1982: Austria Adopts the UN Convention on Discrimination Against Women

Although the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights (1966) established the equality of men and women, globally discrimination on the basis of sex continued to represent one of the most frequent violations of human rights. The UN therefore declared 1975 International Women’s Year and the years 1976 to 1985 the UN Decade for Women. It was during this decade, on 18 December 1979, that the UN General Assembly passed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The CEDAW was considered the most important document, the “Magna Carta” of women’s rights. Its main aim was to eliminate any form of discrimination against women in all areas of life around the world. Austria signed up to this convention on women’s rights in 1980 and ratified it in 1982. The first four articles have constitutional status. It is through the CEDAW that the quota system, for example, gained a foothold in Austria.

Membership of the CEDAW obliges member states to produce a national report at least every four years, to which so-called shadow reports containing the independent assessment of NGOs can be added. These national reports present the situation regarding the implementation of women’s rights in each member state and are reviewed and evaluated by the CEDAW committee. However, the 23-strong committee can only issue recommendations. Since 1999 there has been an optional protocol, according to which not only states but also individuals can make complaints to the CEDAW committee. This optional protocol came into force in Austria in 2000. To date, 189 states have signed up to the CEDAW, many of them with reservations.

It was not until 2015 that the first German language legal commentary on the convention was published. One of its editors is the Austrian Silvia Ulrich.