CEDAW GR 30 on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations
The CEDAW Committee adopted a landmark General Recommendation (GR 30) on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations on the 18th of October 2013 following a very consultative drafting process led by its independent expert from Mauritius Ms. Pramila Pattern.
An advance version of GR 30 can be downloaded from the OHCHR from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/GComments/CEDAW.C.CG.30.pdf
This critical General Recommendation ensures the protection of women’s human rights and advancing substantive gender equality before, during and after conflict and ensuring that women’s diverse experiences are fully integrated into all peace-building, peacemaking, and reconstruction processes. Among its important elements are:
Other forms of Occupation and Conflict
While the GR covers the application of the Convention to international and non-international armed conflicts it also critically recognizes the impact of conflict in other forms of occupation and covers other situations of concern, such as internal disturbances, protracted and low-intensity civil strife, political strife, ethnic and communal violence, states of emergency and suppression of mass uprisings, war against terrorism and organized crime, that may not necessarily be classified as armed conflict under international humanitarian law and which result in serious violations of women’s rights.
The GR also reiterates that States parties’ obligations continue to apply during conflict or states of emergency without discrimination between citizens and non-citizens within their territory or effective control, even if not situated within the territory of the State party.
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
The GR builds on the concept of due diligence by providing guidance to States parties on the implementation of their obligation of due diligence in respect of acts of private individuals or entities that impair the rights enshrined in the Convention, and makes suggestions as to how non-state actors can address women’s rights in conflict-affected areas.
It also recommends State parties: (a) Apply the Convention and other international human rights instruments and humanitarian law comprehensively in the exercise of territorial or extraterritorial jurisdiction whether acting individually or as members of international or intergovernmental organizations and coalitions; (b)Regulate the activities of all domestic non-State actors, within their effective control, who operate extraterritorially and ensure full respect of the Convention by them. It also notes that these obligations extend to bilateral or multilateral donor assistance for conflict prevention and humanitarian aid, mitigation or post-conflict reconstruction; in involvement as third parties in peace or negotiation processes; and in the formation of trade agreements with conflict-affected countries.
Security Council Resolutions and Substantive Equality Commitments
While the Committee calls on States parties to (a) Ensure that national action plans and strategies to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions are compliant with the Convention, and that adequate budgets are allocated for their implementation. It more significantly calls on States to ensure that the implementation of Security Council commitments reflects a model of substantive equality and takes into account the impact of conflict and post-conflict contexts on all rights enshrined in the Convention, in addition to those violations concerning conflict-related gender-based violence, including sexual violence;
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
The GR calls on States parties to ensure that sexual and reproductive health care includes access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information; psychosocial support; family planning services, including emergency contraception; maternal health services, including antenatal care, skilled delivery services, prevention of vertical transmission and emergency obstetric care; safe abortion services; post-abortion care; prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, including post-exposure prophylaxis; and care to treat injuries such as fistula arising from sexual violence, complications of delivery or other reproductive health complications, among others.
Access to Abortion
Among other critical elements the CEDAW Committee for the first time, explicitly indicated that states should provide safe abortion services as a component of their obligation to provide sexual and reproductive health care – It says that States must ensure that sexual and reproductive health care includes access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information; psychosocial support; family planning services, including emergency contraception; maternal health services, including antenatal care, skilled delivery services, prevention of vertical transmission and emergency obstetric care; safe abortion services; post-abortion care; prevention and treatment of HIV.
GBV and Forced and Child Marriage
The GR also calls for protection and assistance for internally displaced and refugee women and girls, including by safeguarding them from gender-based violence, including forced and child marriage. The Committee reiterates forced pregnancies, abortions or sterilization of women in conflict-affected areas violate a myriad of women’s rights, including the right under article 16 (1) (e) to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children. The Committee further recommends that States parties: (a)Prevent, investigate and punish gender-based violations such as forced marriages, forced pregnancies, abortions or sterilization of women and girls in conflict-affected areas;
Different Groups of Women & Multiple and Intersecting Forms of Discrimination
With regard to internal displacement and refugee women the Committee calls on States parties to address the specific risks and particular needs of different groups of women, subjected to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including women with disabilities, older women, girls, widows, women who head households, pregnant women, women living with HIV/AIDS, rural women, indigenous women, women belonging to ethnic, national, sexual or religious minorities, and women human rights defenders.
Adequate and Comprehensive Reparations
The Committee also calls on States Parties to provide effective and timely remedies that respond to the different types of violations experienced by women and ensure the provision of adequate and comprehensive reparations; address all gender-based violations, including sexual and reproductive rights violations, domestic and sexual enslavement, forced marriage and forced displacement, in addition to sexual violence, as well as violations of economic, social and cultural rights.
DAWN’s engagement with the advocacy for General Recommendation 30
DAWN engaged with the advocacy and made substantive contributions to the CEDAW Committee during its elaboration of a General Recommendation on Protection of Women’s Human Rights in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts. DAWN took forward its collaborative work, begun in 2010, with International Women’s Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific, Women and Media Collective, Sri Lanka the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and WILD for Human Rights with the University of California at Berkeley Law School to provide a platform for women’s groups to strategise and mobilise support for the CEDAW Committee’s proposed General Recommendation. DAWN made a critical submission to the CEDAW Committee during its Day of General Discussion on 18 July, at the UN in New York. The DAWN intervention dealt with defining the obligations of States for the conduct and policies effecting rights extraterritorially. DAWN and Amnesty International were the only organisations to highlight concerns of extraterritoriality questions around the impact of loan, trade and aid frameworks on rights, with a particular focus on gender analysis and conflict. DAWN continued its advocacy at the South, South East, East Asia and Pacific regional consultation hosted by the CEDAW Working Group, UN Women and UNHRC in Bangkok in March, 25 to 29, 2012.
DAWN assisted IWRAW-AP with the co-ordination of this consultation. The main consultation had approximately 75 delegates, some of whom were nominated by DAWN and were from among DTI/RTI and other work related contacts in the region.
Building from our presentations at the Day of Open Discussion in New York in 2012, this engagement was much more active and focused. Of note was that the issue raised almost solely by DAWN in 2011 of extra territoriality and the role of external states, IFIs and international humanitarian agencies in conflict and post conflict development was very well highlighted in many presentations and picked up strongly by the drafting team. DAWN notes with gratitude that the space for engagement with CSOs was significantly expanded by the CEDAW Committee with regional consultations held in Africa, Central American and Latin America in 2012 enabling the Committee to finalise and adopt GR 30 by October 2013.