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Useful Reference Documents

The following is a list of official and unofficial documents that States parties should/could refer to, in order to establish State obligation under the CEDAW Convention.

Official documents (international)

1. The CEDAW Convention. Since the official guidelines require that the report is written under each of the substantive articles (1-16) it is essential to refer to the treaty itself. (Click here for text of the CEDAW Convention)
   
   
2. General Comments (used to be General Recommendations). These are authoritative explanations of the meaning and scope of the provisions of the CEDAW Convention made by CEDAW according to the authority given to it under article 21 of the Convention. They are considered to be the jurisprudence that has developed over the years in interpreting the meaning and scope of the CEDAW Convention. States Parties are required to take them into consideration when establishing their obligations. Currently, there are 25. However, not all of them are substantive in nature; some  are procedural or technical. (Click here for list and details of General Comments)
   
   
3. The reports of the thematic expert group meetings convened by the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and thematic background papers prepared by DAW for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings.
   
   
4. The Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document adopted by the UN General Assembly Special Session (5-9 June, 2000): "Further Actions and Initiatives to Implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action".
   
   
5. International Conference on Population and Development, Plan of Action (ICPD)
   
   
6. The Vienna Programme and Plan of Action

Official documents (national)
National documents that need to be referred to are, the National Development Plans, Annual Reports of various ministries, sectors and departments, National Policy on Women, National Plan of Action (Beijing Plan of Action), ICPD Plan of Action and other relevant plans.

Unofficial documents
There are many papers written by academics and experts that provide guidance on the scope of State obligation and on the methodology of writing the report. One publication that is recommended is "Assessing the Status of Women: A Guide to Reporting Under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women" (2002), produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations and IWRAW Minnesota. This is not an official document but a resource and can be utilised according to its relevance.