Guide To Advocating For Women’s Rights Using International Human Rights Mechanisms

Civil society organizations (CSOs) working locally and/or nationally on the promotion and protection of women’s and girls’ rights have several opportunities to engage in international advocacy. Their engagement is key to ensuring that these UN bodies give helpful recommendations to the government to improve the country’s human rights situation. CSOs are also vital to supporting the government’s implementation of these recommendations.

CSOs have a valuable role in bringing forward information about progress and challenges on the ground and ensuring governments play their part in upholding human rights for all women and girls, irrespective of their ethnicity, disability, race, religion, or other status.

UN-based treaty bodies and their functions

Treaty-based bodies are committees of independent experts who monitor the implementation of the core international human rights treaties by reviewing reports submitted periodically by State parties. Most treaty bodies are also competent to receive and consider individual complaints (provided that the State has agreed to be subject to such procedures), and several may conduct broader specific inquiries relating to systemic and widespread abuse.

Among the ten existing human rights treaty-based bodies, our Guide focuses on the six bodies which are most relevant to women’s rights or have developed the most jurisprudence on issues affecting women.

These are the:

• Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW);
• Committee against Torture (CAT);
• Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

Other ways to engage in international human rights advocacy

As well as treaty-based bodies, there are charter-based bodies, special procedures, and other opportunities for advocacy:

• Universal Periodic Review (UPR) –  Every 4-5 years, each UN Member State’s human rights situation is reviewed. The UPR is a peer-review mechanism whereby UN Member States and observer States can make recommendations to the State under review on any human rights issue.
• UN Special Procedures – including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and its consequences (SR VAW) are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
• Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – The Commission on the Status of Women is the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women” and is considered instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s rights around the world, and defining global standards on gender equality.
• United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development – The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), which generally takes place every year in July, is the main platform on sustainable development at the UN with the mandate to follow-up and review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and implementation and status of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around the world.