CEDAW/C/GC/34
C.
Article 14, paragraph 1, read alongside articles 3, 4, paragraph 1,
5, paragraph (a), 6, 9, 15 and 16
18. Article 3 provides that States parties shall take all appropriate measures, in all
fields, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of
women.
19. States parties should adopt effective laws, policies, regulations,
programmes, administrative procedures and institutional structures to ensure
the full development and advancement of rural women, for the purpose of
guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.
20. Article 4, paragraph 1, provides for the adoption of temporary special
measures by States parties to accelerate substantive equality. Such measures may
include
redistributing
decision-making
roles
and
resources.
General
recommendation No. 25 emphasizes that, where necessary, those measures should
be directed at women subjected to multiple discrimination, including rural women.
21. States parties should develop and implement temporary special measures
to accelerate the achievement of substantive equality for rural women in all
areas in which they are underrepresented or disadvantaged, including in
political and public life, education, health and employment.
22. Article 5 (a) addresses the elimination of discriminatory stereotypes and
practices, which are often more prevalent in rural areas. Rural women and girls are
often disadvantaged by harmful practices (see CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18,
para. 9), such as child and/or forced marriage, polygamy and female gen ital
mutilation, which endanger their health and well-being and may push them to
migrate in order to escape such practices, potentially exposing them to other risks.
They are also disadvantaged by practices such as the inheritance of ancestral debt,
which perpetuates cycles of poverty, and by discriminatory stereotypes and related
practices that prevent them from enjoying rights over land, water and natural
resources, such as male primogeniture and property grabbing from widows.
23. In line with general recommendation No. 31 (2014) on harmful practices,
States parties should eliminate harmful practices, including child and/or forced
marriage, female genital mutilation and the inheritance of ancestral debt,
which negatively affect the health, well-being and dignity of rural women and
girls. They should eliminate discriminatory stereotypes, including those that
compromise the equal rights of rural women to land, water and other natural
resources. In this regard, States parties should adopt a range of measures,
including outreach and support programmes, awareness-raising and media
campaigns, in collaboration with traditional leaders and civil society, to
eliminate harmful practices and stereotypes.
24. In general recommendation No. 19 (1992) on violence against women, it is
stated that rural women are at risk of violence because of traditional attitudes
regarding the subordinate role of women that persist in many rural communities.
Girls from rural communities are at special risk of violence, sexual exploitation and
harassment when they leave the rural community to seek employment in towns.
Rural women human rights defenders are often at risk of violence when working,
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