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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 49 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Some States that apply religious or customary law to regulate personal status have reinforced the traditional prohibitions on adultery by criminalizing it. Adultery, which is defined as any sexual relation outside marriage, is severely punished and may even result in a sentence of death by stoning in some States that apply Islamic law. The sanctions are generally imposed on the women rather than the men. Interventions by foreign Governments, civil society and special procedures mandate holders have sometimes led to judgements that imposed stoning to be overturned. In some states in the United States of America, adultery between married persons is a crime, but these provisions have not been implemented in the last thirty years. The Working Group issued a statement calling for the decriminalization of adultery and wishes to recall that criminalization of sexual relations between consenting adults is a violation of their right to privacy and an infringement of article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 48 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Several States have no secular family code and regulate personal status either by integrating religious laws on the family into constitutional or legislative provisions or by granting religious authorities or religious tribunals jurisdiction over personal status so that they may apply the family codes derived from the sacred texts. Currently, a large number of States that have Islam as their State religion, such as the Islamic and Arab republics, regulate the personal status of all citizens by applying Islamic law from the Koran and the Sunna. Although the notion of the equality of men and women before the law is often incorporated in their constitutions, some States maintain that this equality does not apply in the case of laws on the family and on marital or personal status. Some States that recognize the legal competence of a majority religion in the State also grant non-majority religions jurisdiction over their own communities of faithful, such as Lebanon (Muslim majority), India (Hindu majority) and Israel (Jewish majority). | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 44 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The first process is the elimination of discriminatory laws on the family and the promotion of gender equality within secular law systems. This sort of legal reform took place in some of these systems from the end of the nineteenth century, when many States reformed their laws on the family by separating religion from the State and introducing measures to promote women's equality within marriage and the family, including the right of married women to conclude contracts, own property, inherit, divorce, and have guardianship and custody of children, on an equal basis with men. Secular family law systems thus moved from being patriarchal to adopting a more egalitarian approach, which now represents good practice in ensuring gender equality in the family. A recent example is the Marriage Law in China, as amended in 2001, which nullified all bigamous marriages and all marriages in which one of the parties had not reached the legal minimum age for marriage, repealing traditionalist patriarchal laws on the family and affirming gender equality in the family. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 97d | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Working Group recommends that States:] Support and ensure women's equal participation in and benefit from all areas of political decision-making during times of political transition. States should:
(i) Apply special measures to ensure the equal and full participation of women in all transitional authorities and mechanisms;
(ii) Ensure, including through constitutional provisions, a coherent system-wide framework for equality between men and women in all fields of life;
(iii) Engage women in meaningful and sustainable ways in the development and implementation of policies to achieve lasting peace and security, including by promoting a culture of peace through formal and informal education in a multicultural setting;
(iv) Ensure women's effective participation in all initiatives to secure accountability for past abuses, including transitional justice processes, and ensure that the guarantee for non-recurrence incorporates overcoming the root causes of gender-based violations in everyday life and institutions; | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 31 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Discrimination against women is also manifest in the unequal provision of health services required by both women and men. This has been especially severe in countries where women have been excluded from receiving medical treatment by male doctors on the grounds of "modesty". | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 136 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Working Group recommends that States:] Eliminate all laws which discriminate against women by punishment of behaviours which are not punished when performed by men or by prescribing invasion of women's physical integrity and autonomy; | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 132 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Working Group recommends that States:] States must prohibit discrimination on grounds of maternity or of care functions, whether performed by women or men; | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 48 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Women are concentrated in higher numbers than men in informal work, not recognized, recorded, protected or regulated by the public authorities, and overrepresented in precarious, atypical and vulnerable work or employment. There are extreme examples in which 93 per cent of women workers are in informal work. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 41 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Participation rates of women in the global labour force continue to be lower than men's, hovering steadily from 1990 to 2010 at around 52 per cent. