April 29, 2013
The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms (ADLI)
Communicated
Stop the CEDAW smear campaign
Faced with the campaign to denigrate Tunisia's lifting of reservations to the United Nations Convention against All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) issued upon ratification of the convention by Tunisia in 1985;
A denigration that was able to reach its most flagrant and most dangerous manifestation by inventing provisions that do not appear in CEDAW, such as the comments published by the Journal "EL Fejer" of Friday April 26, 2013, page 6 by calling l 'Box' Summary of Articles 15 and 16 of CEDAW ', where we read (we quote the journal):
« Articles 15 and 16 of the convention recognize: To the girl all sexual freedoms and her right to choose her sex and the sex of his / her campaign; Providing adolescent girls with contraception (al mourahiqat) and training them to use them; The right of a woman to lodge a complaint against her husband for rape or harassment; The wife's obligation to contribute to the financial costs of their family in the same way as the husband, under penalty of criminal sanction ... ».
These erroneous and manipulative comments have nothing to do with the actual content of Articles 15 and 16 of CEDAW, which we invite you and the person who wrote the comments of the Journal "EL Fejer" to read carefully before proceeding to their publication.
Indeed, section 15 of CEDAW provides:
« 1. Les États parties reconnaissent à la femme l’égalité avec l’homme devant la loi.
2. Les États parties reconnaissent à la femme, en matière civile, une capacité juridique identique à celle de l’homme et les mêmes possibilités pour exercer cette capacité. Ils lui reconnaissent en particulier des droits égaux en ce qui concerne la conclusion de contrats et l’administration des biens et leur accordent le même traitement à tous les stades de la procédure judiciaire.
3. The States Parties agree that all contracts and all other private instruments of any kind having a legal effect aimed at limiting the legal capacity of women shall be considered null and void.
4. Les États parties reconnaissent à l’homme et à la femme les mêmes droits en ce qui concerne la législation relative au droit des personnes à circuler librement et à choisir leur résidence et leur domicile».
And Article 16 provides:
« 1. Les États parties prennent toutes les mesures appropriées pour éliminer la discrimination à l’égard des femmes dans toutes les questions découlant du mariage et dans les rapports familiaux et, en particulier, assurent, sur la base de l’égalité de l’homme et de la femme :
· a) The same right to contract marriage
· (b) The same right to freely choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent;
· c) The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and upon its dissolution;
· d) Les mêmes droits et les mêmes responsabilités en tant que parents, quel que soit leur état matrimonial, pour les questions se rapportant à leurs enfants; dans tous les cas, l’intérêt des enfants est la considération primordiale;
· e) Les mêmes droits de décider librement et en toute connaissance de cause du nombre et de l’espacement des naissances et d’avoir accès aux informations, à l’éducation et aux moyens nécessaires pour leur permettre d’exercer ces droits;
· f) Les mêmes droits et responsabilités en matière de tutelle, de curatelle, de garde et d’adoption des enfants, ou d’institutions similaires, lorsque ces concepts existent dans la législation nationale; dans tous les cas, l’intérêt des enfants est la considération primordiale;
· g) Les mêmes droits personnels au mari et à la femme, y compris en ce qui concerne le choix du nom de famille, d’une profession et d’une occupation;
· h) Les mêmes droits à chacun des époux en matière de propriété, d’acquisition, de gestion, d’administration, de jouissance et de disposition des biens, tant à titre gratuit qu’à titre onéreux.
2. Les fiançailles et les mariages d’enfants n’ont pas d’effets juridiques et toutes les mesures nécessaires, y compris des dispositions législatives, sont prises afin de fixer un âge minimal pour le mariage et de rendre obligatoire l’inscription du mariage sur un registre officiel ».
That said, ADLI denounces this campaign to denigrate CEDAW and which aims to manipulate public opinion which is not supposed to read international conventions by presenting it with false and bad faith summaries; and in the face of these very dangerous facts, ADLI recalls:
1. Tunisia's reservations to the provisions of articles “9 § 2”; "16 § c, d, f, g, h"; “29 § 1”, as well as the declaration concerning “§4 of article 15” of the United Nations convention against all forms of discrimination against women - issued when it was ratified in July 1985. was withdrawn by Decree-Law No. 103 of October 24, 2011, which was published in the Official Journal of the Republic of Tunisia at No. 82 of October 28, 2011, p. 246-247;
2. CEDAW does not need to be approved or endorsed by the ANC. CEDAW has already entered into force due to its publication in the Official Journal of the Republic of Tunisia. It thus has all the legal effects attached to the enforceable and enforceable legal act which citizens could avail themselves of before the administration and the courts.
3. CEDAW does not contradict itself with the draft of the new constitution. Indeed, article 6 enshrines the equality of all citizens in rights and obligations, and they are all equal before the law without discrimination. As for article 11, it considers women and men as partners in building society and the state. For article 42, it makes it incumbent on the state to protect the rights of women and consolidate their achievements ...
Considering all these considerations, the ADLI calls:
1. To stop this campaign of denigration of CEDAW and calls on free journalists to publish the text of CEDAW and to organize debates and meetings relating to its content and its impact on the rights and obligations of women, of course, but of the society too;
2. Calls on the components of civil and political society who believe in a perfect and effective equality of women and men to take this smear campaign seriously and to put in place collective and effective actions to combat this campaign;
3. Calls on the President of the Republic to proceed and without delay to notify the withdrawal of reservations to the depositary of CEDAW, namely the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Long live the perfect and effective equality of women and men
For the ADLI office
President Wahid Ferchichi