Gender and Human Rights in the Commonwealth

The purpose of this book is to contribute to current policy-making, program planning and implementation. It is intended for a wide audience of policy makers, magistrates, judges and lawyers, academics and civil society organizations grappling with these issues. It is also intended as a conceptual and policy-oriented resource for those committed to implementing and supporting the Human Rights goals of the new Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015. The papers address a wide range of issues, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), gender-based violence, culture and the law, indigenous peoples, trafficking and migration, land and property rights, diversity and a life cycle appraoch to gender and human rights. This book brings together the papers commissioned for a Pan-Commonwealth Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Human Rights which took place at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London February 2004. Together with other key background papers, they represent much of the analysis and experience from Commonwealth member countries that informed the development of the Human Rights section of the Plan of Action--Publisher description.