CEDAW/C/GC/29
4.
The economic consequences for women of marriage, divorce, separation and death
have been of growing concern to the Committee. Research conducted in some countries has
found that while men usually experience smaller, if not minimal, income losses after
divorce and/or separation, many women experience a substantial decline in household
income and increased dependence on social welfare, where it is available. Throughout the
world, female-headed households are the most likely to be poor. Their status is inevitably
affected by global developments such as the market economy and its crises; women’s
increasing entry into the paid workforce and their concentration in low-paying jobs;
persistent income inequality within and between States; growth in divorce rates and in de
facto unions; the reform of social security systems or the launching of new ones; and, above
all, the persistence of women’s poverty. Despite women’s contributions to the economic
well-being of the family, their economic inferiority permeates all stages of family
relationships, often owing to their responsibility for dependants.
5.
Regardless of the vast range of economic arrangements within the family, women in
both developing and developed countries generally share the experience of being worse off
economically than men in family relationships and following the dissolution of those
relationships. Social security systems, nominally designed to improve economic status, may
also discriminate against women.
II.
Purpose and scope of the general recommendation
6.
Article 16 of the Convention provides for the elimination of discrimination against
women at the inception of marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution by divorce or
death. In 1994, the Committee adopted general recommendation No. 21, which elaborated
upon many aspects of article 16 as well as its relationship to articles 9 and 15. General
recommendation No. 21 notes that article 16 (1) (h) specifically refers to the economic
dimensions of marriage and its dissolution. The present general recommendation builds
upon the principles articulated in general recommendation No. 21, other relevant general
recommendations, such as general recommendation No. 27, and the Committee’s
jurisprudence. It invokes the definition of discrimination contained in article 1 of the
Convention and calls upon States parties to take legal and policy measures as required
under article 2 of the Convention and general recommendation No. 28. It also integrates the
social and legal developments that have taken place since the adoption of general
recommendation No. 21, such as the adoption by some State parties of laws on registered
partnerships and/or de facto unions, as well as the increase in the number of couples living
in such relationships.
7.
The entitlement of women to equality within the family is universally
acknowledged, as evidenced by the related general comments of other human rights treaty
bodies: Human Rights Committee general comment No. 28, on equality of rights between
men and women (in particular paras. 23-27), and general comment No. 19, on protection of
the family, the right to marriage and equality of the spouses; and Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 16, on the equal right of men and women
to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (in particular para. 27), and
general comment No. 20, on non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights.
Important global political documents such as the Beijing Platform for Action b and the
b
2
Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations
publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II, para. 61.