This volume is the fully revised and updated version of the first comprehensive commentary on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol. It reflects the developments during the decade following the publication of the first edition in 2012, which has also seen a notable rise in individual complaints (more than 85), ten new General Recommendations, and six new inquiry procedures as well as numerous statements, partly in conjunction with other UN human rights bodies. The Convention is a key international human rights instrument and the only one exclusively addressed to women. It has been described as the United Nations' 'landmark treaty in the struggle for women's rights'. At a time when the backlash against women's human rights and the concept of gender-based discrimination is increasingly challenged by governments and powerful societal actors, the Commentary is an important instrument to hold all state powers to
account on their international obligations under the Convention.

The Commentary analyses the interpretation of the Convention through the work of its monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. It comprises detailed analyses of the Preamble and each article of the Convention and of the Optional Protocol, including a separate chapter on the cross-cutting substantive issue of violence against women. The sources relied on are the treaty language and the general recommendations, concluding observations, and case law under the Optional Protocol (individual complaints and inquiries), through which the Committee has interpreted and applied the Convention. Each chapter is self-contained, but the Commentary is conceived of as an integral whole. The book also includes an introduction which provides an overview of the Convention and its embedding in the international law of human rights as well as the most recent challenges to women's human rights worldwide.

About the Author:
Patricia Schulz, , Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Bar-Ilan University, Beate Rudolf, German Institute for Human Rights, Marsha A. Freeman

Patricia Schulz practiced law in Geneva, and worked for the ILO and the Geneva Law Faculty (constitutional law). She headed the Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality (1994-2010) and represented Switzerland internationally. While in the CEDAW Committee (2011-2018), she held various positions as Rapporteur, Chair of the Working Group on Communications and of the WG on Working Methods. She was part of the Board of UNRISD and is now a Senior Research Associate there. Bilingual in English and French, she has published articles and chapters in legal publications, regularly gives lectures, and participates in trainings and media programmes on gender equality issues.

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari is Professor of Law and Founding Academic Director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, where she teaches and writes on family law, feminist critique of law, and international women's rights. Between 2007 and 2018 she was a member of CEDAW, during which she was twice Vice-Chair, chaired the Working Group on Inquiries, and headed the Inquiry against the UK regarding the restrictive abortion regime in Northern Ireland. She is a recipient of numerous national and international grants and prizes, and in 2018 she was named on Apolitical's 100 most influential people in gender policy around the world.

Marsha A. Freeman, PhD, JD, retired in 2021 from the University of Minnesota, where she was Director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) and an adjunct professor of law. Dr. Freeman is editor of Assessing the Status of Women, a guide for reporting under the Convention. She has published numerous articles and reports on the Convention's content and application, and was co-editor of the first edition of the Commentary.

Beate Rudolf, Dr. iur., Professor of Law, is Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, the National Human Rights Institution of Germany. From 2016 to 2019, she also chaired the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI). She was Junior Professor of Public Law and Equality Law at the Faculty of Law of Freie Universität Berlin (2003-2009), a member of the Network of Legal Experts on Gender Equality of the European Commission, vice-president of the European Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), member of the ILA Committee Feminism in International Law, and co-author of the first edition of the Commentary.