The Australian Human Rights Institute and The George Institute for Global Health have jointly prepared a submission to assist the Australian Parliament's Human Rights Sub-Committee prior to its upcoming public hearing for the inquiry into women and girls in the Pacific.
This submission relates to our recent work on the implementation of women’s health rights in the Pacific. This work seeks to improve the health of women and girls worldwide, including in the Pacific through the development of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Implementation Map on Women’s Health.
The Map is a unique tool that measures government responses to CEDAW recommendations on women’s health across 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a collaboration between the George Institute for Global Health and the Australian Human Rights Institute and is led by Dr Janani Shanthosh.
By collating all health-related recommendations and analysing the extent of their implementation, as reported by participating governments, the CEDAW Implementation Map provides regional insights into how governments are acting or failing to act in meeting their obligations to alleviate health inequities experienced by women. This tool is particularly valuable as there has been no systematic analysis of the effectiveness of the review system in motivating government action to improve women’s health throughout the Convention’s 42-year history.
Further information on the CEDAW Implementation Map and its findings is available here.