The sixty-eight session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is held at the Palais des Nations from 23 October to 17 November 2017. Adopted by the United Nations in 1979, the CEDAW is the most important human rights treaty for women. The Convention currently has 189 states parties. Thus, the vast majority of the member states of the UN (193) have voluntarily agreed to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of women under all circumstances.

CEDAW, also known as the treaty for the rights of women, is a tool that helps women around the world to bring about change in their daily life. In countries that have ratified the treaty, CEDAW has proved invaluable in opposing the effects of discrimination, which include violence, poverty, and lack of legal protections, along with the denial of inheritance, property rights, and access to credit.

The treaty has contributed the development of citizenship rights in Botswana and Japan; inheritance rights in the United Republic of Tanzania; property rights and political participation in Costa Rica.

In addition, in response to CEDAW's concluding observations, China took measures to curb cases of non-medical foetus sex identification and sex-selective abortion and to change stereotypes leading to son preference and Sri Lanka introduced gender-responsive budgeting for rural economic development projects. For more information, please follow this link.

Text provided by OHCHR.

The photographer Alex Majoli took this picture in 2006 in Monrovia (Liberia), during the week of the inauguration of President Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf. We can see a woman walking by the poster of the election campaign.