Domestication of CEDAW: points to consider for customary laws and practices

• Author: C C Nweze
• Profession: PhD, Judge, Court of Appeal, Nigeria
• Pages: 49-73

49

Part II: Towards Gender Equality

.........................................................................................................................................................................

5. Domestication of CEDAW: points to

consider for customary laws and practices

C C Nweze, PhD, Judge, Court of Appeal, Nigeria

Prefatory survey

Global concern for the improvement of the welfare of women dates back to the 1940s,

when the United Nations set up the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). To

its eternal credit, the Commission has been able to highlight the particular disadvantages

of women, while its activities have generated many Declarations and Conventions. The

CSW meets annually, its recent activities including, among others, the input it made to

the 1992 International Human Rights Conference; the 1993 International Year of the

World’s Indigenous Peoples; the 1994 Population and Development Conference (The

Cairo Summit); the 1994 International Year of the Family; and planning the 1995 UN

Women’s Conference in Beijing.1

In fulfilment of its standard-setting function, the United Nations has posited norms or

standards of human rights that member states should observe. Hence, there exists a

considerable corpus of international legislation on human rights, which is essentially

promotional in nature.2 Only a highlight is presented in this chapter.3

Quite apart from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948, the ICCPR

and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the

following are international instruments on the rights of women, namely:

• the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, 1952,

• the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, 1957,

• the Convention on the Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and

Registration of Marriages, 1962, and

• the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, 1967.4

Specialised agencies of the UN have also made considerable progress. Thus, there

are:

1. See R Cook (1993) Human Rights in Relation to Women’s Health. Geneva: WHO, 193,

p.54.

2. A H Robertson (1997) Human Rights in the World. Manchester: Manchester University

Press.

3. See Osita Eze (1984) Human Rights in Africa: Some Selected Problems. Lagos: Macmillan

in Association with NIIA, p.154

4. See Osita Eze, loc. cit.

50

Part II: Towards Gender Equality

• the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951, of the International Labour Organiza-

tion (ILO),

• the Discrimination (Occupation and Employment) Convention 1958 of the ILO,

• the Convention Against Discrimination in Education and Recommendations thereon,

1960, of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),

• the Recommendation Concerning the Employment of Women with Family Respon-

sibilities, 1965, of the ILO, and

• the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers, 1966, of UNESCO etc.5

However, the central and most comprehensive document is the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Adopted on 18

December 1979, it is the leading modern instrument on women’s equal rights.6 It has

thus been described as the definitive international legal instrument requiring respect for

and observance of the human rights of women.7 It entered into force as an international

treaty on 3 September 1981, after the twentieth country had ratified it in accordance

with the Convention’s article 27. CEDAW, it has been asserted, is intended to be

effective to liberate women, to maximise their individual and collective potentialities and

not merely to allow women to be brought to the same level of protection of rights that

men enjoy.8

The challenge for this chapter is to demonstrate how customary law norms and

practices have militated against the attainment of these potentialities engrained in CEDAW.

It, therefore, examines the praxis in selected domestic jurisdictions. As will be seen,

tremendous success has been recorded in some countries in the domestication (i.e.

bringing into domestic use) of the Convention’s provisions. The chapter also identifies

normative customs and practices in Nigeria and other jurisdictions which, if modified or

even completely abrogated, would lead to the maximisation of the potential of the

individual and collective potentialities of women as enunciated in the Convention.

Structure of the Convention

The Convention consists of a preamble and 30 substantive articles. In broad terms, the

provisions can be grouped into three different parts in accordance with the matters on

which they deal. The first part, covering articles 2–16, contains the Convention’s

Agenda for equality. This part can be further subdivided into three limbs. The first limb

deals with the civil rights and legal status of women. This we find in articles 7, 8, 9,

10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

5. See Osita Eze, loc. cit.

6. See Cook, op. cit., p.2.

7. See Cook, loc. cit.

8. See Cook, ibid. p.26.