Preventing violence against women: The due diligence standard with respect to the obligation to Banish gender stereotypes on the grounds of article 5 (a) of the CEDAW convention

Nijhoff Law Specials

Volumn 73, Issue , 2008, Pages 63-89

  Holtmaat, Rikki ^a  

^a LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84940867131     PISSN: 09244549     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004162938.i-300.25     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (64)

1. There are many empirical studies that prove the root causes of gender-based violence lie in patriarchal and unequal power relations between men and women. As far as the Western Balkans are concerned, a recent overview of empirical studies that clarify this background can be found in: Vesna Nicolić-Ristanović and Mirjana Dokmanović, International Standards on Domestic Violence and Their Implementation in the Western Balkans (Utrecht: Humanistisch Overleg Mensenrechten [HOM], 2006).
2. See also Yakin Ertürk, Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, The Due Diligence Standard as a Tool for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/61, 20 January 2006.
3. See Rikki Holtmaat, Towards Diferent Law and Public Policy: The Significance of Article 5 (a) CEDAW for the Elimination of Structural Gender Discrimination, Research undertaken on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the Netherlands (Doetinchem: Reed Business Information, 2004).
4. See, e.g., Margareta Wadstein, 'Implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women', Human Rights Quarterly (1988): 5-21;
5. Noreen Burrows, 'The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women', Netherlands International Law Review (1985): 419-460;
6. Hillary Charlesworth, 'Feminist Methods in International Law', The American Journal of International Law (1999): 379-394;
7. Hillary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis (Manchester: Juris Publishing/Manchester University Press, 2000);
8. Hillary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin and Shelley Wright, 'Feminist Approaches to International Law', The American Journal of International Law (1991): 613-645, who neglect this provision.
9. On the other hand we have publications like those of Rebecca J. Cook, 'State Accountability Under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women', in Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives, ed. Rebecca J. Cook, 228-256 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), hereafter referred to as Cook (1994
10. (b)); Rikki Holtmaat, 'European Women and the CEDAW-Convention. The Way Forward', in L'égalité entre femmes et hommes et la vie profesionnelle. Le point sur les développements actuels en Europe, 153-174 (Paris: Edition Dalloz, 2003), hereafter referred to as Holtmaat (2003 (a));
11. Klaartje Wentholt, 'Over de potentie van rechtsbeginselen. Het discriminatieverbod en artikel 5 VN-vrouwenverdrag dwingen tot het rekening houden met zorgtaken', Nemesis (1997): 200-203.
12. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation no. 19, Violence against Women (eleventh session, 1992), UN Doc. A/47/38.
13. W. C. Monster, E. Cremers and L. Willems, Vrouwenverdrag, moederschap, ouderschap en arbeid (Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, 1998), 50.
14. A thorough study of scope and purpose of the Convention, including the present analysis of the Convention's goals, can be found in the first National Report on the CEDAW Convention to the Dutch Parliament. See L. S. Groenman, C. E. van Vleuten, R. Holtmaat, T. E. van Dijk and J. H. J. de Wildt (Commission of Experts on the implementation of CEDAW in the Netherlands), Het vrouwenverdrag in Nederland anno 1997 (Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid/VUGA, 1997). I was part of this commission of independent experts assigned by the Dutch government to write this report. An English translation of parts of this report can be found as an appendix to Holtmaat (2004), see note 8 above. The CEDAW Committee for the first time endorsed this analysis of the Groenman Report in the Concluding Comments concerning the situation in the Netherlands, issued after the Committee's 25th session in July 2001;
15. see Concluding Comments UN Doc. A/56/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 512 and 513, para. 196.
16. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation no. 25 on Article 4, para. 1
17. of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on Temporary Special Measures (thirteenth session, 2004), paras. 6 and 7, www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/Generalrecommendation.
18. See also Rikki Holtmaat, 'Building Blocks for a General Recommendation on Article 4 (1) of the CEDAW Convention. Report of the Expert Meeting in Maastricht 10-12 October 2002', in Temporary Special Measures: Accelerating De Facto Equality of Women under Article 4 (1) UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ed. I. Boerefijn, F. Coomans, J. Goldschmidt, R. Holtmaat and R. Wolleswinkel, 213-230 (Antwerp/Oxford/New York: Intersentia, 2003).
19. See General Recommendation no. 25, see note 14 above, paras. 10 and 11.
20. General Recommendation no. 25, see note 14 above, para. 7.
21. For a more extensive discussion of the special character of the CEDAW Convention (as compared to European Union sex equality law), see Rikki Holtmaat and Christa Tobler, 'CEDAW and the European Union's Policy in the Field of Combating Gender Discrimination', Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 12, no. 4(2005):399-425;
22. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Shaping Structural Change: The Role of Women (Paris: OECD, 1991), 8.
23. See Zafar v Glasgow City Council, House of Lords, 13 October 1997, I. C. R. 1998, 120-126.
24. Rikki Holtmaat, 'The Power of Legal Concepts: The Development of a Feminist Theory of Law', International Journal of the Sociology of Law, no. 5(1989):481-502;
25. Rikki Holtmaat, 'The Issue of Overtime Payments for Part-Time Workers in the Helmig Case: Some Thoughts on Equality and Gender', in The Regulation of Working Time in the European Union: Gender Approach, ed. Yota Kravaritou, 411-444 (Brussels: P. I. E. Peter Lang, 1999);
