This essay’s problem is based on the subordination of women that exists worldwide, more specifically on womens rights. The study examined six countries with case study as a method. The countries were chosen based on their ranking on the Global Democracy Ranking of 2015. The countries chosen were the two who got the best grades, the two in the middle and the two who came last. With three different theoretical foundations, the UN Women’s CEDAW-convention, Yvonne Hirdman’s gender theory and Global Democracy Ranking, the countries were examined and led to the following conclusions: the work with women’s rights have progressed further the higher ranking a country has on the Global Democracy Ranking and Hirdmans gender theory can be seen as one of the explanations for the existing inequality. The study also noted that there is a connection between the ratification of the CEDAW-convention and Women’s rights.

In the mini-dissertation, we consider the potential effectiveness of CEDAW in reaching its stated goal of eliminating discrimination against women. We consider and analyse the potential impact of the Convention in the fight against inequality and discrimination against women, and the research examined CEDAW Committee decisions critically to find out its potential impacts and relevance to African women. This mini-dissertation analyses specific forms of discrimination in three selected African states and, found that: (1) women still suffer discrimination in access to education through low female enrolment and, the restriction on particular areas of study, (3) that in employment, women are discriminated against through inequality in payment, restriction of women from some sectors of the economy and; in lower opportunities for women as compared to men, (4) that in relation to politics and public life, women still are discriminated against and; they cannot easily access public office and are, underrepresented in parliament, cabinet and in the private sector, except in Rwanda where women are well represented, (5) that women are discriminated against in access to health care services including reproductive care which is characterized by lower female life expectancy, lower access to health care services especially in rural areas and; high mortality rate amongst female infants, (6) and that women in marriages and families are still not treated equally with men on issues of divorce proceedings, child support, polygamy and early marriage. We discuss and analyse the instruments protecting women against discrimination at the global and regional levels. We illustrated that the instruments effectively protects women against discrimination but were, inadequately implemented or utilised by women. We concluded as follows; (1) that the instruments effectively protected women from discrimination in education, employment, health care services, family and marital life and; in politics and public life. The issue is the implementation of the instruments by states parties and, (2) that in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, that the problem of reservations by states parties have greatly affected the effectiveness of the Convention. As to the CEDAW Committee jurisprudence, we discovered: (1) that the CEDAW Committee has done enough to protect women against discrimination in all spheres of life with groundbreaking decisions and; all that is required now is proper implementation of decisions, (2) that there are presently no communications to the CEDAW Committee from African women yet, (3) that most communications submitted to the Committee have been declared inadmissible for reasons ranging from non-exhaustion of domestic remedies to the facts occurring prior to the entering into force of the Optional Protocol in the state party complained against and, that most cases were lost on procedural errors, (4) that the Committee is very strong in cases of domestic violence and discrimination in access to health care services. In conclusion, the research identifies a number of weaknesses in the Convention and proposes a range of amendments that would facilities the use of the CEDAW Committee by African women. We also identified the implications of the CEDAW Committee jurisprudence on Africa. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

The present dissertation provides an analytical and comparative study of the application of Islamic law (Shari’ah) and international human rights law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provides an analysis of the sources of Islamic law as well as the sources of international law to set the background for analysis and defines the nature of both laws. It also tackles the subject of the domestic application of international human treaties in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it examines some reservations Saudi Arabia has entered to some of the international human rights treaties it has ratified, specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It also sheds some light on the political, cultural and religious obstacles to the realisation of norms protected by international human rights treaties in the country, and in other countries for that matter, clearly stating the impossibility of implementing the provisions of the international human rights treaties in their entirety. This is due to the various political and legal developments towards the internationalization of the concept of human rights. It observes that despite the existence of the international human rights treaties, which aim at reinforcing a universal realisation of international human rights, these rights cannot be possibly realised by all countries. To stress the importance Saudi Arabia attaches to the issue of human rights, the dissertation discusses some rights of women before Saudi courts in family matters, an issue which has been criticised by some international human rights treaties, and examines to what extent the country has managed to tackle the issue of domestic violence, particularly violence against women. It provides an overview of the major causes of domestic violence against women in Saudi Arabia, presents some cases of domestic violence before Saudi courts and sheds some light on the measures taken by the Saudi government to combat domestic violence against women. It also tackles this issue both in the international and domestic legal frameworks, clearly stating the Islamic standpoint on the issue, namely that Islamic law, and Saudi Arabia for that matter, whose laws are essentially derived from the two main sources of Shari’ah. It also discusses the common forms of violence against women in Saudi Arabia and suggests a number of recommendations towards more effective protection of women against violence in the country. The dissertation concludes by presenting a number of obstacles in the way of executing judicial decisions in the Kingdom as well as the obstacles which negatively affect the performance of the new code of law practice. It also presents some recommendations concerning personal status law obstacles and hindrances to progress and attempts to answer the research questions it has posed.