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 75 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The most effective strategies for women's political empowerment involve reforms to incorporate rules that guarantee women's representation within political parties. Some 50 countries have adopted legislation on electoral quotas in order to ensure that a certain proportion of candidates for political office are women. Hundreds of political parties in another 20 countries have voluntarily adopted their own gender quotas. In some countries the quota system is established by the constitution. One constitution in the Latin American and Caribbean region includes the principle of parity in all policymaking mechanisms, including elections, ministries, the justice system and political parties, and stipulates that political parties' "organization, structure and functioning shall be democratic and shall guarantee the rotation of power, accountability, and parity membership between women and men on their governing boards". In the Maghreb, one new constitution mandates the establishment of a mechanism for parity (see A/HRC/20/28/Add.1). Women's movements were intensely involved in these constitutional processes, illustrating the importance of activism to exert pressure for the creation of a constitutional framework that supports women's right to representation. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Annual Report of the WG on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice 2012, para. 19b | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Working Group will examine:] (b) The extent to which States have met the obligation to protect women from any act by private persons or entities which would impair women's rights to equality and to the exercise and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This will involve identifying the success or failure of States with respect to eliminating all social, cultural, economic and political practices that constitute discrimination against women, including by establishing accessible and effective gender-responsive justice systems and human rights complaint mechanisms that ensure women's equal benefit and protection of the law. Where courts based on customary or religious law are recognized, special attention will be given to the steps taken by States to ensure compliance with international human rights standards, including on fair trial. This will also involve identifying steps taken by States to enact required equality guarantees in their constitutions and required equality provisions in legislation or other appropriate measures, including but not limited to equal-employment-opportunity laws, prohibitions on trafficking, family laws, and sexual and domestic violence legislation. An examination of good practices for this purpose would highlight the processes which led to the effective protection of women's human rights and basic freedoms on an equal basis with men; | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Compendium of good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women 2017, para. 56 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | That civil society organization navigated the challenging context by building strategic partnerships with experts and Government. Together with educational experts, they developed a theoretical and practical educational guidebook entitled “Women and Men: Different but Equal”, which was subsequently approved for use by the Ministry of Education and Science. It supported the incorporation of gender curricula into mandatory courses, such as social studies, and included discussion of gender, reproductive rights and violence prevention. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Compendium of good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women 2017, para. 54 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In 2013, Parliament passed a law on the equal rights and equal opportunities of women and men. The law reiterated the constitutional guarantee of gender equality, defined gender discrimination and contained provisions against direct and indirect discrimination. However, the law generated a great deal of social controversy and backlash because of the perception that it represented an attack on “family values”. Women’s civil society organizations became targets of harassment and protests erupted, with demonstrators calling the law “national treason”. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 108j | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The Working Group recommends that States:] Ensure that the standards contained in the present recommendations are observed and enforced by all health-care providers, public or private, and engage both women and men, as appropriate, in efforts to prevent discrimination, stereotyping and instrumentalization of women's bodies and biological functions. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 22 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In the area of health, the distinctly different biological and reproductive functions of women and men necessitate differential treatment and proper algorithms are required to make sure that women have equal access to and enjoy the highest achievable level of health treatment. An identical approach to treatment, medication, budgeting and accessibility would in fact constitute discrimination. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 64 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In patriarchal cultures, the preference for sons leads to the prioritization of boys' and men's health before that of women and girls, resulting in discriminatory practices such as female infanticide. This is evident in cultural customs relating to food which cause girls and women, including pregnant and nursing women, to suffer disproportionately from malnutrition. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 73d (v) | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [According to general recommendation No. 29 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the family is a social and legal construct and, in various countries, a religious construct. It also is an economic construct. The Working Group recommends that States:] Recognize women as heads of family on an equal basis with men so that they may enjoy the same financial or social benefits; | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Human Rights Council, however, in its resolution 26/11 on the protection of the family, did not reaffirm the right of women to equality in the family. In October 2014, the special procedures mandate holders issued a statement calling on the Council to ensure that the right to equality between women and men, and girls and boys, was included in all future resolutions concerning the family. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 30 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | When the rules governing family relations discriminate against women, they violate international human rights law. Furthermore, considerations linked to protecting and strengthening the family may not be invoked to justify forms of family that do not meet the requirement for equality between men and women and girls and boys. The lack of equality in these forms of marriage leads women and girls to experience discrimination, making them vulnerable to domestic violence. