Critical report on women's rights in the Netherlands to United Nations
The Dutch government should do more to eradicate discrimination against women and violence against women in the Netherlands. This is the conclusion of the report that 54 Dutch organisations will present to the CEDAW comittee on Monday 25 January. This UN Committee, overseeing implementation of the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination against Women, will discuss the siuation with the Dutch goverment delegation on Wednesday. Aim for human rights has coordinated the development of this report by the Dutch CEDAW Network.
Verenigde Naties in Genève
54 organisations signed the shadow report. Never before have so many Dutch organisations presented a joint shadow report to the UN. All organisations agree that the Dutch government should also within Dutch borders live up to the progressiveness it progates abroad.
Critical remarks on women's rights in the Netherlands have to do with among others: insufficient protection for women against violence, discrimination of women on the labour market, not enough disaggregated data to gender and ethnicity collected - obscuring potential discrimination of women on such issues as unemployment and social security, high poverty rates among elderly women and working single mothers.
The CEDAW committee oversees compliance to the CEDAW convention. The Dutch government reports periodically to the committee on the implementation of this convention. To form an opinion, the committee poses questions based on the government report and shadow reports from NGOs. The concluding comments are expected to be published March 2010.
Besides Aim for human rights, various other organisations participate in the core group of the Network: E-Quality, Movisie, St. Emancipatie Online, Studie- en Informatiecentrum Mensenrechten of Utrecht University, Tiye-International, Vereniging voor Vrouw en Recht Clara Wichmann, Justitia et Pax, Vluchtenorganisaties Nederland. In addition, various experts on CEDAW participate. Alongside the core group, the Dutch CEDAW Network consists of a wider group of organisations and individuals that work on women’s rights and use CEDAW in their work.
