In the Pursuit of Justice for Women and Children and the Right to Development: A Review of Concluding Observations of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies

Abstract

In the implementation process of the core United Nations (UN) human treaties, its monitoring bodies make recommendations to States parties regarding issues of concern. These include the justice issues involving improvements in education for women and children, women’s treatment by men and family at large (“domestic violence”), including femicide, rape, female genital mutilation, polygamy, sexual and labour exploitation, including trafficking in women and children. These issues have recently taken centre stage in the UN gender mainstreaming agenda as its contribution to equalize and advance their life chances as a succeeding generation, in line with the objectives of the UN Charter. This article analyses these intergenerational issues from both the local and global perceptions of justice, and looks into how the UN human rights treaty bodies advance the global justice standards and norms for the treatment of women and children, particularly with regard to victims. The article does this by reviewing concluding observations issued by treaty bodies for the period between 2003 and 2013. Finally, in the light of the reviewed concluding observations by the UN treaty bodies and the right to development in general, the article makes recommendations concerning gender mainstreaming in formal and informal education.

Anganile Mwenifumbo and Harumi Fuentes are Human Rights Officers in the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Human Rights Treaties Division, Geneva, Switzerland. They, however, write in their personal capacity. Therefore, the views expressed in this contribution are entirely those of the authors and do not represent the organisation that they work for except as clearly indicated as such in the publicly available documents referred to in the particular context.