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 25 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | It is the opinion of the Working Group that the understanding and legal definition of the family in national legislation should be extended to recognize different forms of family. The recognition of same-sex couples, for both women and men, and other forms of family is an example of good practice that a number of States have already implemented. In this regard, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has confirmed that mothers who are lesbians should not be deprived of custodial rights over their children. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Culture and religion are often invoked to justify discrimination and violent practices against women and girls. Women have often been viewed as objects rather than as equal participants with men in the creation and manifestation of cultural principles. Indeed, when culture and religion are invoked to justify different forms of discrimination against women, women are seen not as victims or survivors of such discrimination, but as persons who "violate" cultural rules and norms. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 100 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Discriminatory laws and practice prevail in most countries. Some such laws are self-evident, such as mandatory early retirement for women. Some are what has been called "statistical discrimination", such as separate annuity tables for women and men based on women's greater longevity. Others are the result of the sociology of the family and of legislative policy endorsing and perpetuating the economic dependence of women on a husband's income and pension entitlement. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 83 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Barriers to women's economic opportunities resulting from reproduction and care functions must be removed in order to permit choice by women and men as to how they allocate economic and caring duties. Three possible patterns of allocation have been identified: both parents as full-time workers; one full-time and one part-time worker, where the part-time worker is usually the woman; or the male breadwinner model. There is also the single parent pattern, which is usually a woman. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 46 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The gender wage gap persists: women's wages represent between 70-90 per cent of men's wages in most countries. Research shows that differences in women's working hours, which are lower than men's, cannot justify the wage gap, and the wage gap cannot be attributed solely to a motherhood penalty. Furthermore, wage gaps remain substantial despite women' gains in education. Indeed, wage gaps are usually wider between men and women with tertiary education. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Women are disadvantaged economically as a result of social and cultural parameters, including stereotyping, discrimination and violence. A structural barrier to women's economic empowerment is the disparate feminization of unpaid care responsibilities. These cultural and structural barriers appear throughout girls' and women's life cycle and, indeed, women's economic situation varies throughout their life cycle more than men's. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 76 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Working Group notes that good practices of States include a legislative, and preferably constitutional, requirement that political parties place women in realistic positions for election, apply quotas, guarantee the rotation of power, accountability and parity membership between women and men on their governing boards and condition the funding of political parties on their integration of women in realistic positions on their candidate lists. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 42 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Working Group welcomes a general trend in recent years to extend special measures or positive action to other areas of public life beyond legislative bodies. Positive action encompasses actions to promote women's participation in public life by such tools as media campaigns and training opportunities, which are not legally binding quotas, and new generation transformative measures setting out an overriding objective of equal power of women and men to shape society and their own lives. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Annual Report of the WG on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice 2012, para. 9 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Effective elimination of discrimination against women requires the consistent political will of States, with broad-based consensus of whole societies, to formulate and implement laws that promote equality between men and women, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, and prevent and provide redress for violence against women, along with policies and measures that create a conducive environment for women's empowerment. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Compendium of good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women 2017, para. 79 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The new Constitution, adopted in 2014, enshrined the equality of the sexes before the law without discrimination and committed the State to protecting and strengthening gains in women’s rights, guaranteeing the equality of opportunities in all domains and protecting against legal regression. Another progressive measure was the inclusion of the principle of parity in elected assemblies and a clear statement that men and women alike could run for president. The progressive framework of the constitution was protected in article 49, which affirmed that no amendment could undermine the human rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Compendium of good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women 2017, para. 42 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Good practice in promoting women’s equality and empowerment in economic and social life requires measures that support equal opportunity, accommodation for gender-specific needs and equal enjoyment of benefits. In accordance with international standards, equal opportunities, equal pay for work of equal value, paid maternity leave in accordance with international standards and parental leave for both men and women must be legally mandated in both formal and informal employment sectors. Women must be fully integrated into economic policymaking both at the State level and in financial institutions that determine economic policy in practice. | Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 |