action and research

A key United Nations human rights monitoring body has issued a report highly critical of Canada’s record on women’s human rights. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) reviewed Canada’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and issued its Concluding Observations in Geneva this week.

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.

This ‘one pager’ by the International Poverty Centre (IPC) examines the concept of the ‘feminization of poverty’ and the various ways in which it can be defined. IPC proposes a definition that is in line with many recent studies in the field: the feminization of poverty is a change in poverty levels that is biased against women or female-headed households. More specifically, it is an increase in the difference in poverty levels between women and men, or between households headed by females on the one hand, and those headed my males or couples on the other.

Last March, Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, passed second reading in the House of Commons. This bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code and to create a separate offence for causing the injury or death of an "unborn child" should a pregnant woman be the victim of a crime.

The adoption of Bill C-484 would introduce a huge change in our law that would result in massive intrusions in the lives of pregnant women, as has been the case in those states in the U.S. that have adopted similar legislation.