The purpose of the study is to do research on how selected individuals from civil society in Namibia, working with human rights or democracy, see gender equality in a Namibian context and how they regard their own role in the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Interviews have been carried out and grounded theory has been used to analyse the data. Theoretical concepts such as gender equality, civil society and globalization have been used to support the analysis along with theories regarding implementation. Three categories are being presented in the analysis, Theory equality, Distribution of responsibilities, and Male-streaming. The conclusion of the thesis is that the work that is carried out to implement gender equality is not enough.

The aim of this study is to investigate the Framing which appears on the banners which were used in two protests in west bank / Palestine 12 October 2020 and 31 August 2020, and which appeared in photographs published in ضد اتفاقیة ضد اتفاقیة سیداو ‘Against CEDAW Convention’ [My translation] Facebook page. (From the hereon, these will refer to as ‘the banners’) The banners targeted the draft of The Family Protection Laws. The laws related to CEDAW that the Palestinian Authority represented by President Mahmoud Abbas approved in 2020. As the United Nations has declared: The Family Protection Bill is expected to provide measures to prevent and combat violence, as well as due protection, reparation, and empowerment of survivors of violence, while holding perpetrators accountable for their acts (United Nations, 2018) Through Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis Theory and by applying a gendered perspective in addition to the Framing Theory by Entman. I analysed the banners that were used by ضد اتفاقیة ضد اتفاقیة سیداو ‘Against CEDAW Convention’ Facebook page (Hereafter referred to as Facebook page) in two demonstrations, one in August 2020 and the other in October 2020, to frame The Family Protection Laws related to the CEDAW Convention that President Mahmoud Abbas passed. The primary sources for this analysis are 18 banners which were published in the Facebook page. I have found Four main themes that reoccur in the banners visible through terms used repeatedly: "Feminist institutions", "The west", and "Islamic Law", in addition to "Woman’s body".

Underordningen av kvinnor som grupp har på global nivå länge varit en fråga som stått i skuggan av traditionella politiska frågor. Sedan 1979 har det dock funnits en kvinnokonvention stadgad av FN, CEDAW, som har som mål att genom internationell lagstiftning garantera kvinnor samma rättigheter som män på alla områden av det offentliga livet. Ändå finns det många indikationer som visar att kvinnor fortfarande inte i praktiken har samma möjligheter som män. Syftet med denna uppsats är att definiera de punkter som är bristfälliga med CEDAW och som därmed utgör ett hinder för uppluckringen av de patriarkala strukturerna, och lägga fram The Mexico City Policy som ett exempel på sådana hinder i internationell politik. Vidare är syftet även att med hjälp av radikalfeministisk teori argumentera för varför man bör ta i beaktande diskriminering av kvinnor även i den privata sfären. Av analysen i uppsatsen har det framkommit att kvinnokonventionens genusneutrala språk och den bristande respekten från konventionsstaternas sida gentemot konventionens tillämpningsmekanik är de faktorer som är de största hindren för avskaffande av diskrimineringen av kvinnor. Den låga status dessa frågor har i internationell politik är även orsaken till varför MCP kan finnas och finns. / The subordination of women as a group has long been a question that has stood in the shadow of other traditional political questions on a global level. Although, since 1979 there has existed a women’s convention settled by the UN, CEDAW, which intends to through international legislation guarantee women the same rights as men in all parts of public life. However, there are many indications that show that women still don’t have the same rights in practice as men do. The purpose of this essay is to define those parts of CEDAW that are defective and thereby constitute obstacles for loosening up the patriarchal structures, and also to use The Mexico City Policy (MCP) as an example of these kinds of obstacles that exist in international politics. The intention is as well to, with the help of radical feminism, argue why one should also take into consideration the discrimination against women in the private areas of life. The analysis of this essay has shown that the convention’s gender-neutral language and the states parties’ lacking respect for the conventions mechanism for application are the factors that constitute the greatest obstacles for the elimination of discrimination of women. The lack of status these questions have in international politics is also the reason why MCP can and does exist.

