All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Yet, 60 years after these words were first enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many women in Australia still struggle daily to have their most basic rights protected.
I want to live in a world where all women, mothers, sisters, daughters and grand daughters feel safe, have an adequate standard of living and a decent home, where they are not disadvantaged in the workplace because of their gender and where violence has no place. This is about respecting everyone, every day, everywhere.
CEDAW enshrines the principle that women are entitled to have their human rights protected on an equal basis with men. Increasing women's awareness about CEDAW is invaluable in making it clear that achieving gender equality is a national obligation. I hope these fact sheets will contribute to this increased understanding.
The Australian Government is responsible for ensuring women's human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled through policy, law and practice.
Civil society groups such as non government organisations (NGOs) play a vital role in speaking up for women's rights. NGOs also deliver many of the services which allow women to enjoy their human rights to the fullest extent.
Without practical implementation, human rights are disembodied principles with little significance for peoples' lives. As the individuals and agencies responsible for the practical implementation of human rights, it is really up to each of us to see that human rights have real meaning and significance. As individuals, our own awareness of human rights provides some of the most important protection for ourselves and for those around us.
To fulfill the principles enshrined in CEDAW we must acknowledge that human rights begin, as Eleanor Roosevelt, the Chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Commission said in 1948, 'in the small places close to home... so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world... unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere'.
I hope this information package will help inform our collective efforts to further the human rights of women and ensure their equality in places large and small. Let's make it happen.
Elizabeth Broderick
Sex Discrimination Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission
December 2008B