26. Rikki Holtmaat, 'Gender: The Analytical Concept that Tackles the Hidden Structural Bias of Law', in Recht Richtung Frauen. Beiträge zur feministischen Rechtswissenschaft, 159-182 (Lachen/St. Gallen: Dike Verlag, 2001).
27. See E. Lijnzaad, 'Over rollenpatronen en de rol van het Verdrag', in Het Vrouwenverdrag: een beeld van een verdrag⋯, ed. A. W. Heringa, J. Hes and E. Lijnzaad, 43-57 (Antwerpen/Apeldoorn: Maklu, 1994);
28. J. C. Hes and C. E. van Vleuten, Het Vrouwenverdrag in de Nederlandse rechtsorde (Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, 1996);
29. N. Holtrust, A. C. Hendriks and D. M. J. Bauduin ed., De betekenis van artikel 12 Vrouwenverdrag voor Nederland: gezondheid als recht (Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, 1996);
30. General Recommendation no. 25, see note 14 above, para. 7.
31. Concluding Comment on Morocco (1997), UN Docs A/52/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 312, 313 and 320, para. 72.
32. Concluding Comment on Cyprus (1996), UN Docs A/51/38, CEDAW/C/SR.287, para. 51.
33. Concluding Comment on Lithuania (2000), UN Docs A/55/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 472, 473 and 480, para. 139.
34. See also, e.g., Concluding Comments on Romania (2000), UN Docs A/55/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 481 and 482, para. 303;
35. Concluding Comments on Egypt (2001), UN Docs A/56/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 492 and 493, paras. 334, 335;
36. Concluding Comments on Vietnam (2001), UN Docs A/56/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 518 and 519, para. 251;
37. and Concluding Comments on Estonia (2002), UN Docs A/57/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 539, 540 and 548, paras. 25, 26.
38. Joan Wallach Scott, 'Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, the Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism', Feminist Studies, no. 1(1988):33-50
39. and 'Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis', in Coming to Terms, ed. Elizabeth Weed, 81-100 (London: Routledge, 1998).
40. (Originally published in American Historical Review (1986): 1053-1075.)
41. and L. Lijnzaad, 'Het kussen van een kikker', Nemesis 13, no. 2(1991):5-15.
42. See Concluding Comments on Norway (1995), UN Docs A/50/38, CEDAW/C/SR.277, para. 486.
43. See also Concluding Comments on Finland (1995), UN Docs A/50/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 272, para. 388.
44. Concluding Comments on Ireland (1999), UN Docs A/54/38, CEDAW/C/S. 440 and 441, paras. 193, 194.
45. Concluding Comments on Venezuela (1997), UN Docs A/52/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 323 and 324, para. 223;
46. Concluding Comments on Mexico (1998), UN Docs A/53/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 376 and 377, para. 398;
47. Concluding Comments on Thailand (1999), UN Docs A/54/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 417 and 418, paras. 244, 245.
48. Concluding Comments on Italy (1997), UN Docs A/52/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 346 and 347, para. 357.
49. Concluding Comments on Fiji Islands (2002), UN Docs A/57/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 530, 531 and 538, para. 32.
50. Concluding Comments on Croatia (1998), UN Docs A/53/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 363, 364 and 368, para. 113.
51. Rebecca Cook, 'Obligations to Adopt Temporary Special Measures under CEDAW', in Boerefijn et al. (2003), see note 14 above, 119-141.
52. Sandra Fredman, 'Beyond the Dichotomy of Formal and Substantive Equality: Towards New Definitions of Equal Rights', in Boerefijn et al. (2003)
53. UN Division on the Advancement of Women, Assessing the Status of Women: A Guide to Reporting Under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (New York: United Nations, 2000).
54. UN Manual on Human Rights Reporting under Six Major International Human Rights Instruments (Geneva: United Nations, 1997), 322-324.
55. Concluding Comments on Zambia (1994), UN Docs A/49/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 241 and 246, para. 330.
56. E.g., Concluding Comments on Japan (1994), UN Docs A/49/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 248 and 249, para. 570.
57. E.g., Concluding Comments on New Zealand (1994), UN Docs A/49/38, CEDAW/C/SR. 243, para. 641.
58. Ineke Boerefijn, Mignon van der Liet-Senders and Titia Loenen, Het voorkomen en bestrijden van geweld tegen vrouwen. Een verdiepend onderzoek naar het Nederlandse beleid in het licht van de verplichtingen die voortvloeien uit het Vrouwenverdrag (Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, 2000).
59. Lars Adam Rehof, Guide to the Traveaux préparatoires of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Martin Nijhof Publishers, 1993), 80.
60. Therefore, it should not be concluded from the following that I take a 'cultural relativist' stance. Traditional culture and religion, in my view, can never be used as an excuse for the violation of basic human rights of women. See for an extensive discussion of this topic Frances Raday, 'Culture, Religion and Gender', ICON 1, no. 4(2003):663-715.
61. Celestine I. Nyamu, 'How Should Human Rights and Development Respond to Cultural Legitimization of Gender Hierarchy in Developing Countries?', Harvard International Law Journal (2000): 381-418.
62. See also Rikki Holtmaat, 'De meerwaarde van het Vrouwenverdrag in de multiculturele samenleving', in Eén Verdrag voor alle vrouwen. Verkenningen van de betekenis van het VN-Vrouwenverdrag voor de multiculturele samenleving, ed. Rikki Holtmaat, 129-145 (Den Haag: E-Quality, 2002).
63. Ineke Boerefijn, De blinddoek opzij, Een mensenrechtenbenadering van geweld tegen vrouwen, Inaugural Speech, University of Maastricht 8 December 2006.
64. See, for a detailed discussion of the issue of state accountability under the Convention, Rebecca Cook, 'Women's International Human Rights Law: The Way Forward', in Cook (1994)