Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) Article 11(1)(a)-(b)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/23
Article 11 1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular: (a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings;(b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment;
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)
In the CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, its emphasis is the universality of the need for gender equality or equality of the sexes. The requirement of bounded nations, binding to the Convention, to maintain their active work for the elimination of discrimination against women on a number of fronts is highly important, as, in one example, the Sustainable Development Goals would not be fulfilled without the implementation of the documents such as the CEDAW.
The work of the Convention or the CEDAW and other international documents remain some of the most important documents for the equality of the sexes in the world because not only women are directly helped but also the men and the families – and so the children – are assisted through the development of equality.
The men are assisted because of the increase in the flexibility of the roles for the men and the women in the societies that make the democratic decisions to permit women into education and, therefore, into the future economy of the world. There is, in a sense, a deep -seeded need to make these transitions for gender equality in education for the transition into the new forms of society that we want to see in the world with both sexes contributing to their fullest.
Article 11(1)(a) states that the governments will take the same appropriate measures indicated before, in prior articles in the Convention. The purpose of Article 11 is to eliminate the discrimination against women in the areas of employment for the equal bases for men and women. The same rights to be documented and implemented.
Article 11(1)(a) speaks to the need for the work of every person or, more properly, for the right to work of every human being, as this is within the context of the Convention then this speaks more to the right to work for women and men. If a woman, or a man, is somehow restricted from work for illegitimate reasons, then there should be reference this stipulation within the Convention because this violates the fundamental right to work of that woman or man.
Furthermore, the language used is quite strong, as it is stated as an inalienable right to work for men and women in the world or whatever nation of the world in which the CEDAW is a binding document. The next stipulation within the CEDAW speaks to the right to the identical work opportunities of the sexes for gender quality.
The employment opportunities of the document point to the general principle inherent in the desire for the equality of the sexes. The subtlety of this particular Article subsection within the CEDAW is the emphasis on the need for the provision of the same application criteria for the matters of employment.
In terms of the need for the furtherance of gender equality, we need to see the people who get into the jobs be the most qualified for those jobs. But also, the people who apply for those jobs should go through the same selection criteria in order for there to be any frame of equality.
In order for the implementation of equality to be a real thing for the men or the women in the workplace; there should be a basic assumption of fair play in the hiring of employees and in the hiring criteria. Aso, in the presentation of a position, there should the utmost standards to ensure the equality of the sexes in the applications for a position.
What would be the condition or state of a woman and a man on the job if there was an unequal set of criteria or presentation of information? We have a long history of the informal and formal work world with the clear representation of what form this world would take. It is less of an abstraction and more of a concrete reality for many women in the world.
That world of inequality and lack of provision for one sex in contrast to another for the world of work. In fact, there are cases in Canadian history where the record is so stark that women were presented with only a few options like a nurse for their professional life. These socio-cultural practices amount to the conscious truncation of the possibilities of women in the world of work in Canadian society.
Not many women, or men in women’s positions, now, would want to take on those positions of the women in the society; the questions then arise about the ways in which we may be extending some of these practices right into the present. It is not too unfair, though may be seen as unfair by some retrospective idealists, to remark on the discrimination of women in Canadian society, especially Aboriginal or Indigenous women.
For example, the right to vote only given in 1960. How does this affect one’s feeling of inclusion into the society? How does this change the ways in which someone can even become a part of the mainstream settler-colonial society? It is a difficult situation, but it is something not insurmountable as the progressive changes have been made in the past, so they can also be made now and into the future.–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3 and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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