“This new report is a wake-up call for our governments, but in particular the federal
government which is primarily responsible for ensuring Canada abides by this Convention,” says
Elaine Garland, President of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO). “The UN is urging
Canada to ensure that, as a matter of human rights, anyone on social assistance receives sufficient
income to attain an adequate standard of living. To do otherwise is to ensure grinding, debilitating
poverty, in particular for women who are disproportionately susceptible to deprivation.”

OTTAWA- (27 October, 2008)-Representatives from the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) a pan-Canadian alliance of 70 women’s equality seeking groups, watched as the UN CEDAW Committee in Geneva asked hard questions of the Canadian government regarding Canada’s failure to live up to the equality guarantees to women contained in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination (CEDAW) against Women ratified by Canada in 1981.

***Please see Canada’s opening statements for the CEDAW review held October 22, 2008. All of the NGOs of Canada had only seven minutes for opening statements. In the interest of time and getting key issues on the official record, FAFIA’s delegation opted to focus on main themes outlined in the report.

The FAFIA CEDAW civil society report can be found here

Canada’s performance in achieving women’s human rights is currently being reviewed by the United Nation’s Committee on the International Covenant on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

FAFIA, along with its member groups, has submitted a comprehensive national civil society report to the UN CEDAW Committee to advise this review.

Nearly 40 women’s equality seeking groups and individuals collaborated on this testimony of Canada’s adherence to CEDAW and its implementation of the CEDAW committee’s recommendations of 2003.

During the 2006 federal election campaign, FAFIA issued a pledge to all federal party leaders asking them to support women’s human rights by upholding the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and implementing CEDAW recommendations.

All parties signed the pledges and asserted their commitment to women’s equality.

Since 2006, many CEDAW recommendations go ignored and women’s inequality persists. Due to such factors as lack of affordable housing childcare; insufficient social assistance rates; and funding cuts for women’s advocacy and research, women’s equality has taken a step backwards.

During the 2008 federal election, FAFIA asked all Federal Party leaders to once again sign a pledge to uphold CEDAW and ensure the implementation of recommendations and also to create a government mechanism to lend accountability in ensuring the implementation of recommendations, and to continually follow-up on the progress of the implementation.

Canada’s much awaited Sixth and Seventh periodic CEDAW reports have been submitted to the CEDAW Committee and are available to the public.

Submission of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on the Occasion Of the Committee’s Review of Canada’s 5th Report

UN Report

here are the Top 5 Things you can do IMMEDIATELY to support the CEDAW Campaign

Click here to view the CEDAW pledge and to find out how to sign on.

View the pledge

On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, Canada will mark the 25th anniversary of its ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Instead of celebrating this historical milestone, women in Canada are mobilizing to ensure that governments honour and respect their international and domestic human rights commitments. This is because over several months now, the federal government has acted in ways that deny most women’s realities, undermine women’s access to justice, and abandon its own obligation to advance women’s human rights in Canada.

2006 will mark the 25th anniversary of Canada’s ratification of the most comprehensive international treaty on women’s rights, CEDAW. Canada ratified it in 1981 with the consent of all provinces and territories. If you are elected, will you and your party take concrete and immediate measures to ensure that Canada fully upholds its commitments to women under this international agreement?

2006 marks the 25th anniversary of Canada’s ratification of the most comprehensive international treaty on women’s rights, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Canada ratified it in 1981 with the consent of all provinces and territories.

OTTAWA- (27 October, 2008)-Representatives from the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) a pan-Canadian alliance of 70 women’s equality seeking groups, watched as the UN CEDAW Committee in Geneva asked hard questions of the Canadian government regarding Canada’s failure to live up to the equality guarantees to women contained in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination (CEDAW) against Women ratified by Canada in 1981.

***Please see Canada’s opening statements for the CEDAW review held October 22, 2008. All of the NGOs of Canada had only seven minutes for opening statements. In the interest of time and getting key issues on the official record, FAFIA’s delegation opted to focus on main themes outlined in the report.

The FAFIA CEDAW civil society report can be found here

Canada’s performance in achieving women’s human rights is currently being reviewed by the United Nation’s Committee on the International Covenant on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

FAFIA, along with its member groups, has submitted a comprehensive national civil society report to the UN CEDAW Committee to advise this review.

Nearly 40 women’s equality seeking groups and individuals collaborated on this testimony of Canada’s adherence to CEDAW and its implementation of the CEDAW committee’s recommendations of 2003.

As of January 18, 2006.

“This new report is a wake-up call for our governments, but in particular the federal
government which is primarily responsible for ensuring Canada abides by this Convention,” says
Elaine Garland, President of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO). “The UN is urging
Canada to ensure that, as a matter of human rights, anyone on social assistance receives sufficient
income to attain an adequate standard of living. To do otherwise is to ensure grinding, debilitating
poverty, in particular for women who are disproportionately susceptible to deprivation.”

OTTAWA- (27 October, 2008)-Representatives from the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) a pan-Canadian alliance of 70 women’s equality seeking groups, watched as the UN CEDAW Committee in Geneva asked hard questions of the Canadian government regarding Canada’s failure to live up to the equality guarantees to women contained in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination (CEDAW) against Women ratified by Canada in 1981.

***Please see Canada’s opening statements for the CEDAW review held October 22, 2008. All of the NGOs of Canada had only seven minutes for opening statements. In the interest of time and getting key issues on the official record, FAFIA’s delegation opted to focus on main themes outlined in the report.

The FAFIA CEDAW civil society report can be found here

The Optional Protocol (OP) comprises two mechanisms, one of which is a communications procedure that allows individual women or groups of women to submit, directly or through a representative, claims of rights violations under the CEDAW. The second mechanism is an inquiry procedure, through which the CEDAW Committee launches an investigation into grave or systemic violations.

The First CEDAW Impact Study, an in-depth analysis of the impact of countries’ ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was designed as a pilot study in ten countries that are United Nations members states. Its aim was to gather qualitative and quantitative data from grassroots women and groups in order to develop better measurements of the implementation of human rights guarantees from the perspective of women’s rights activists.

The study was published by the Centre for Feminist Research and the International Women’s Rights Project, with the guidance of the United National Division for the Advancement of Women, UNIFEM, and expert members of an International Advisory Committee. While the study was conducted 8 years ago, most of the information is still quite relevant to the Canadian context.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an expert body established in 1982 and is composed of 23 experts on women’s issues from around the world.

The Committee’s mandate is to monitor the progress for women made in countries that are States parties to the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Committee holds meetings twice annually, in order to review national reports submitted by the States parties within one year of ratification or accession, and thereafter every four year. The Committee also makes recommendations on issues affecting women, to which it believes the States parties should devote more attention.

FAFIA’s full CEDAW toolkit is available to download in pdf format. An accessible version in html is also available.