 A bill of rights for women, but with reservationsFew international treaties have been as widely accepted as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). As of May 1997, 160 countries had ratified, acceded or succeeded to CEDAW. Three—Afghanistan, Sao Tome and Principe and the United States—had signed, indicating their intention to ratify. Thirty States had neither signed nor ratified.But CEDAW, like its companion treaty on the rights of the child, has provoked scores of reservations—indicating widespread and deep-rooted resistance to the concept of full equality for women. Nearly one third of States parties have lodged substantive reservations or declarations, signalling they will not be bound by certain CEDAW provisions—ranging from equality in nationality and citizenship and in sharing family property to women’s participation in the military and the clergy. A few nations, including Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, have gone much further, filing general reservations to any portion of the Convention that conflicts with existing national, customary or religious law. Many of these reservations appear to violate the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which prohibits reservations that are incompatible with the object and purpose of a treaty. Particularly disturbing are reservations from 24 nations against article 16, a core provision that guarantees equality between women and men in marriage and family life. Such reservations strike at the heart of CEDAW. They reject the extension of human rights protection into the private domain and entrench the inferior role of women. Similarly undermining the purpose of CEDAW are most of the dozen reservations to article 2, which outlines legal steps to eliminate gender discrimination. Although reservations come from every corner of the globe, a few generalizations can be drawn. The five Nordic countries comprise the only region to accept CEDAW without reservation. The Caribbean countries have lodged fewer reservations than countries in other regions. Most of the 12 ratifying States in the Middle East and North Africa cited conflict with religious or customary law as a reason for not giving CEDAW unconditional approval. Most of the region's nations defer to Islamic Sharia law on matters pertaining to family or the status of women. However, the CEDAW review committee has been able, through constructive dialogue, to address reservations with individual State parties. It is encouraging that some nations have modified or withdrawn their
reservations, often as a result of this constructive relationship. For
example, Malawi withdrew in 1991, its general reservation against provisions
of CEDAW that required immediate eradication of certain traditional customs
and practices, in 1994, Brazil withdrew its reservations to key provisions
of article 16.
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