This essay aims to examine how the #metoo-­‐movement is described in ten selected debate articles in the Swedish media written between October 17th and December 27th  in 2017 using a critical discourse analysis. The purpose of the essay is to look at how the debate articles articulates that women choose to break the silence of sexual harassments and abuse through the #metoo-­‐movement, and to what extent the debate reflect and challenges the current social practice in relation to gender. The critical discourse analysis aims to clarify the participation of the text in maintaining society’s current social practice, because the discourse both reproduces and changes knowledge, power relations and identities. The current social practice is explained in this essay based on gender theory. The result showed that the debate articles overall reflects the prevailing social practice and the gender hierarchy by in the text questioning women's stories and blaming her for being responsible for the sexual harassments in the #metoo-­‐movement. The results also show that there is a linguistic discourse that, to a certain extent, challenges the prevailing power structures in the society. This discourse appears in several articles that describe the movement positively and see its potential to contribute to change. Furthermore, this essay reflects over the #metoo-­‐movement in relation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which leads to the conclusion that the movement points to the need for more actions from the Swedish government to enable Sweden to fulfill its commitments to the convention.

The purpose of this study is to, based on a comparative case study design, find out what reservations have been made against CEDAW. Furthermore, the purpose is also to compare differences and similarities between the states that have ratified the Convention and made reservations against it. In addition, the study will examine whether the purpose of the convention is sought based on the reservations made. In the study, two international relations theories have been applied, the feminist theory and the liberal internationalist theory. To respond to this purpose, two questions have been formulated. What type of reservations have been made against CEDAW and by which countries? What are the differences and similarities between the reservations and their countries that have made reservations? The results that emerged during the study show that reservations have been made against 9 articles in the convention and the reservations have been made by several different countries. Furthermore, the results also showed that there are more similarities than differences between the countries. The most prominent similarities are based on religion, governance and legislation. One differences between the countries was their completely different rankings on Freedom Houses annual world report on political freedoms and civil rights.