CEDAW Concluding Observations

By Seana Cranston J.D. | August 30, 2010

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recently released “Concluding Observations” from CEDAW’s 46th session that criticize various countries around the world for failing to provide sufficient “reproductive health” services to their citizens.

CEDAW’s forty-sixth session was held from July 12th through the 30th of 2010.  Concluding observations were released in their English translation for Albania, Argentina, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Russian Federation, and Turkey.  With the exception of Australia, CEDAW’s Observations encourage each country to provide increased reproductive and sexual health services, as well as to expand efforts to provide full access to family-planning information and services.

In its Observations regarding the Russian Federation, for example, CEDAW states that it is “concerned at the limited access to reproductive and sexual health services, especially in rural areas,” as well as that “only 27 per cent of women of childbearing age make use of modern methods of contraception.”  CEDAW expresses concern that “family planning programs are not included in school curriculums” in the Russian Federation, and therefore additionally “recommends that sex education be widely promoted and targeted at adolescent girls and boys.”

In its Observations regarding Papua New Guinea, CEDAW expresses concern that abortion is illegal in Papua New Guinea, and states–without citation or documentation to any source or study–that “this prohibition leads women to seek unsafe, illegal abortions, with consequent risks to their life and health.”  CEDAW requests that Papua New Guinea “strengthen and expand its efforts aimed at the prevention of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections by increasing knowledge about family planning,” which, according to CEDAW, “should include the provision of comprehensive, youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health-care services,” as well as “age-appropriate sex education as part of the formal and informal education curricula targeted at girls and boys.”

However, as reported by a previous Friday Fax, CEDAW was particularly harsh in regard to Argentina, urging that Argentina “ensure women’s and teenage girls’ access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health services,” and “see to it that education on sexual and reproductive health is undertaken in all schools at all levels, as relevant.”  CEDAW urges Argentina to “review existing legislation that criminalizes abortion,” and ensure that “there is equal and effective access to health services to interrupt pregnancies.”  CEDAW additionally urges Argentina to “ensure that the rights of older women, women migrants, women with disabilities as well as lesbians, bisexual and transgendered women, among others, are fully protected,” and “enjoy all their rights,” particularly “sexual and reproductive rights.”

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