Recent developments in law reform

• Author: Deniz Devrim - Roland Blomeyer - Paul Dalton - Senni Mut-Tracy
• Pages: 25-33

Discriminatory Laws Undermining Women’s Rights

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with a coalition of CSOs, filed a case in the ECOWAS Cour t of Justice which res ulted in Sierr a Leone being

ordered t o revo ke th e ban in Decem ber 2019 (Equalit y Now, 2019b; Am nesty Int ernation al, 2019b). Other

related refo rms have taken place over the past two years in Burundi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe (HRW,

2019b).

4 Recent developments in law reform

4.1 Global state of play of legal reform toward gender equality

Over 2.5 billio n wom en an d girls aro und t he wo rld are a ffecte d by di scrimina tory laws and t he lack o f legal

protections, often in multiple ways (McKinsey Global Institute, 2015). This is despite the fact that at least

191 constitutions include provisions on equality and non-discrimination and 189 cou ntries hav e ratified

CEDAW 28. A sizeable number of Stat es have made reservations to CEDAW with res pect to articles 2, the

obliga tion to elim inate all for ms of discr iminat ion ag ains t wom en, as we ll as art icle 16 , o n t he equ ality of

men and women in marriage and family relations (OHCHR, 2019). Despite steady progress in many parts of

the world, the World Bank found that 56 countries did not make any reforms to improve formal legal

equality between m en and women in the areas of em ployment and access t o economic oppo rtunities

over the past decade (Wor ld Bank, 2019b). S till toda y, 104 coun tries have laws pr eventin g women from

working in specific jobs and in 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working

(Wor ld Bank , 2019a).

Number o f countri es where laws grant equality

183

countries grant equal right to open bank accounts

155

countries have laws addressing domestic violence

147

coun tries give eq ual inh erit ance r ights t o boys and gir ls

140

countries have laws that prohibit sexual harassment at the workplace

88

countries have equal pay laws

Number o f countri es where discri minatory l aws persist

36

countries where women cannot apply fo r a passp ort in the same way as m en

48

countries where women cannot obtain a judgment of divorce in the same way as men.

72

countries where women do no t have the s ame rights to remarry as men

74

countries where women are n ot able to work in the sam e industries as men

75

countries do not pro vide paid maternity leave of at leas t 14 weeks

85

countries where childcare is not accou nted for in pens ion benefits

Source: World Bank ( 2020 ). Women, Busine ss and the Law database.

Table 2: Overview of global stat us for reform of laws that di scriminate against women29

28 UN Women, Global Ge nder Equalit y Constit utional Dat abase. Available here : htt ps://constit utions.unwomen.or g/en

29 Source: World Bank, Women, Business and t he Law dataset (1970-2019). Available here:

https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/resources/data