CEDAW/C/GC/37
adapt to the changing climatic conditions effectively. Women are also indirectly
affected by the impacts of weather-related events on the price of foodstuffs.
71. Articles 12 and 14 of the Convention contain specific guar antees on nutrition
and the equal participation of women in decision-making about food production and
consumption. In addition, the core obligations of States parties to eliminate
discrimination, outlined in article 2, to modify cultural patterns of behavi our based
on discriminatory stereotypes, in article 5 (a), to ensure equality before the law, in
article 15, and to guarantee equality within marriage and family relations, in article
16, are of central importance to addressing women’s rights to land and productive
resources, which are vital to ensuring the right to food and sustainable livelihoods.
72.
States parties should:
(a) Promote and protect women’s equal rights to food, housing,
sanitation, land and natural resources, including adequate drinking water, water
for domestic use and for food production, and take positive measures to
guarantee the availability and accessibility of those rights, even during times of
scarcity. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring that women living in
poverty, in particular those in informal settlements in both urban and rural
areas, have access to adequate housing, drinking water, sanitation and food,
especially in the context of disasters and climate change;
(b) Increase resilience to the impacts of disasters and climate change
among women by identifying and supporting livelihoods that are sustainable and
empowering, and develop gender-responsive services, including extension
services to assist women farmers, that enable women to gain access to and benefit
from those livelihoods;
(c) Develop participatory, gender-responsive development plans and
policies that integrate a human rights-based approach, in order to guarantee
sustainable access to adequate housing, food, water and sanitation. Priority
should be given to ensuring the accessibility of services for all women;
(d) Adopt legislation, programmes and policies and allocate budgets to
eliminate homelessness and to ensure that adequate and disaster resilient
housing is available and accessible to all women, including those with disabilities.
Measures must be taken to protect women against forced eviction and to ensure
that public housing and rental assistance schemes accord priority and respond
to the specific needs of groups of women.
F.
Right to freedom of movement
73. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and
environmental degradation resulting from climate change are likely to lead to
significant population displacement both within countries and across borders. 29
74. The Committee and many other international human rights bodies, including the
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Wo rkers and Members of
Their Families, have recognized that disasters and climate change are among the push
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29
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United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women , “Addressing gender
dimensions in large-scale movements of refugees and migrants”, joint statement by the
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 19 September 2016.
18-03824
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