CEDAW/C/GC/33 impact on access to justice and to ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of justice for all women. 31. Article 5 (a) of the Convention provides that States parties must take all appropriate measures to modify social and cultural patterns of conduct, with a view to eliminating prejudices and customary and all other practices that are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either sex. In its general recommendatio n No. 28, the Committee emphasized that all provisions of the Convention must be read jointly in order to ensure that all forms of gender -based discrimination are condemned and eliminated. 11 1. Education from a gender perspective 32. Women who are unaware of their human rights are unable to make claims for the fulfilment of those rights. The Committee has observed, especially during its consideration of periodic reports submitted by States parties, that they often fail to guarantee that women have equal access to education, information and legal literacy programmes. Furthermore, awareness on the part of men of women’s human rights is also indispensable to guaranteeing non-discrimination and equality, and to guaranteeing women’s access to justice in particular. 33. The Committee recommends that States parties: (a) Develop gender expertise, including by increasing the number of gender advisers, with the participation of civil society organizations, academic institutions and the media; (b) Disseminate multi-format materials to inform women of their human rights and the availability of mechanisms for access to justice, and inform women of their eligibility for support, legal aid and social services that interface with justice systems; (c) Integrate, into curricula at all levels of education, educational programmes on women’s rights and gender equality, including legal literacy programmes, that emphasize the crucial role of women’s access to justice and the role of men and boys as advocates and stakeholders. 2. Raising awareness through civil society, the media and information and communications technology 34. Civil society, the media and ICT play an important role in both reinforcing and reproducing gender stereotypes as well as in overcoming them. 35. The Committee recommends that States parties: (a) Emphasize the role that the media and ICT can play in dismantling cultural stereotypes about women in connection with their right to access to justice, paying particular attention to challenging cultural stereotypes concerning gender-based discrimination and violence, including domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence; (b) Develop and implement measures to raise awareness among the media and the population, in close collaboration with communities and civil society organizations, of the right of women to have access to justice. Such __________________ 11 14/25 In paragraph 7, it was stated that article 2 of the Convention should be re ad in conjunction with articles 3, 4, 5 and 24 and in the light of the definition of discrimination contained in article 1. 15-13094

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