United Nations
Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women
CEDAW/C/GC/28
Distr.: General
16 December 2010
Original: English
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women
General recommendation No. 28 on the core obligations of
States parties under article 2 of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
I.
Introduction
1.
Through this general recommendation, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (“the Committee”) aims to clarify the scope and meaning of
article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (“the Convention”), which provides ways for States parties to implement
domestically the substantive provisions of the Convention. The Committee encourages
States parties to translate this general recommendation into national and local languages
and to disseminate it widely to all branches of Government, civil society, including the
media, academia and human rights and women’s organizations and institutions.2. The
Convention is a dynamic instrument that accommodates the development of international
law. Since its first session in 1982, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women and other actors at the national and international levels have contributed to
the clarification and understanding of the substantive content of the Convention’s articles,
the specific nature of discrimination against women and the various instruments required
for combating such discrimination.
3.
The Convention is part of a comprehensive international human rights legal
framework directed at ensuring the enjoyment by all of all human rights and at eliminating
all forms of discrimination against women on the basis of sex and gender. The Charter of
the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities contain explicit provisions
guaranteeing women equality with men in the enjoyment of the rights they enshrine, while
other international human rights treaties, such as the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, are implicitly grounded in the concept
of non-discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. The International Labour
Organization (ILO) Conventions No. 100 (1951) concerning Equal Remuneration for Men
and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, No. 111 (1958) concerning Discrimination
in Respect of Employment and Occupation and No. 156 (1981) concerning Equal
Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family
Responsibilities, the Convention against Discrimination in Education, the Declaration on
GE.10-47260