Part 1
CEDAW

What is Article 14?

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women^[1] (CEDAW) is a human rights instrument adopted by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979, which came into force on 3 September 1981. By June 1990, 103 countries had acceded to or ratified the Convention. By March 2005 the number totalled 180. The goal of the Convention is to eliminate all attitudes, practices, distinctions, exclusions or preferences on the basis of sex which put women in an unfavourable position with respect to men. The Convention comprises two major sections; the preamble explaining the set of profound reasons underlying the commitment of the States Parties in signing this Convention, and the section detailing the various women's rights it protects. In ratifying this Convention, the States Parties not only agree to apply the Convention nationwide, but they also agree to submit reports on measures taken to attain this objective, especially to remove obstacles and constraints encountered. Despite the near-universal acknowledgement of gender equality, women's rights as human beings are daily and continuously violated, despite women's fundamental contribution to the economic, social and cultural development of their families and their countries.

Mindful, then, of the fact that any distinction, exclusion or preference on the basis of sex against women can contribute neither to the social, cultural nor to the economic progress of humanity, the States Parties took on the commitment embodied in the Convention. The effective implementation of this Convention could bring to a definitive close all exclusions or distinctions on the basis of sex which create inequality between men and women.

Under Article 14, the States Parties address the specific problems faced by rural women. They act to ensure that women have, specifically, equal access to land as well as:

• the elaboration and implementation of development planning;
• health care facilities and information;
• education and training and especially functional literacy;
• economic advantages especially when there is agrarian reform;
• modern marketing facilities and technology;

• adequate and healthy living conditions.

Forms of discrimination against women

The Convention defines discrimination against women as "any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field".

Discrimination against women is found mainly in the following major instances:

• agrarian reforms and laws favouring access to land for men;
• in specific countries where dual modern and customary legal systems exist side by side;
• preference given to men in social, economic and cultural instances;
• marital custody goes to men;
• access to educational opportunities;
• limited or no right to a voice;
• failure to grant responsibilities for women hallowed by time and custom;
• limited access to information through simple ignorance of opportunities on hand;

• ignorance of administrative procedures and rights.

How and where to find information

Information on rural women needs to be gender-disaggregated in order to understand their present situation and to suggest eventual improvements under the basic provisions of the Convention. Members of the report-writing committee from Ministries of Agriculture should, together with their colleagues in the statistics services, draw upon agricultural censuses to prepare questionnaires in such a way as to produce gender-disaggregated data giving both absolute figures and percentages. FAO readily provides technical assistance to States Parties to collect this information. As this is a long, costly process, all information available to States Parties from national and international sources should be used.

National sources include:

• women-centred research centres or institutes

• a variety of reports or documents concerning:

  - annual reports by various bodies to the UN General Assembly, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank
  www.un.org
  www.fao.org

• economic censuses

  - national agricultural censuses
  www.fao.org/es/ess/census/wcares/default.asp
  www.census.gov

  - agricultural statistics

  - legislation (family law, land law)
  www.idli.org

  - legislation on land ownership
  www.fao.org/sd/Ltdirect/landrf.htm

  - reports by NGOs and Farmers' and Rural Women 's Associations
  www.unifem.org
  www.undp.org

  - country reports on human rights
  www.ohchr.org/english

  - government and ministerial sectoral action plans and strategies

  - health care and education indicators
  www.fao.org/gender

• all country reports, even those coming under international instruments, including reports to regional agencies, ITO, etc

  - reports presented by other countries
  www.uneca.org/index.htm

  - Key reports by national and international NGOs on the situation of women's rights within a given country, including documentation on regional systems to promote and protect the rights of women or human rights in general
  www.unchs.org/pubs/femme/chap2.htm
  www.fao.org/sd/2003/pe07033a_en.htm
  www.fao.org/sd/dimitra

Useful references

• The United Nations Yearbook

• Financial statistics from the International Monetary Fund

• World Bank Development Report
  devdata.worldbank.org/genderstats/home.asp
  www.worldbank.org/data/

• The State of the World's Children published by UNICEF
  www.unicef.asso.fr/

• African Development Bank (ADB)
  www.adb.org

• OIDD/IDLO (International Development Law Organisation)

• Statistics and indicators on the situation of women
  www.uis.unesco.org
  www.ilo.org
  www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm
  www.un.org/esa/unsd/

