Women’s Empowerment, Equality and CEDAW Convention in Bangladesh
The United Nations Convention at the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW in short, turned into followed in 1979, and got here into pressure in 1981. To date, a complete of 189 nations internationally have ratified it to be able to paintings for a international with gender equality.
Indeed, it isn’t as though Bangladesh’s charter does not already assure identical rights for girls. Article 28[2] as an instance guarantees same rights for all citizens “in all spheres of the State and of public existence”.
However, even as Bangladesh’s regulation is secular in name, the non-public sphere stays ruled with the aid of using private legal guidelines, in large part primarily based totally on faith and conventional customs, which have an effect on own circle of relatives and private topics which includes inheritance, marriage, and divorce. Thus, those itself are incompatible with a essential a part of the charter making certain gender equality.
CEDAW and Bangladesh’s reservations
Bangladesh ratified CEDAW in 1984 however with reservations on articles 2, 13(a), sixteen.1(c), and sixteen.1(f). In justification, the authorities cited “war with Sharia regulation primarily based totally on Holy Quran and Sunna.” The warfare, however, became now no longer precise and does now no longer account for the reality that round 10 percentage of the us of a is non-Muslim to who Sharia regulation does now no longer even apply.
Why is the CEDAW crucial for Bangladesh?
“CEDAW is a manufactured from the worldwide girls’s motion to cope with gender inequality—the primary human rights device entirely for ladies,” says Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, which has been operating to uphold and enforce the Convention for the reason that 1985.
“The strengths of CEDAW are that it addresses country accountability—they must put into effect the provisions and write periodic reports, in addition to de jure and de facto inequalities, and contains each the general public sphere in addition to personal lifestyles,” says Khanam.
Subsequently, the authorities lifted the reservations on articles 13(a), referring to the proper to own circle of relatives benefits, and sixteen.1(f), referring to same guardianship, in 1997. Articles 2 and sixteen.1(c), referring to the rights of ladies at some stage in marriage and divorce, stay to this day.
Article 2 calls on ratifying states to take coverage measures putting off discrimination in opposition to girls whilst article sixteen addresses same rights of ladies in marriage, own circle of relatives relations, and divorce. The former is visible because the bedrock of the Convention. “The reservation of article 2 is, in reality, contradictory to Bangladesh’s dedication to CEDAW,” . “The authorities has even taken regulations and steps closer to pleasurable article , together with the girls’s improvement coverage, so why is it now no longer being ratified?”
The articles are taken into consideration the center provisions of the Convention. The CEDAW committee, in a declaration at the reservations, “Removal or amendment of reservations, mainly to articles 2 and sixteen, could imply a State party’s dedication to do away with all boundaries to ladies’s complete equality and its dedication to making sure that ladies are capin a position to take part absolutely in all factors of public and personal existence with out worry of discrimination or recrimination.”
While Bangladesh isn’t always the simplest Muslim-majority u . s . to have a reservation on article 2, 29 different Muslim-majority nations which include Turkey, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait have ratified CEDAW with none reservations.
In 2009, the draft National Women Development Policy, which protected provision for same inheritance rights for girls, confronted competition from Hefazat-e-Islam, amongst different fundamentalist groups. Comprised of Qwami madrasa college students and instructors originating in Chittagong, the institution mobilised in reaction to the draft coverage and certainly considered one among their 13-factor needs referred to as for abolishment of the “anti-Islamic” inheritance regulation. A watered-down invoice become ultimately handed in 2011 which most effective gave ladies complete manage over their received property.
According to analyze with the aid of using the Pew Research Centre in 2013, most effective forty six percentage of Bangladeshis accept as true with that little children ought to have same inheritance. Elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia, the numbers in favour of same inheritance rights are higher—as an example, fifty three and seventy six percentage respectively in Sharia-ruled Pakistan and Indonesia. Other nations additionally followed reforms in non-public legal guidelines to have enough money extra rights to girls.
The Convention is based in six components with 30 articles in all. They address following dimensions on this manner- Part I (Articles 1-6) makes a speciality of non-discrimination, intercourse stereotypes, and intercourse trafficking; Part II (Articles 7-9) outlines girls’s rights with inside the public sphere with an emphasis on political lifestyles, representation, and rights to nationality; Part III (Articles 10-14) describes the financial and social rights of ladies, specially specializing in education, employment, and health. Part III additionally consists of unique protections for rural ladies and the issues they face; Part IV (Article 15 and sixteen) outlines ladies’s proper to equality in marriage and own circle of relatives existence together with the proper to equality earlier than the law; Part V (Articles 17-22) establishes the Committee at the Elimination of Discrimination in opposition to Women in addition to the states events’ reporting procedure, and Part VI (Articles 23-30) describes the outcomes of the Convention on different treaties, the dedication of the nation events and the management of the Convention.
