The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

• First commentary on one of the most important anti-discrimination and women's rights instruments
• Systematic article-by-article structure, setting out each provision's negotiating history, interpretation, and relevant case law
• Full overview of the work of the CEDAW Committee, including all of its decisions and recommendations
• Includes detailed history of the adoption of the Optional Protocol

Readership: Scholars and students of international human rights law and women's rights; practitioners and NGO and government legal advisers and policy-makers working in these areas

Edited by Marsha A. Freeman, Senior Fellow, University of Minnesota Human Rights Center; Director, International Women's Rights Action Watch, Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law, London School of Economics and Political Science;, and Beate Rudolf, Director of the German Institute for Human Rights

Marsha A. Freeman is Director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch and a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center. IWRAW is an international women's human rights resource centre and pioneered the shadow reporting to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Dr. Freeman is the editor of Assessing the Status of Women, a guide to using the CEDAW Convention, and author of Women's Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, a manual for working with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. She teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Christine Chinkin has law degrees from the universities of London and Sydney and Yale Law School. She has taught international law in Singapore, Australia and the United States as well as in the United Kingdom. She is a member of Matrix Chambers and the author of many articles on international human rights law, especially relating to women's human rights. She has been a consultant to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Since 1 January 2010, Prof. Dr. iur. Beate Rudolf is the Director of the German Institute for Human Rights. Prior to that, she was a junior professor for public law and equality law at the faculty of law of Freie Universität Berlin and director of the research project "Public International Law Standards for Governance in Weak and Failing States" within the Research Center "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood". Her research focuses on human rights and legal principles on state structures under public international law, European law and German constitutional law as well as from a comparative law perspective.

"A monumental achievement that will undoubtedly prove to be a widely-utilised resource for the continuing international women's human rights movement. It is a model of meticulous research, thoughtful critique and unwavering commitment to social justice." - Julia L. Ernst, Melbourne Journal of International Law

"Kudos to all the contributors to this fine resource, as well as to the intrepid editors who brought this behemoth task to fruition. The iCommentaryr will serve human rights scholars and students, gender activists, policy makers, and the wider international law community for decades to come." - Lisa R. Pruitt, IntLawGrrls

1: Introduction
2: Preamble
3: Article 1
4: Article 2
5: Article 3
6: Article 4
7: Article 5
8: Article 6
9: Article 7
10: Article 8
11: Article 9
12: Article 10
13: Article 11
14: Article 12
15: Article 13
16: Article 14
17: Article 15
18: Article 16
19: Article 17
20: Article 18
21: Article 19
22: Article 20
23: Article 21
24: Article 22
25: Article 23
26: Article 24
27: Article 25
28: Article 26
29: Article 27
30: Article 28
31: Article 29
32: Article 30
33: Violence Against Women
34: Optional Protocol