With Legal pluralism, a state has more than one legal system in which rights can be attributed to citizens through private or religious actors. Lebanon has established religious family law through the constitutional charter, in which personal status is delegated to the country’s different confessions to govern. Citizens of different confessions are thus assigned different rights which particularly tends to affect the rights of women.  In this study, the impacts of Lebanon's legal pluralism on the legal status of women is being examined to give an understanding of how the legal system from a gender perspective, and to examine how the outcome affects women’s everyday life by the coexistence of religious and civil courts. The study also examines how Lebanon, with its current constitution, can fulfill the international law obligations stemming follow from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Through legal methods and semi-structured interviews made with civil society, legal and academic persons in Beirut - the current laws in Lebanon were analyzed based on the concepts of gender, male dominance, and private and public sphere to visualize the relationship of gender and its significance in the Lebanese legal system. The results of the study show that legal pluralism in Lebanon can be understood in relation to how the complex history of the country has influenced the formation of the judicial system in which a male norm is dominating. The rights of women have been thrust to the private sphere and a masculine norm permeates the Constitution, family law and civil laws, which creates gender segregation in society. Thus, gender affects the legal status of women and the impacts of legal pluralism affect their daily lives negatively as their legal status is subordinate to men regarding marriage and its dissolution, custody of children, and nationality.                       Regarding the Conventional right, the study shows that the current constitution allows for space to fulfill CEDAW. Thus, the protection of the Convention is not being fully implemented in neither the personal status related laws or civil laws. However, Lebanon has reservations towards key articles of the Convention which result in that the full potential of the Convention is not maintained. / Rättslig pluralism innebär att en stat har fler än ett rättssystem och att rättigheter tillämpas av statliga och privata aktörer. Libanon har genom konstitutionen etablerat religiös familjerätt som innebär att medborgare tillskrivs olika rättigheter efter trosbekännelse vilket särskilt påverkar kvinnor rättsliga ställning. I denna studie undersöks hur rättslig pluralism kan förstås ur ett genusrättsvetenskapligt perspektiv samt hur det påverkar kvinnors rättsliga ställning i Libanon. Studien undersöker även hur Libanon, med den nuvarande konstitutionen, kan uppfylla de internationella förpliktelser som följer av konventionen om avskaffande av alla former av diskriminering mot kvinnor (CEDAW). Genom rättsdogmatisk metod, genusrättsvetenskap samt semi-strukturerade intervjuer med civilsamhället, akademiker samt rättstillämpare i Beirut, har gällande rätt i Libanon analyseras utifrån begreppen genus, manlig dominans och privat och offentlig sfär för att visualisera förhållandet mellan kön och dess betydelse i det libanesiska rättssystemet. Resultaten visar att rättslig pluralism i Libanon kan förstås i förhållande till landets komplexa historia som har påverkat bildandet av det rättsliga systemet där en manlig norm präglar konstitutionen, familjerätten och civilrättsliga lagar vilket skapar könssegregering i samhället. Utfallet påvisar att det råder motsättningar mellan konstitutionella rättigheter vilket påverkar att kvinnors rättsliga ställning främst behandlas inom den privata sfären och blir undantaget som rättighetsinnehavare. I det dagliga samhället underordnas kvinnors rättsliga ställning avseende äktenskapet och dess upplösning, vårdnad av barn och nationalitet, i förhållande till den rättsliga ställning som män innehar. Avseende folkrättsliga förpliktelser visar studien att den nuvarande konstitutionen ger utrymme att uppfylla CEDAW. Dock följer av gällande rätt och Libanons reservationer mot centrala artiklar i konventionen hinder vilka innebär att konventionen inte upprätthålls.

This thesis is based on a field study conducted in Uganda in the fall of 2015. The study is analyzing at the process behind the Domestic Violence Act, a law that came in to place in 2010, and try to scrutinize it by using the inclusive democracy theory of Iris Marion Young. In the study numerous interviews with several women’s organizations, as well as representatives for the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and local police officers are presented.   The study aims at getting a better understanding of what is necessary to create successful laws to prevent violence against women. The main objective is to answer the question how inclusion, or the lack of it, can influence the success of legal norms and laws regarding violence against women. The result of this study shows that inclusion could play a role in a law’s success. However inclusion is not enough, other factors such as allocating enough money in the budget together with educating both the public and the officials that are enforcing the law, are also of great importance for a law’s success. Yet, this study also shows that a greater inclusion could affect these factors in a positive way, however inclusion alone is most likely not sufficient for creating a successful law

<p>The Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, was approved by the UN general assembly in 1979 and Sweden was the first country to ratify it in 1980. This thesis investigates, firstly, the importance of CEDAW on Swedish legislation and on sentences passed by Swedish courts, and secondly the significance of the fact that the influence from CEDAW has been based on an assertation of existing norms and not on a transformation or incorporation. Finally this thesis examines if CEDAW is followed. It is only the workplace that is analysed and the focus is on recruitment and wages. CEDAW has little or no importance for Swedish courts of law or their sentences. Since the incorporation of CEDAW is in agreement with earlier established norms it cannot be in force in Swedish courts or within public authorities but is only indirectly in force as a complement to national law. To be in force CEDAW must be implemented by incorporation or transformation. The Swedish court system does not violate CEDAW, but it does not follow the convention either and, even if the result may be the same, this should be considered a discrepancy.</p>

The Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, was approved by the UN general assembly in 1979 and Sweden was the first country to ratify it in 1980. This thesis investigates, firstly, the importance of CEDAW on Swedish legislation and on sentences passed by Swedish courts, and secondly the significance of the fact that the influence from CEDAW has been based on an assertation of existing norms and not on a transformation or incorporation. Finally this thesis examines if CEDAW is followed. It is only the workplace that is analysed and the focus is on recruitment and wages. CEDAW has little or no importance for Swedish courts of law or their sentences. Since the incorporation of CEDAW is in agreement with earlier established norms it cannot be in force in Swedish courts or within public authorities but is only indirectly in force as a complement to national law. To be in force CEDAW must be implemented by incorporation or transformation. The Swedish court system does not violate CEDAW, but it does not follow the convention either and, even if the result may be the same, this should be considered a discrepancy.