In 2024, the Convention on the Elimination of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW) Committee held its 89th session. During this year, the CEDAW Committee members reviewed different countries, including Canada, eight years after its last review.
The CEDAW Committee is a United Nations Treaty Body consisting of 23 independent experts dedicated to advancing women’s rights worldwide. They monitor the implementation of the CEDAW- an essential tool for holding States’ accountable for their human rights obligations and driving legal and policy change to advance women’s rights worldwide. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have the opportunity to engage in the review through the submission of a shadow report and then advocating with CEDAW Committee members in Geneva (one of the most expensive cities in the world) to ensure that the issues they work on are included in the concluding observations the Committee will deliver to Canada.
Securing strong recommendations linked to CSO's area of work is an advocacy win. Recommendations represent acknowledgments from global experts in women’s rights about the work Canada still has to do toward advancing and safeguarding women’s human rights. Once the concluding observations are publicly available, these recommendations become an advocacy tool for CSOs to keep Canada accountable. You can find all the concluding observations here.
Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights participated in this process through the submission of a shadow report in 2019 for the List of Issues during the Pre-Sessional working group of the Committee on CEDAW and a shadow report in 2024 for Canada’s Review focusing on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), Access to Abortion, Forced Sterilization and Decriminalization of Sex Workers. Action Canada advocated for these issues to be part of the concluding observations in October. These are our main takeaways from Canada’s CEDAW review:
1. Wins on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
We celebrate the strong recommendations around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues, reflected in the concluding observations by the CEDAW Committee members.
The Committee congratulated Canada on its advancements in SRHR and noted the work that Canada still has to do around:
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Lack of harmonized comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) among provinces and territories, such as the regression of CSE in Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. The Committee recommended Mainstream gender-equality, sexual and reproductive health education in schools in all provinces and territories
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Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women is still happening in Canada, despite the previous recommendations that Canada received in the 2021 report of the Canadian Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights detailing forced and coerced sterilizations in Canada that urged Canada to “identify solutions to stop the practice.” Additionally, adequate laws and policies are lacking to ensure informed consent in health procedures. A critical recommendation to address this issue was to Approve the bill introduced in Parliament in 202 with full attention to mental, psychological and physical impact of forced and coerced sterilizations on Indigenous women and communities, address the intergenerational harm that coerced and forced sterilization have caused and, develop programs to eliminate the distrust of Indigenous communities in state-sponsored health care facilities
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The correlation between poverty and the lack of menstrual products is disproportionately impacting youth, Indigenous Women, Afro-descendant persons, immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, and people living with disabilities. The CEDAW Committee recommended that Canada Address period poverty in all communities, with special focus on Indigenous and disadvantaged groups of women; provide menstrual hygiene management support, safe and hygienic water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities in all schools, hospitals and state-run facilities;
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Recognizing the persistent barriers in the public health system, including access to abortion, is disproportionately affecting women from disadvantaged groups, women in remote and rural areas, and undocumented migrants. An important recommendation was to Ensure access to legal abortion services in all provinces and territories, including for women from disadvantaged groups.
Overall, we are pleased to see strong recommendations from CEDAW Committee members to continue advancing and safeguarding SRHR. Acknowledging these issues is crucial to keep the Canadian government accountable.
2. Calling out Canada’s international role on Human Rights
Canada presents itself as a champion of human rights at home and abroad, including sexual and reproductive rights. We can see this clearly in Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and its support of relevant resolutions and conventions from the UN that address human rights, including women’s and sexual and reproductive rights.
During this CEDAW review, CSOs and committee members discussed Canada’s obligations to uphold international human rights laws that impact the human rights of persons outside of its borders. Human rights are universal, irrespective of geographical location. However, Canadian mining companies operating globally, particularly in the Global South, have not adequately protected the marine environment. Their activities have led to environmental degradation, economic disruption, and significant social consequences, especially impacting women and girls in local communities, particularly Indigenous Women. This highlights a perceived contradiction in Canada’s stance as an international SRHR and human rights champion. Canada must ensure alignment with gender equality, human rights, and respect for international law.
