| Violence against women occurs in every state worldwide and constitutes one of the most prevalent human rights abuses at the global level. However, none of the UN treaties refers specifically to violence against women. This fact is all the more surprising given that since 1979 a ‘women’s convention’, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (also known as CEDAW), has been in existence. This article will begin by discussing why any express reference to violence against women was excluded from CEDAW, and will then proceed to examine how the monitoring body of CEDAW, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (also known as the CEDAW Committee) has nevertheless sought to include the issue of violence against women within its remit by interpreting various provisions of the convention in such a manner as to encompass this issue. Other UN bodies have also addressed the subject of violence against women, for example the UN General Assembly has passed resolutions on the topic, including the very important Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (also known as DEVAW). Most notably, the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences was created in 1994. The key focus of this article is on the question of whether it is now time for a specific treaty on violence against women to be adopted at the UN level. This issue has been brought particularly to the fore due to comments made by Rashida Manjoo, who held the office of UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women from 2009 until 2015. In a number of statements made both during and after her tenure as Special Rapporteur, Manjoo has vociferously expressed her strong belief that a UN treaty on violence against women is essential to addressing this issue sufficiently. Although Manjoo’s successor to the office of Special Rapporteur, Dubravka Šimonović, has in her reports to date expressed no personal views on this issue, she has nevertheless called for submissions from stakeholders on the question of whether there is a need for a separate legally binding treaty on violence against women with a separate monitoring body.1 This article will examine in detail the arguments surrounding the adoption of a global treaty on violence against women. |
