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International CEDAW Day: Let's fulfill the commitments

Mamunur Rashid and Shaheda Ferdouse Munni
**Implementing CEDAW is not just about fulfilling a commitment at the international arena; it is even more than that. It is about making women's life more secure and meaningful, because they are 50% of the entire humankind.**
TODAY (September 3) is international Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW) Day. CEDAW is the international bill of women's rights adopted by the United Nations in 1979. Each member state ratifying the Convention is required to submit a periodic four- yearly report on the status of implementation. Nongovernment organisations and women's groups can submit an Alternate to the Committee. This is used by the Committee to supplement the state report.
Bangladesh signed CEDAW in 1984. Since the beginning, Bangladesh has been sending regular reports to the UN CEDAW Committee. It has been more than one and a half years since Bangladesh submitted its combined sixth and seventh state reports as well as NGOs Alternate Report. After thorough review of the reports, the UN CEDAW Committee gave a number of Concluding Observations to be addressed by the government before the next report submission.
NGOs in Bangladesh working on CEDAW created a collective platform named Citizens' Initiatives on CEDAW, Bangladesh (CEDAW Platform) in 2007 to prepare and submit the Alternate Report. This was prepared after extensive, participatory consultations amongst a wide range of women's rights and human rights groups. The CEDAW Platform (42 national NGOs are members) has come up with a status report to help monitor the achievements and gaps since more than one and a half years have passed. So it's worth knowing what has been achieved or what challenges remain that need to be dealt with before submitting the next report.
While putting forward the
Concluding Observations, the Committee selected two issues for follow-up procedure and requested the state party to provide, within two years, written information on the steps undertaken to implement the recommendations contained in Paragraphs 12 and 20 of the Concluding Observations 2011. The two issues are: (1) withdrawal of reservations and (2) measures taken to combat violence against women. Let's see the current status with regard to these two issues.
Withdrawal of reservations No steps have been taken for withdrawal of reservations, so there is no progress on this issue to date. While
signing CEDAW, Bangladesh government kept four reservations. While reservations from two articles have so far been withdrawn, Bangladesh's position remains unchanged regarding Articles 2 and 16.1.C. These two articles would necessitate the state party to enact new laws or amend all discriminatory laws that affect women's human rights. In other words, these reservations allow for continuation of discriminatory policies and laws. The reason given for reservation is that withdrawal may go against the spirit of Quran and Sunnah.
In its last periodic report, the Bangladesh government made written commitments for considering withdrawal of reservations and full ratification of UNCEDAW. In the 2004 periodic report, the government mentioned: "The Ministry of Law, lustice and Parliamentary Affairs had
opined in favour of withdrawal of reservations." But, in reality, that has not been done. This leaves a big question mark regarding the fulfillment of Bangladesh's commitment to establish women's human rights and gender equality.
If we look deeply into the issue of continued reservations, then we will hardly find any justification in favour of that. The excuse of Quran-Sunnah is feeble as we see seventeen Muslim majority countries, including, Jordan, Kuwait, TUnisia, Lebanon, Maldives, Oman, etc., have placed no reservations on Article 2. Besides, over 10% of Bangladesh's population is nonMuslim, for whom Islamic laws do not apply. Their lives are governed by
laws other than the Islamic law. Therefore, maintaining reservations on account of Quran and Sunnah is not universally applicable.
Moreover, Bangladesh's reservation to Article 2 is in contradiction with constitutional guarantees provided under Articles 10,19,27,28,29, which say that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of state and public life.
Combating violence against women
In this area, Bangladesh has a few positive stories to tell, albeit challenges remain in the way of effectively combating issues of violence against women. For example, the Parliament enacted the Domestic Violence Act in 2010. But rules and
regulations that are very important for judicial procedure and effective implementation of the law are yet to be formulated. Besides, there are some weaknesses in the law, such as marital rape is not included in the definition of domestic violence. On the other hand, the government has not been able to finalise its action plan to deal with violence against women, which is extremely important in putting the law into practice.
On the issue of sexual harassment, which is a rampant form of violence in the public sphere, the High Court issued directives to educational institutions and workplaces in 2009 to set up complaints committees and complaint boxes to prevent sexual harassment. However, no specific law on sexual harassment has yet been formulated. Most of the educational institutions have not set up complaint committees or complaint boxes, and steps have not been taken to create awareness against sexual harassment.
In a nutshell, it can be said that Bangladesh is making a slow progress in implementing CEDAW. Forty years after independence one would expect a far better performance with regard to ensuring human rights of all citizens, including women, because the basis of the movement for independence was to create a democratic, secular and discrimination-free country. So we need to keep that constandy in mind, and we need to fulfill our commitment to implement CEDAW in full. Besides, implementing CEDAW is not just about fulfilling a commitment at the international arena; it is even more than that. It is about making women's life more secure and meaningful, because they are 50% of the entire humankind.
The writers are Coordinators, Steps Towards Development.
(Steps Towards Development is the Secretariat of
CEDAW Platform.)