Additionally, Canada has been complicit in Israel's attacks on the Occupied Palestinian Territories by supplying arms that have enabled violations of women's and girls' human rights. These arms transfers jeopardize the lives, safety and health of women and also have a profound impact on their reproductive rights, contributing to broader violations of international humanitarian law. Canada must reassess its involvement to ensure it does not support actions that undermine fundamental human rights and exacerbate the suffering of vulnerable populations.
The CEDAW Committee recommended:
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Hold Canadian-registered DSM companies accountable for environmental damage to oceans and marine life which inevitably effects the lives and livelihoods of women
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Appealing Canada to enhance its transparency and accountability mechanisms regarding the direct and indirect transfers and export of arms, including parts and components thereof, to third countries, whether by the State party itself or by companies registered or domiciled within its territory, and develop a mechanism to conduct comprehensive and transparent assessments of the impact of such transfers on the human rights of women and girls living in conflict zones, in line with its feminist foreign policy.
We strongly support these recommendations to ensure the advancement and upholding of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Canada and globally.
3. Our fight for sexual and reproductive rights is not over!
Although we celebrate the above recommendations, not all women were represented during the review. Therefore, we must continue working to expand access to these processes for women who have been invisibilized. This is the case for sex workers in Canada, who continue to risk prosecution for working in public spaces, have been prosecuted for offenses related to third-party benefits and trafficking and face increased violence because they are forced to work in isolation and in unsafe conditions.
Indigenous, Black, and migrant women, in particular, face targeted violence, stigmatization, hyper-surveillance, and over-policing under the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). Moreover, in his 2023 country visit to Canada, the Special Rapporteur on Modern Forms of Slavery expressed severe concern over the conflation of sex work with trafficking in policy and practice and recommended ending the misuse of anti-trafficking resources and legislation to target sex workers.
The Committee, unfortunately, did not add recommendations around this, but we would continue advocating with our partners to;
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Repeal the PCEPA and revise anti-trafficking measures to make clear the distinctions between sex work and trafficking.
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Ensure the meaningful participation of sex workers in any decisions that affect their health and rights.
We believe we can only create a more inclusive and just framework for all women through these actions.
4. Moving forward towards more effective Human Rights mechanisms
Canada’s reputation regarding its domestic Human Rights mechanisms has not been particularly favourable. The lack of meaningful engagement with civil society, the lack of federal leadership, limited information accessibility, unequal opportunities for civil society participation, and no transparent processes for monitoring and following up on recommendations are just some examples. Action Canada has raised these issues in other spaces, such as the last Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycle. You can find the complete statement here.
In Canada’s CEDAW Review, we addressed it again, and we are happy to see that this was mentioned in the concluding observations. The CEDAW Committee highlighted the “lack of impact measurement that Canada has, as well as the lack of effective involvement of CSOs and Indigenous Women Organizations in the development, assessment, and amendments of its gender equality policies and, as a consequence the insufficient transparency and accountability in the implementation and results.”
As a recommendation, the Committee urged Canada to “Develop an effective mechanism to ensure that inputs and views from CSOs and Indigenous Organizations are included in all initiatives for the elimination of discrimination against women, and to secure transparency, accountability and involvement of all relevant stakeholders.”
This recommendation is crucial for successfully implementing all received recommendations, meaningful engagement with civil society and fostering robust accountability systems that fulfill Canada’s human rights obligations.
Successful implementation of all these recommendations relies on an efficient and well-structured human rights framework. Moving forward, we urge the Canadian government to take these actions to ensure transparency, accountability, and meaningful civil society involvement in the implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Observations and ensure its actions reflect the values it promotes globally.
We are eager to collaborate with partner organisations and the Canadian Government to see these recommendations become a reality.
