Citizenship, gender discrimination & CEDAW : Here's what you need to know

KUALA LUMPUR: WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has come to the forefront this week when PKR’s Sekijang MP Natrah Ismail, in the Dewan Rakyat, questioned why there is discrimination against Malaysian women with regard to the citizenship of children born abroad through marriages with foreigners.
• According to Federal Constitution, citizenship is guaranteed to children born overseas to Malaysian fathers but made no mention on children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
• Malaysia is a party to CEDAW.
• Natrah questioned the Home Ministry if the government intends to implement the CEDAW Committee’s recommendation to ensure that women have the same rights as men with regards respect to the nationality of their children.

AN EXAMPLE OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION?

• Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Mohamed Said said there is no discrimination against Malaysian women.
• Despite being a party to CEDAW, he said Malaysia maintains reservation to Article 9(2) which obliges signatory states to uphold equality between women and men with respect to the nationality of their children.
• He cited national security and sovereignty concerns for the reservation and to avoid the issue of dual-citizenship among children born abroad.
• "This is because in other countries, (most) children born overseas will follow their father's citizenship. Therefore we must be diligent to prevent the child from being granted dual-citizenship."

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CEDAW

• CEDAW is one of the core international human rights treaties of the United Nations treaty system, which requires Member States to undertake legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights.

• CEDAW focuses on three main areas of women rights:

1. Civil rights and the legal status of women, including right to vote, to hold public office, and right to non-discrimination in education and employment.

2. Reproductive rights, including shared responsibility for child-rearing by both sexes and right to maternity protection and childcare and right to reproductive choice.

3. Cultural factors influencing gender relations, including need to modify traditional roles of women and men in the family and society to eliminate gender bias and the need to remove gender stereotypes from school programmes, textbooks and teaching methods.

• There are 23 experts on women’s rights from around the world in the CEDAW Committee.

CEDAW - MALAYSIA

• Malaysia consented to the UN CEDAW in 1995.

• As a signatory to CEDAW, Malaysia is reviewed by the UN every four years.

• After Malaysia’s agreement of CEDAW in 1995, the country was required to ensure that there were no discriminatory laws or practices against women both in the public and private sectors as well as in society.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

• CEDAW not only outlines the main provisions for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women but in fact it is also an action plan that requires ratifying nations to eventually achieve full compliance.

• It provides a complete characterisation of sex-based discrimination, described as any segregation or limitation based on sex, which deliberately or unintentionally invalidates or harms the recognition and exercise of women’s cultural, social, economic and political rights.

• It legally binds all States Parties to protect and respect women’s human rights, which means that States are accountable not just for their own actions, but also for eliminating discrimination that is being done by individuals and organisations.

• It recognises that discrimination is often most ingrained in various aspects of life such as family and society. It addresses the negative impact of gender stereotyping, working on the basic principle that unless change takes place at those levels, efforts to achieve gender equality will be insignificant.

• It also takes a concrete view of equality as it is based on the principle of “substantive equality” between men and women, which goes beyond equality of opportunity, to looking at the actual condition of women’s lives as the true measure of whether equality has been achieved.