• Agricultural survey reports from various countries
  www.fao.org/sd/2001/IN0501_en.htm
  www.fao.org/sd/2002/IN0302_en.htm

• International inter-library loan systems
  www.fao.org/library

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
  www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
  www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/Documentsfrsetfr?OpenFrameSet

• UN Manual on writing human rights reports; United Nations, New York, 1992

• Reports of the CEDAW Committee
  www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/

VARIOUS WEBSITES

www.fao.org/sd/
www.fao.org/reliefoperations/
www.ifad.org
www.unece.org/stats/gender/web
www.unfpa.org
www.unicef.org/ash
www.unaids.org/en/default.asp
www.afdb.org
www.fao.org/sd/epdirect/
www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/
www.fao.org/sd/rodirect/

VARIOUS DOCUMENTATION CENTRES

• United Nations Documentation Centre
• Ministries
• Government sources (tribunals, police and penitentiary services, census departments)
• University libraries
• National and international press agencies
• UN Agency libraries
• FAO David Lubin Memorial Library
• The ILO Information Resources
• IMO Library Catalogue
• Joint Bank-Fund Library Visitor Policy
• UNEP Library
• UNESCO documents, publications and Library collection
• UN Geneva Library
• UNHCR
• United Nations University
• Vienna International Centre (VIC) Library Information Online (IAEA)

• WHO Library

How to organise the collection of information on rural women

Report quality depends on the information reported. This is why it is crucially important to carefully select the information and documentation to collect and analyse. Data collection and analysis is a lengthy operation requiring a battery of human and material resources. In the process of compiling the report the following should be undertaken:

• request and pool information from many sources;

• prepare a questionnaire adapted to the States Party based on CEDAW Committee guidelines;

• carefully frame questions in order to obtain exact answers;

• select recipients and target those with information on rural women;

• specify how to answer the questions in accordance with the Guide on report-writing (see Annex);

• plan and organise regional or sub-regional workshops with all stakeholders in the States Party, i.e.: national and international NGOs working to promote and protect the rights of women in general and rural women in particular; village development Committees, rural women's and farmers' Associations, traditional village chiefs, representatives of technical ministries (advancement of women, human rights, justice, education, health, public administration, economy and finances) and national institutions working with rural women;

• during these workshops analyse the provisions of Article 14 of the Convention with reference to the content of the national legislation of the States Party;

• deliver the information collected in the national workshops and surveys.

It is advisable to tap all resources, especially:

• reports already presented by the government since report-writing is not always the responsibility of the same service and information may already exist;

• reports prepared by international organisations. Inter-governmental organisations, the UN and its specialised agencies such as FAO regularly produce a wide range of information;

• the reports of organisations/associations of farmers, rural women, media and certain specialised milieus, which may well possess information overlooked by ministries or other official sources.

Key questions concerning rural women

The States Parties can use these reports as a convincing tool for effecting legislative and policy changes concerning equality for rural women. Key questions need to be highly specific in order to obtain gender-disaggregated statistics. These questions should cover the following aspects:

• the conditions of rural women in rural areas and the proportion of rural women with respect to the total population of the country (population structure, active population, rural/urban populations);

• rural/urban population statistics;

• gender-sensitive rural population trends;

• changes in the condition of rural women as a result of the implementation of the Convention;

• general legislative and administrative measures intended to implement the provisions of Article 14 of the Convention;

• the proportion of the rural population that is illiterate;

• literacy needs for women and men;

• gender distribution of heads-of-household;

• percentage of rural women working in agriculture and their activities;

• access of rural women to agricultural extension programmes;

• workloads and working hours of rural women (farm work, domestic chores, care and education of children);

• participation of rural women in community life;

• rural women and social security;

• access of rural women to education;

• access of rural women to employment in rural areas;

• access of rural women to medical care;

• share of programmes for rural women in the national budget;

• family planning in rural areas;

• rural women's self-help groups;

• access to land ownership;

• conditions of rural women (housing, household aides, domestic appliances);

• literacy programmes (formal and informal education);

• training, self-help programmes and establishment of cooperatives, credit and autonomous loans for rural women;

• techniques to enhance the living and working conditions of rural women;

• structures and procedures put in place to enhance the participation of rural women in the economic, political, social and cultural life of their communities and countries.