelines for Human Rights Treaty Reporting: Opportunities for Women’s Rights NGOs"
How does an NGO submit a shadow report?*
Shadow reports should only be submitted in conjunction with a treaty body’s review of the particular state. The treaty monitoring body will not review a shadow report alone. (Although, a specific, individual concern may use the Optional Protocols of the treaty if applicable.)
Shadow reports should be submitted to directly to the Secretariat for CCPR, CESCR, CERD, CEDAW, CAT, CWM, and CRPD. For CRC, shadow reports must be submitted to the CRC Coalition. Typically, print copies of reports must also be sent.
*Information accurate as of July, 2008. For current and more detailed information about submitting to a specific treaty body, please see each specific treaty body website on the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights webpage
How do treaty monitoring bodies use NGO shadow reports?
CEDAW, CCPR, CERD, CAT, CMW, and CESCR invite NGOs to provide reports 2-3 months in advance of the pre-sessional working groups or directly to the treaty body at the time the State is being reviewed. Each treaty body devotes has different procedures for reviewing NGO shadow reports. CESCR, CEDAW and CRC allow oral NGO presentations during the pre-sessional working groups in addition to considering the written report, and CCPR will also begin to allow NGO oral presentations while before the State party review. Also, most treaty bodies (except CERD) allow NGOs to make formal presentations during the session in which the State party is being considered. Also, informal meetings (breakfast or lunchtime) are often scheduled for NGOs reporting to CEDAW, CCPR, and CESCR.
**For a comprehensive overview of the NGO participation in the treaty bodies, please see“Report on the Working Methods of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies Relating to the State Party Reporting Process,” HRI/MC/2008/4 (05/06/2008)
How does the United Nations human rights treaty body reform affect shadow reporting?
United Nations reform will have an impact on women’s use of the international human rights treaties. As of 2008, the CEDAW Committee meets regularly in Geneva, where all the other treaty monitoring bodies are based, rather than in New York (its base for the last fifteen years). The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is engaged in a major effort to harmonize reporting and review of governments’ performance under all the human rights treaties.
As part of the general UN reform process that began in 2002, changes are occurring in the procedures of the human rights treaty system. In 2006, in view of a significant increase in ratifications and therefore of required reports and reviews, the Chairpersons of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies endorsed new guidelines for State party reports to treaty bodies, Harmonized Guidelines on Reporting under the International Human Rights treaties, Including Guidelines on a Common Core Document and Treaty-Specific Documents (HRI/MC/2006/3).
These changes present a new opportunity for NGOs to submit a report on women’s human rights to any treaty body without undertaking major efforts in addition to their work with the CEDAW Convention. States parties are now requested to provide a common core document (CCD) that presents an account of the State’s laws and policies relating to non-discrimination, equality, and effective remedies. This document therefore includes information that is directly relevant to monitoring implementation of the CEDAW Convention and the non-discrimination provisions of all the other human rights treaties. It is to be consulted by all the treaty monitoring bodies in their reviews of States’ treaty implementation. Working with the CCD therefore provides an opportunity for women’s human rights NGOs to submit relevant information to any treaty body that is reviewing their government’s human rights performance. For more information about the new CCD guidelines and shadow reporting for the new CCD, please see the IWRAW manual, New Harmonized Guidelines for Human Rights Treaty Reporting: Opportunities for Women’s Human Rights NGOs.
What is the status of the CEDAW Convention in the United States?
The United States is the only industrialized country—and one of only eight countries in the world—that has not ratified the CEDAW Convention. IWRAW is working with other US-based organizations to promote Convention ratification. Ratification is essential to rebuilding the stature of the United States as a global citizen as well as to increasing accountability of the U.S. government to its own citizens.
Notes________________________1. “Report on the Working Methods of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies Relating to the State Party Reporting Process,” HRI/MC/2008/4 (05/06/2008) at ¶108. Available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/icm-mc/documents.htm (accessed July 2008).
COPYRIGHT© 2009 All materials on this web site copyright of International Women's Rights Action Watch, University of Minnesota, USA
