Budgeting for women’s rights monitoring government budget for compliance with CEDAW: a summary guide for policy-makers, gender equality and human rights advocates

The adoption of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the United Nations in 1979 and subsequent ratification by 185 countries has broad implications on state obligations. State parties to the treaty are obliged to ensure compliance of government activity with human rights standards on gender equality including budgeting. More than 50 countries have engaged in Gender Budget Initiatives (GBI). However few of these initiatives articulate an explicit connection between budgets and CEDAW.

This booklet articulates what it means to take an explicitly rights based approach to government budgets. It draws on the lessons of gender budgeting experiences from around the world. Based on the report "Budgeting for Women's Rights" (see further information on the right hand side), the booklet highlights the following areas for consideration: 

• How can the four main dimensions of budgets - revenue, expenditure, macro economics of the budgets, and budget decision making processese - be linked to governments’ commitments under CEDAW  
  
• Using these links, how can gender budget analysis then assist in monitoring a government’s compliance with CEDAW?  
  
• How can CEDAW be used to set equality-enhancing criteria in budget activities and guide GBIs and other initiatives towards achieving gender equality

The booklet is intended as an advocacy and action tool for key stakeholders in the area of government budgets and women’s human rights including policy and law makers at the country level and gender human rights advocates. It is also available in Arabic, French and Spanish at: http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/678/1/