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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. 48
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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).
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 44
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 97d
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- [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;
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 136
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- [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;
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 132
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- [The Working Group recommends that States:] States must prohibit discrimination on grounds of maternity or of care functions, whether performed by women or men;
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 48
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 41
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 75
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Annual Report of the WG on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice 2012, para. 19b
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- [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;
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 73d (v)
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- [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;
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 32
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 30
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 25
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- LGBTQI+
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 16
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 100
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 83
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 46
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 16
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 76
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life with a focus on political transition 2013, para. 42
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Annual Report of the WG on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice 2012, para. 9
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 36
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- In some countries, legislative provisions strengthen patriarchal family structures, as well as the concomitant discrimination and violence against women. This is particularly true of provisions allowing rapists to marry their victims in order to escape legal proceedings and laws that exclude marital rape from the prohibition of rape under criminal law. In some contexts, only men are able to transmit their nationality to their foreign spouses and their children. This de jure inequality has considerable effects on women and their children because the State protection granted by citizenship is refused them de facto.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in cultural and family life, with a focus on the family as a cultural space 2015, para. 10
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Culture is a broad concept encompassing all forms of conduct, organization and human behaviour within society, including family, language, religion, philosophy, law, government, art and sport. Cultural diversity occurs when culture is expressed and develops in different contexts in society. Culture is not a static or unchanging concept, although some States tend to present it as such in order to justify inequality between men and women. This living, dynamic and evolving process permeates all human activities and institutions, including legal systems, in all societies across the world. Viewing culture and beliefs as immutable hinders the realization and development of all human rights, including those of women.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 95
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Sharing of care responsibilities within the household should remain a matter of choice for women and men. For any real choice to be possible, paid care leave must be available to both parents. The Nordic countries were the first to introduce an independent paternity leave in order to overcome stereotypes and barriers to men sharing childcare functions. Such provisions are becoming more common around the world, with increased awareness of men's parenting roles and their need to reconcile work and family life. Paternity leave is usually much shorter than maternity leave and more often unpaid. Some countries have introduced more gender-neutral parental leave options, and recent best practice in one Nordic country provides symmetry in childcare leave, with five months for each parent individually and two months that can be allocated according to parental choice.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 94
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Redistributing care work involves restructuring the design, funding and delivery of care by households, markets, the State and civil society so that a disproportionate burden of unpaid care does not fall on women. The equal sharing of care amongst different actors requires, on one hand, the sharing of care responsibilities by men as well as women in households and, on the other, the provision by the State of affordable and accessible care facilities, including childcare, adequate hospital care and recuperation periods, and facilities for the care of the disabled and the elderly.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 90
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Unlike women's reproductive function, care functions do not necessarily have to fall on women. All forms of care, including childcare, are amenable to social reconstruction, and indeed in the Nordic countries, which have long pursued a policy of gender equality in the division of work and childcare functions, the distribution of care work comes close to parity. Good practice regarding the allocation of care responsibilities, pioneered in the Nordic countries, encourages men to enter traditionally women's worlds, both in the family and in the workplace, thus allowing women to participate and advance in the labour market.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 70
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Export processing zones are delineated industrial estates with special incentives set up to attract foreign business and trade. They are feminized work enclaves in which women make up the majority of workers, up to 100 per cent in some cases. Women workers face particularly harsh employment conditions. Normal labour laws are usually not applied. Whether de jure or de facto, there is a lack of union organization and, typically, women's wages are 20-50 per cent lower than men's. Furthermore, these zones are a health hazard for women, with overextended working hours, rights violations relating to pregnancy protection, maternity leave or childcare, and sexual harassment.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 47
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- There is a related problem of segregation in the formal labour market, with women clustered in "pink collar", largely service sector, jobs with inferior working conditions, less job security and lower pay. In high-income countries, more than 85 per cent of employed women work in the service sector, primarily in education and health. In order to address wage gaps resulting from occupational segregation, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and ILO Conventions require equal pay for equal work or for work of equal value, comparable in skill, responsibility, effort and working conditions. The ILO guide to gender-neutral job evaluation provides an objective evaluation system. The ILO also recommends that policies to combat occupational segregation also encourage men to enter occupations traditionally associated with women.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 45
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- Nevertheless, there is not full equality of results in any labour market. Discrimination in hiring, promotion, conditions and wages and dismissal exists in all countries. In many high- and middle-income countries, gender gaps in unemployment have worsened since the economic crisis. Furthermore, cultural and structural barriers close opportunities for women in the labour force. Maternity is a focus for discrimination for women in most countries. Women's hours of workforce participation are, generally, reduced by motherhood, while men's are increased by fatherhood.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis 2014, para. 19
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Paragraph text
- There are barriers to women's access to leadership and decision-making positions in these economic and financial institutions, which generate policies that determine the quality of life of women, men, children and communities. Furthermore, in the emerging area of corporate responsibility, the gendered harm to women resulting from transnational business and trade policies has been largely invisible. There is a need to address these issues and develop tools for gender responsiveness in economic leadership and corporate responsibility.
- Body
- Special Procedures: Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph