United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW/C/GC/29 Distr.: General 30 October 2013 Original: English Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women General recommendation on article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution) I. Background 1. As stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the family is the basic unit of society. a It is a social and legal construct and, in various countries, a religious construct. It also is an economic construct. Family market research has established that family structures, gendered labour division within the family and family laws affect women’s economic well-being no less than labour market structures and labour laws. Indeed, women often do not equally enjoy their family’s economic wealth and gains, they usually bear the greater cost of the breakdown of the family than men and may be left destitute upon widowhood, especially if they have children and particularly where the State provides little or no economic safety net. 2. Inequality in the family underlies all other aspects of discrimination against women and is often justified in the name of ideology, tradition and culture. An examination of the reports of States parties reveals that in many States, the rights and responsibilities of married partners are governed by the principles of civil or common law, religious or customary laws and practices, or some combination of such laws and practices that discriminate against women and do not comply with the principles set out in the Convention. 3. Many of the States parties that maintain such legal arrangements have entered reservations to all or parts of articles 2 and 16. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has repeatedly noted with concern the extent of these reservations, which it considers invalid because they are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention. It has consistently called upon these States parties to withdraw their reservations and ensure that their legal systems, whether civil, religious, customary, or ethnic or some combination thereof, conform to the Convention in general and to article 16 in particular. a Resolution 217 A (III), article 16 (3). 13-54003 (E) 060114 *1354003*

Select target paragraph3