Human Rights of Women: Intersectionality and the CEDAW

Abstract

This research aims to track the record of the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)” since its entry into force in 1981, to review its texts and the cases brought to it, to know how it considered and dealt with intersectional discrimination against women. This paper evaluates if CEDAW has succeeded or failed to protect women from ‘intersectionality’. However, this discrimination describes compound discrimination against women based on sex, gender, identity, religion, belief, race, ethnicity, color, culture, socioeconomic status, age, class, and/ or origin... etc. The importance of this research is since despite a lot of cases of compound discrimination practiced against women around the world, the text of the Convention has not changed, and its committee, which is composed of experts in this field, did not adopt any ideas about the nature of discrimination.

To determine the role of intersectionality, the research first focused on the theory of intersectionality in terms of concept and practice. Secondly, it showed how it affects women’s lives with examples from India, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, and others. Finally, it traced the concept of intersectionality, and how the Convention or its committee dealt with it through its general recommendations. The research found that CEDAW has overlooked the concept of intersectionality in its texts, while its committee addressed it in one of its recommendations in 2010 – noting that such recommendations are limited in scope and efficacy – which adversely impacted women’s rights globally. Therefore, the research recommends that the concept of intersectionality should be fully integrated into the text of the Convention, which will be reflected on the state parties by taking special measures that concretely give advantage to women who have been subjected to a history of discrimination.