Evaluating the Enforcement of the Rights of Women under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979: The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is of universal application to both men and women. However, this has not satisfied the specific rights of women. The United Nations has addressed this issue with the emergence of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Nigeria is a signatory to Convention despite the widespread abuses of the gender-sensitive rights of women. This work is aimed at evaluating the enforcement of the rights of Nigerian women under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979. Regrettably, Nigerian women have continued to suffer physical and emotional abuses, economic deprivations, social inequalities and kindred human rights infractions on account of their gender despite the fact that the country has ratified the convention. In view of the commitment of the Nigerian government by ratifying the CEDAW, it is recommended that the government should ratify and domesticate the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which permit individual woman to bring her complaint before the CEDAW Committee in the event of violation of her rights. It is also recommended that the government of Nigeria should domesticate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to enable individual women to access justice at the national court upon any threat or actual violation of their rights under the instrument.