UN Adopts CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
- Date
- 18 December 1979
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Global
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 18 December 1979 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty often described as an international bill of rights for women.
Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, the convention defines what constitutes discrimination against women and establishes a national agenda of legal, political, economic, social, and cultural measures to end it. States parties commit to enshrining gender equality in domestic law, repealing discriminatory statutes, and creating tribunals and institutions to protect women's rights. The treaty entered into force on 3 September 1981 after its twentieth ratification, and its implementation is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. With ratification by 189 states, CEDAW became one of the most widely adopted human rights instruments, though some nations, including the United States, signed but never ratified it.
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Empires active in 18 December 1979
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE – 1992 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Global democratic backsliding2010s (ongoing democratic recession)
- The Snowden revelations on mass surveillanceJune 2013
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
- Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe1989 (Autumn of Nations)
Further reading
The wider story
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