The Responses of States to the Comments of the CEDAW Committee on Domestic Violence

While domestic violence is not explicitly mentioned in CEDAW, General Recommendation 19 from the CEDAW Committee has brought domestic violence within CEDAW's scope. Focusing on eleven Western European Countries (Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Italy), the author examines the Committees responses to each country's efforts to prevent violence against women. The author argues that the responses show that the domestic efforts have been inconsistent and that where there has been success, it is not necessarily caused by CEDAW's mandate. The author suggests that this inconsistency highlights a larger issue in international human rights law, namely a lack of enforcement abilities. The author concludes that if the Committee issued stronger statements in response to reports on domestic violence in the member states, NGOs and civil society groups could use those reports to pressure their governments to take better steps to prevent violence against women.