Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979

Abstract

The most significant achievement during the past decade for womens rights has been the drafting and adoption of legislation on the "Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women" (1976-85). This document highlighted the practice of institutional discrimination which affected women in judicial and social patterns of behavior. Discrimination against women violates their fundamental rights of equality and respect for their human dignity. This is the basic premise of the UN document--that there is a minimally accepted behavior permitted between men and women towards women and this must include fundamental and institutional principles that include and highlight womens fundamental and equal rights. This document cannot and should not be viewed as another one to have been ratified but instead should be categorized as the "Magna Carta" for womens human rights. Unfortunately this document can also become a smoke screen for those countries searching for prestige and approval from the international community and who ratify such documents for political approval and then continue to violate womens rights. The objective of this book is its contribution in researching and documenting the correlation between law its practice and womens judicial social and economic condition. The book includes 8 chapters: 1) Decade of the United Nations for the Advancement of Women; 2) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Human Rights and Equality; 3) Female Prostitution; 4) Equality for Women; 5) Eliminating Discriminatory Practices in Marriage and Family Relationships; 6) Eliminating Discriminatory Practices in the Employment Education Health Economics Social and Cultural Sectors; 7) New Human Rights and Family Planning; and 8) The Convention.