* Austrralia will not sign of ratify: On 29 August 2000 the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs issued a joint press release titled: Improving the Effectiviness of United Nations Committees. The press release read in part:

"Cabinet decided Australia's strategic engagement with the treaty committee system should be dependent on the extent to which effective reform occurs. In pursuit of reform the Government will take the following measures:
...............
Australia will immediately implement a package of measures to improve our continued interaction with UN human rights treaty committees, including the following:
.........
(d)Australia will not sign or ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which establishes a new complaints procedure."

WRANA - Urgent: Call for endorsements - letter to the Prime Minister and others - reconsider the decision not to ratify the optional protocol to CEDAW.  Call ends Friday 29 September 2000

* 15 May 2000 the Secretary General of the United Nations wrote to all heads of state or government advising that there would be special facilities at the Millenium Summit to enable them to add their signatures to treaties, including 25 treaties which reflect the main policy goals of the UN. Among the core group was the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

* The Optional Protocol to CEDAW was adopted by CSW 43  on 12 March 1999

* 1 - 19 March 1999, 43rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN UNHQ, New York, USA. Contact: DAW, Room DC2-1216, UN, New York, NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212) 963-3463
Email: <timothy@un.org> Web: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw

* For the eighteen months prior to December 1998 the Office of the Status of Women  went through a multi step consultation process in relation to the proposed Optional Protocol to the CEDAW. The Optional Protocol would provide, among other things, the process by which complaints could be lodged regarding domestic breaches of CEDAW.

 

The consultation process concluded on the 18 December 1998. The Office of the Status of Women took submissions until that date on the detailed position which Australia should take on the current draft [UN Commission on the Status of Women web link] of the Optional Protocol.

The leading submission by women's organisations was lodged by the Women's Rights Action Network Australia and this submission has been endorsed by the National Women's Justice Coalition and by many other organisations and individuals.

*  Optional Protocol to the Women's Convention -  by Renee Leon - reviews progress at CSW 42 [added 23/6/98]

* March 2 - 13 1998 - The Optional Protocol was further discussed at the 42nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women's in New York (CSW 42)

• Chairperson's summary of views and positions expressed in relation to the Optional Protocol, 13 March '98
• Documents and press releases from the 42 Session.
• Australia's Country Statement, 2/3/98
• Press release by Hon. Judi Moylan, Minister for the Status of Women 2/3/98

* late 1997 the Office of the Status of Women undertook consultantions to inform the development of a position on the Proposed Optional Protocol to CEDAW. The NWJC made a leading submission which was widely endorsed

* Optional Protocol Briefing Paper by Susan Brennan YWCA of Australia, August 1997

About the Proposed Optional Protocol 

Take this link to the UN Division for the Advancement of Women web page on the Optional Protocol or take these direct links to:

• What the Optional Protocol is an Optional Protocol?
• Why we need it
• History
• Current Draft
• List of UN documents relating to the Optional Protocol
• Bibliography

Read the CEDAW Committee report card on Australia's progress on CEDAW

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Draft Report - Consideration of the third periodic report by Australia 7-25 July 1997 [on the Australian Human Rights Information Centre web site]

And take this link to Australia's report [that is, the report under comment]

Also see the NWJC's report card on Australia on CEDAW Articles on equality before the law and marriage and the family NWJC contribution to the Australian NGO report on the Australian government's report on the implementation of CEDAW, May 1997