PROJECT ON A MECHANISM TO ADDRESS LAWS THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST WOMEN

Addressing the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (2007), the President of the Human Rights Council noted: “…I believe that the commitment to the human rights of women and the girl child undertaken in Beijing has been strengthened with the reform of the UN human rights system. [...] At the World Summit of 2005, the Heads of State and Government recognized Human Rights as one of the pillars of the United Nations and reaffirmed their commitment to uphold the rights of women, gender equality and the empowerment of women. [...] viii INTRODUCTION The founding document of the UN, The UN Charter provides in its preamble that there is a need “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women.”2The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which followed and which forms the basis of bills of rights of many national constitutions was equally cle. [...] Instruments tackling specific elements of discrimination include the 1967 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,4 which predated to the Women’s Convention otherwise known as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).5 Other international instruments including, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989,6 the Migran. [...] History of the Project In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Governments undertook to ‘revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex.’12 In 2000, at the Special Session of the General Assembly to review the Beijing Platform for Action, the outcome of the World Conference, States set 2005 as the target for removing discriminatory legislation against women.