Beyond CEDAW's first four decades: Harnessing progress and countering regression

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The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is founded on the principles of equality and non-discrimination. CEDAW provides the theoretical, normative framework for respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s human rights internationally, and stands today as the cornerstone legal instrument on gender equality and non-discrimination. On the one hand, CEDAW has a proven record for catalysing significant positive effects on women’s human rights. On the other hand, CEDAW is one of the least implemented and most poorly enforced human rights conventions in the world.

At the time when CEDAW was drafted, women’s rights advocates could not have imagined the world we live in today. So has CEDAW passed the test of time? Please join current CEDAW Committee Member Bandana Rana, and former CEDAW Committee Members Shanthi Dairiam and Ismat Jahan as we explore the successes and shortcomings of the women’s human rights system, and discuss the enduring relevance of CEDAW in 2022.

Celebrate International Women’s Day with the Castan Centre of Human Rights Law and our esteemed speakers as we reflect on what it means to be a women’s rights advocate today.

Panellists

Bandana Rana, Current CEDAW Committee Member (Nepal)

Bandana Rana has been a member of the UN CEDAW Committee since 2017 and is chair of its Working Group on Inquiries. She is a member of the UNFPA High Level Commission on ICPD25 follow up and chair of the National Women’s Commission of Nepal and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. Her experience spans three decades of active engagement in promoting women's rights and gender equality through the two organisations she co-founded and led in Nepal, Saathi and Sancharika Samuha. Her work has focused primarily on addressing violence against women, gendered conflict transformation, peace building and engendered media. .Her work has encompassed grassroots, national, regional and global level advocacy, research, and public outreach and community mobilisation programs.

Ms Rana has served as a member of the UN Secretary General's High Level Advisory Group for the Global Study on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the UN Women Global Civil Society Advisory Group, She is the former Chair of the Global Network of Women Shelters and was awarded the Woman of Distinction Award 2016 conferred by the NGO CSW Committee for her dedicated work and contribution to gender equality globally.

Ismat Jahan, Former CEDAW Committee Member (Bangladesh)

Ms. Ismat Jahan was the first diplomat from the Bangladeshi Foreign Service to be appointed to the highest rank of Senior Secretary in the Government in June 2017. She is presently serving as Ambassador and Permanent Observer of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation to the European Union, Brussels. Ms. Jahan holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Dhaka, and a Master’s Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston. She was also a senior Fellow in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

During her long diplomatic career, Ms. Jahan specialized in multilateral diplomacy and focused on human rights, with particular interest in issues concerning women’s rights and empowerment. She has served in a number of positions both in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Missions abroad, including :

• Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union with concurrent accreditation to Luxembourg (August 2009-August 2016);
• Permanent Representative to the UN, New York (2007-2009), concurrently accredited as Ambassador to Peru and Chile;
• Ambassador to the Netherlands (2005–2007) with concurrent accreditation to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Poland.
• Minister-Counsellor (1998-2001), Permanent Mission to UN (Geneva)
• Deputy High Commissioner, Embassy in New Delhi (2001 -2003)
• Director General (UN) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2003-2005)
• Director in the Prime Minister’s office (1996-97)

Ms. Jahan was elected in 2010 for a four year term on the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women/ Having served as Vice-Chair of the Committee, Ms. Jahan was re-elected to CEDAW for further term from 2015-2018. During her terms on the CEDAW Committee, Ms. Jahan focused on issues concerning violence against women, trafficking in women and forced prostitution, political participation of women, rural women, women belonging to minority groups e.g. migrants, IDPs and refugee women. She served on the Working Group on Inquiries and participated in the drafting of numerous CEDAW general recommendations (GR) namely, Women in Conflict and Post conflict situations; Rural women; Women refugees, asylum seekers and stateless women; Gender related dimensions of disaster risk reduction and climate change; Trafficking in women and girls in the context of human migration. I was served in the Working Group on Inquiries. Upon completing her terms in the CEDAW committee, Ms. Jahan continues to liaise with human rights mandate holders and national and international NGOs in promoting the work of the CEDAW.

Shanthi Dairiam, Former CEDAW Committee Member (Malaysia)

Shanthi is a former Executive Director of IWRAW Asia Pacific and a founding member of the Board. She has had extensive experience managing women’s rights programmes, having been involved in capacity building for women’s rights advocacy for over 20 years, within Malaysia, as well as regionally and internationally. Shanthi has served as an expert assisting key UN agencies such as APGEN, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and UNIFEM. She holds a Masters in Literature from the University of Madras, India, and a Masters in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. From 2005 until 2008, she also served a four-year term as an expert member of the CEDAW Committee.

Moderator

Dr Tania Penovic, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash Law

Dr Tania Penovic is an award-winning researcher with expertise in gender equality and women’s human rights. Her research has been cited by the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia and relied upon in submissions to courts including the Constitutional Court of Chile and European Court of Human Rights. Dr Penovic has provided numerous submissions to state, federal and international inquiries into law reform which have been cited extensively and associated with legislative change. Having served as Deputy Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law from 2011 to 2020, she is now the centre’s research group leader in gender and sexuality.