# **Reforming laws and policies**

# **_International rights agreements_**

Over the past 30 years, countries around the world have signed international rights agreements that make specific reference to violence against women (see Box 1).

# **<mark>Box 1.</mark>** **_<mark>Key Human Rights Declarations and Legal Instruments that address gender based violence</mark>_**

- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (Entry in force, 1981)

- Convention on the Rights of the Child (Entry in force, 1990)

- Vienna Declaration and Program of Action (Adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, 1993)

- The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (Adopted by the UN General Assembly in1993)

- Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, “Convention of Belem do Para” (1994)

- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995)

- _Source: World Health Organization, 1999._

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)-one of the most influential--requires signatory governments to implement specific reforms and periodically report on their progress to the United Nations. The Optional Protocol to CEDAW (adopted in 1999) enables individuals and organizations from states that have ratified the Protocol to file claims directly with the committee in charge of overseeing the Convention’s implementation. By June 2004, 177 countries had ratified CEDAW, and 75 countries had signed the optional protocol (United Nations, n.d.). A study of CEDAW’s global impact noted numerous examples of court rulings and legal reforms-including those that dealt with violence against women--that made explicit reference to the CEDAW Convention (McPhedran, 2000). Unfortunately, many countries have signed or ratified CEDAW “with reservations” about certain articles, have yet to bring their legislation into compliance, or simply have failed to enforce their laws.

# **_Advocacy for legislative change_**

International donors, United Nations monitoring bodies, and women’s rights organizations have lobbied governments around the world to revise their civil and penal legislation, and these efforts have achieved progress in many countries (Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, 2002; Mehotra, 1998). Their efforts have included research and dissemination of findings, educating parliamentarians and journalists, mass media campaigns to build awareness of the problem, and targeted lobbying for legal reform. The Nicaraguan Network of Women against Violence (composed of over 100 women’s organizations) drafted legislation on violence against women and successfully campaigned for its passage (Ellsberg, Liljestrand, and Winkvist, 1997). In South Africa, Soul City carried out a similar campaign in collaboration with the National Network on Violence against Women (Usdin et al., 2000). These efforts continue in middle and low-income countries, since much legislation remains flawed. At the same time, new legislation sometimes raises new concerns (e.g. mandated reporting of violence against adult women, a problematic policy that is discussed below in the health section) or provokes a conservative backlash, requiring advocates to defend the laws after they have been passed.

# **_Legislative reform in low and middle-income countries_**

Recent criminal law reforms include revision of penal codes to strengthen criminal sanctions against perpetrators of family, domestic and sexual violence; specific legislation to address domestic or sexual violence; reform of laws and policies that regulate criminal justice procedures, and stronger regulation of the obligations of public and private service providers. Much progress has also been made in the reform of civil legislation. For example, countries in Africa have passed laws raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 for women and men; granting women in customary marriages the same privileges and rights as women in formal marriages (including rights to property and child support); and introducing new 19