Trade and Gender: Briefing for CEDAW Members

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) plays an important role in reducing the effects of discrimination worldwide. It addresses a broad range of women’s rights and gender inequality issues, such as violence against women, poverty, lack of legal rights and gender stereotyping. In monitoring how the 189 States parties implement their women’s rights obligations, the Committee also looks at health, employment, economic and social benefits and the situation of rural women. 

The CEDAW Committee’s members are 23 elected women’s rights experts from around the world. In 2022, IISD organized briefings for Committee members on macro-economic issues and gendered impacts of trade policies. The first, in July, brought together feminist economists with CEDAW Committee members. During the 14 October briefing IISD’s Caroline Dommen presented different ways that trade and trade rules impact on women’s rights.