Byrnes, Andrew

"In recent years, calls have been made, particularly from within the non-governmental organization community, to strengthen the mechanisms which currently exist for the protection and enforcement of the human rights of women. One of the demands made is that the Women's Convention be strengthened by the addition of a complaints mechanism, in the form of an optional protocol, which would allow individual women to bring complaints before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

This article examines three cases decided under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW-OP), two of which concerned domestic violence, and the third of which dealt with forced sterilization. The cases illustrate the Committee's position on the obligation of due diligence to prevent and punish violence against women, as well as its position on reproductive choice and admissibility.

Andrew Byrnes & Eleanor Bath, Violence against Women, the Obligation of Due Diligence, and the Optional Protocol to the

This article is the published record of an American Society of International Law panel discussion held in April 1997. The panelists were Marsha Freeman (International Women's Rights Action Watch), Andrew Byrnes (University of Hong Kong), and Christine Brautigam (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women), with remarks from Theresa Loar (U.S. Department of State). They addressed compliance under the CEDAW Convention, the development of an Optional Protocol to the Convention, and mainstreaming a gender perspective in the work of the United Nations treaty bodies.

"Despite broad support for the Women's Convention, the Convention and the Committee have attracted considerably less attention than the other human rights treaties and their respective committees among those active in the field of international human rights. The women's rights community and, to a lesser extent, the human rights community, have made efforts to integrate women's rights issues into the human rights agenda, but progress has been slow.