CEDAW and the Human Rights Based Approach to Programming: A UNIFEM Guide

Author/Editor(s): Lee Waldorf, with research by Christine Arab and Menaka Guruswamy

Promoting universal respect for human rights has been one of the fundamental goals of the United Nations (UN) since its creation, and the development of a comprehensive international human rights system within the UN was one of the great achievements of the 20th century. A more recent development, with great potential for further enhancing the impact of these human rights standards on the ground, is the adoption of the human rights-based approach (HRBA) to programming by UN agencies, funds and programmes. Especially over the past decade, the UN system's commitment to the HRBA intensified, and the principle that development cooperation should further the realization of human rights has now gained wide acceptance. At the same time, the UN is tackling the challenge of fully translating this commitment into concrete, operational programming terms.

This publication is a practical guide to the human rights-based approach to programming for UNIFEM staff as well as partners, with a particular focus on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Starting with an overview of why it is important to understand gender equality as a human rights issue, the guide explains the "UN Common Understanding of the human-rights-based approach" and how this is reflected in UNIFEM's Multi-Year Funding Framework (MYFF). It discusses the concrete implications for programming of applying the HRBA and highlights requirements of human rights-based programming in the context of Results-Based Management, a central concept in the work of UN development agencies. The publication also provides detailed background information on CEDAW and other human rights treaties, including links to key documents.