The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: Article 4(a) and Article 4(b)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/13
Article 4
States should condemn violence against women and should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. States should pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against women and, to this end, should:
( a ) Consider, where they have not yet done so, ratifying or acceding to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or withdrawing reservations to that
Convention;
( b ) Refrain from engaging in violence against women;
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993) or the Declaration states, in Article 4, some important truths about the need for timeliness and not to take excess time in the deliberation and implementation of the equal rights for women.
In its opening rights salvo, the statements pertain to the open condemnation of violence of which women are uniquely subject to enough to earn the category of Violence Against Women or VAW. From this VAW, the open condemnation is one start to the prevention against violence women are subject to, in the future.
The invocation of any cultural artifact behavior or belief cannot be used to justify the violence against women too. The fundamental right of women to live free of VAW is the ideal inherent in the women’s rights documents on one level of rights, in one domain of stipulations.
Religion can be invoked at times to justify violence but this is illegitimate in accordance with Article 4 of the Declaration. Furthermore, there should be immediate work and no delays in the work of the nations and so on to develop the appropriate policy to prevent further violence against women.
Article 4(a) simply manifests the realization of women’s equal consideration in the ratification of more than one document. The example taken is the one given the most eye-time in this article series with the CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Then (b) simply articulates the obvious implication for the reduction and elimination of VAW – simply stop taking part in it as an individual, collective, or a nation. Without delay, mind you.
–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, Article 7, 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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