Our Work Projects CEDAW What is CEDAW? The process Where are we now? Useful resources Engage in CEDAW Learning Resources What is CEDAW? CEDAW is the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women – also called the International Bill of Rights for Women. For decades, and through consultation with hundreds of women’s organisations and other women’s human rights defenders across the UK, WRC has been coordinating the publication of the CEDAW Shadow Report. The Shadow Report is produced by civil society organisations alongside the UK government’s own report, in order for the CEDAW Committee to have a more accurate account of the status of women’s rights in the UK. It is submitted to the CEDAW monitoring body after the UK government has published their report. The CEDAW Committee uses the Shadow Report for evidence in their examination of the UK Government’s progress on implementing CEDAW. CEDAW provides a framework for States to take responsibility for tackling discrimination against women and achieving substantive equality for women in both the private and public spheres. It outlines a comprehensive set of rights of women in a variety of areas including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It is the first human rights treaty to affirm the reproductive rights of women. Unlike most other legislation, the Convention is solely concerned with the position of women. The Convention was adopted by the UN Assembly in 1979 and entered into force as an international treaty in 1981. The UK ratified CEDAW in 1986. By ratifying, the UK committed to the articles, rights and procedures within it. This means that the UK committed to eliminate discrimination against women in all aspects of life and to protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of women under all circumstances. The process The Convention is overseen and monitored by a UN committee of 23 experts on women’s rights from around the world. State parties are obliged to report on the measures they have implemented to comply with the Convention to the CEDAW Committee - comprehensively every 4 years, and at interim periods, on a rolling basis, around specific issues that the Committee want more immediate action on. WRC produces an interim Shadow Report on these occasions; the last one being in 2021. Where are we now? 2022-25 WRC has always coordinated the CEDAW Shadow Report, a comprehensive look at progress made on all of the articles of the CEDAW Convention. It is a sector-wide response, gathering all the views and analysis from the women's sector. We think that speaking with one voice on the issues that affect us all is the right approach and one the Committee commended us for in previous reporting rounds. We will continue to take this more strategic approach. The UK government was expected to publish their report in or after March 2023 and we had planned to start consulting women’s organisations across England for the Shadow Report from early February 2023. However, at the end of March 2023, just as we were expecting the government to publish their report, we heard that the UN and (what was formerly known as) the Government Equalities Office were pushing back their timelines as well as now following the UN’s simplified reporting procedure - a more streamlined treaty monitoring process. The key difference between the two processes is that the state does not submit an initial progress report. Instead, the first stage of the process is stakeholders submitting reports to inform the UN’s List of Issues. The UK Government, therefore, no longer submitted a report in March 2023, as they had been due to do. Click here to find out more about the new reporting process LOIPR visual guide There were lengthy delays to the next treaty monitoring cycle. This was due to backlogs at the UN. The most recent update shows that the UK is now on the reporting schedule for February 2027. Our evidence-collection process has now started. Click here to see how you can get involved in our regional in-person events. They are taking place in London, Manchester, Durham, Birmingham, Bristol, Northumberland and Truro in Winter 2025 - Spring 2026. If you can't make these, don't worry. A survey and online events are also planned in summer 2026. In the meantime, you can also: Join the mailing list: if your organisation plans to contribute to the CEDAW monitoring process, get on our mailing list for all the recent updates and planning emails. Contact [email protected] Join the Steering committee: for more hands-on input into the report and campaigning around it, again, contact [email protected] If you have started gathering any research/evidence, please keep doing so! It might be an idea to start thinking about what our main strategic priorities are that we want to highlight in the report. The dire funding situation, discrimination against poorer mothers, and the situation for migrant/refugee/asylum women is really something that the CEDAW Committee would be able to strongly intervene on, where the UK government could be shown to be in breach of their responsibilities. In the meantime, any other thoughts welcome. 2019-21 Following a hearing between the CEDAW Committee and the UK government in Geneva in 2019, the Committee produced a series of Concluding Observations, listing concerns and recommendations under 17 themes for the UK Government to address by the next monitoring round in March 2023. The Committee required the UK Government to report on their progress on four recommendations of particular concern in March 2021 (the interim report). These four areas were: The incorporation of CEDAW into domestic law; To undertake a thorough impact assessment of its withdrawal from the European Union on the rights of women and to adopt effective measures to mitigate the negative effects; To include the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the accumulated legislation, legal acts and court decision of the European Union in its national legislation; To consider establishing a national oversight mechanism to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Convention, with the participation of women’s organisations. The UK government finally published its report on these matters in May 2021. READ THE UK GOVERNMENT REPORT HERE Read WRC’s Shadow Report (2021) to the CEDAW Committee here. READ THE CEDAW SHADOW REPORT HERE, 2021 (short version) READ THE CEDAW SHADOW REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS, 2021 READ THE CEDAW APPENDIX, 2021 EHRC follow-up submission to the UN CEDAW Committee (July 2021) READ THE EHRC REPORT HERE WRC joined forces with our counterparts in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to produce a joint UK-wide Shadow report too. (Engender, NIWEP, WEN Wales, NAWO, Women’s Equality Network Wales and Women’s Resource Centre 2021) READ THE FOUR NATIONS UK REPORT HERE 2019 On 1st May 2019, WRC and a number of women’s organisations sent a letter to the Minister for Women, Victoria Atkins MP regarding the UN’s recent review of the UK’s performance on improving the position of women in the UK and the progress made in achieving their rights. It showed just how far the government still needs to go to meet the needs of women and girls in the UK. Our letter to Victoria Atkins MP Victoria Atkin's MP response 2018 Read our Shadow reports for the 2018 reporting round: Shadow Report England 2018 Shadow Report Four Nations 2018 Useful resources We believe that CEDAW is an excellent tool for the women’s sector to use in promoting and protecting women’s rights in the UK and to pressurise the UK government to uphold its commitments to the Convention. We do understand however that CEDAW can seem overwhelming and complicated! But do not worry, there are plenty of ways for you to learn more about CEDAW. 1. Read our CEDAW guide. 2. Read our glossary of terms to get your head around some CEDAW terminology. 3. Watch a video of an online event about CEDAW and how organisations can use it in their own work. 4. Read our summary of each Article in CEDAW for a concise look at what each one contains. (During the 16 Days of Activism 2019, we published one blog post per day on each article of CEDAW. We only covered the first 16 Articles as these are rights-based articles, whereas 17-30 are about the procedures.) 5. The facilitators of the CEDAW workshop at WRC's conference in June 2023 have shared the following two documents, which will definitely be useful! Workshop PowerPoint UN Mechanisms Workshop Information (pdf) 6. Please do not forget to contact WRC to join our CEDAW mailing list to be updated with WRC’s work and the upcoming shadow report. The breakdown of CEDAW Article 1, Definition of discrimination Article 2, Duty of States Article 3, Principle of Equality Article 4, Temporary special measures Article 5, Elimination of stereotypes Article 6, Trafficking and prostitution Article 7, Public and political life Article 8, International participation Article 9, Nationality Article 10, Education Article 11 and 12, Employment and health Article 13, Social and economic rights Article 14, Rural women Article 15, Equality before the law Article 16, Marriage and family life Engage in CEDAW Are you interested in CEDAW and want to know more about how to get involved? There are a few easy steps you can take: Manage Cookie Preferences