Claim & Celebrate Women Migrants’ Human Rights through CEDAW

Author/Editor(s): Jean D'Cunha

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) can be invoked effectively to address the concerns of women migrants. It is an international legal instrument designed to promote and protect women's socio-economic, civil and political rights, in both the public and private spheres. However, CEDAW does not have a specific Article on migration. This has at times resulted in the exclusion of women migrants' concerns from the CEDAW review and reporting process, which can adversely impact the significannce accorded to women's migration.

This publication takes women's migration for work as an illustration to demonstrate how CEDAW's methodological framework can be used effectively to address the long-term and immediate concers of women migrants, at all stages of the migration process, even in the absence of a specific Article on migration. It further shows how CEDAW's existing potential to address migration can be significantly strengthened through the adoption of a General Recommendation on migration.