Focus on Human Rights and Gender Justice: Linking the Millennium Development Goals with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action

Three principle frameworks guide international work on gender equality and women's empowerment: the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) outlines legal commitments for the constitutional guarantee of women's rights; the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) complements CEDAW, providing an analysis of the issues and presenting an agenda of policy commitments; and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a road map towards the fulfilment of basic needs. This report describes the basic processes, strengths and weaknesses of each of the three instruments. It then goes on to look at each MDG in turn, outlining the gender perspectives and critiques, and identifying the links between both specific articles of CEDAW and the relevant areas in the BPfA. The report concludes that the lack of a clear human rights perspective and the failure to recognise the need for structural and political change are significant barriers to the promotion of gender equality through the MDGs. MDG 3 - to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women - needs to be widened to include a stronger emphasis on rights, the elimination of violence against women, commitments to strengthen economic and inheritance rights and the promotion of women's political and collective organisation.