It can be mentioned right here that the provisions contained in Article 3, Article 13 and Article 16 have particularly drawn extreme interest after what has advanced in Afghanistan and additionally allegations of gender associated racial discrimination in distinctive components of the world. Article 3 calls for nation events to assure fundamental human rights and essential freedom to girls “on a foundation of equality with men” via the “political, social, financial, and cultural fields.” Article thirteen ensures equality to ladies “in financial and social lifestyles,”
particularly with admire to “the proper to own circle of relatives benefits, the proper to financial institution loans, mortgages and different styles of monetary credit, and the proper to take part in leisure activities, sports activities and all elements of cultural lifestyles.” Article sixteen in addition outlines that no matter gender each events have “the identical rights and duties as parents,” “the equal rights to determine freely and responsibly at the quantity and spacing in their children,” “the identical private rights as husband and wife, consisting of the proper to pick out a own circle of relatives name, a career and an occupation” and “the identical rights for each spouses in recognize of the ownership, acquisition, management, management, entertainment and disposition of property, whether or not freed from price or for a precious consideration.”
These are very large regions which want to be held up through everyone.
On the alternative hand, the GOB has nevertheless retained its reservations on articles: 1) Article 2 and 2) Article 16(1c). Article 2 mandates that country events ratifying the Convention claim rationale to enshrine gender equality into their home legislation, repeal all discriminatory provisions of their legal guidelines, and enact new provisions to shield towards discrimination towards ladies. Article sixteen (1c) dictates that country events shall take all suitable measures to get rid of discrimination in opposition to ladies in all topics referring to marriage and own circle of relatives members of the family and, in particular, shall make certain a foundation of equality of fellows and girls.
The Constitution of Bangladesh ensures identical rights for girls and men. However, having a reservation on Article 2 contradicts with Articles 10, 19, 27, 28 and 29 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The authorities, however, made commitments to withdraw the reservations whilst it submitted a periodic record in 2004 after it changed into reviewed through the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. A current document via way of means of the Law Commission additionally shows the capability for withdrawal of reservations. Bangladesh isn’t always ruled through Sharia regulation consistent with se; it’s miles handiest the private and own circle of relatives problems which can be ruled through the legal guidelines primarily based totally on spiritual provisions withinside the absence of a Uniform Family Code. Besides, approximately 10 percentage of the populace of Bangladesh belongs to spiritual organizations aside from Islam, whose lifestyles isn’t always ruled through the Sharia regulation.
On the opposite hand, searching on the examples of different Islamic nations, it’s far noteworthy that 29 out of 57 member nations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have ratified the Convention absolutely with none reservations. Other international locations have withdrawn preliminary reservations after justified evaluation. Therefore, there are times in which concrete steps have been taken in nations with a Muslim majority.
The CEDAW committee has time and again expressed its challenge at the persevering with reservation through the authorities in its concluding observations at the blended 6th and 7th periodic record. The committee referred to as it impermissible because the committee considers Articles 2 and sixteen to be “middle provisions of the Convention,” and “important to the gadgets and reason of the Convention”. These have implications for different articles as well. Later, the committee additionally asked the authorities to place a selected time body for retreating the reservations.
The authorities submitted its eight periodic file in 2015. The yr 2015 will mark some landmarks in international improvement time table, due to the fact the arena has already redefined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) this yr. The worldwide procedure of the post-2015 improvement schedule is already heading closer to culmination. The SDG is constructed upon international projects like Rio 20, CEDAW, the Beijing 20 assessment method and the once a year consultation of the Commission at the Status of Women (CSW). In most of these processes, the governments are dedicated to giving girls their rightful voice and alternatives for shaping the arena that empowers them through the improvement schedule.
Women’s society in Bangladesh is deprived of the equal rights provided by the constitution. Naturally, the problems of women are multifaceted, it is not limited to not getting equal rights. Many of these problems are caused by social attitudes. Also, does the state abide by the civil rights that the constitution speaks of? Regrettably, despite the various humanitarian activities of the United Nations and the continuous theoretical and social interpretations of humanitarians, the desired relief of equal rights and empowerment of women in social life is still far away.
Writer : Faijul Islam from Chittagong University law Department
Source
Iwda.org
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Daily star, 8th March,2019
