Women’s rights advocates have called for stronger accountability and grassroots implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to end discrimination and promote gender equality.
They made the call on Saturday at a hybrid capacity-building meeting organised by the 100 Women Lobby Group under the Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership (RWVL) project, funded by Global Affairs Canada and ActionAid.
The stakeholders urged governments, civil society organisations and communities to work together to translate CEDAW commitments into measurable improvements for women and girls.
Nigeria’s CEDAW focal person, Esther Eghobamien-Mshelia, described CEDAW as the only legally binding international instrument protecting women’s rights.
She said that despite its central role in advancing women’s rights globally, many activists still lacked adequate knowledge of the convention.
“Many people don’t know about the convention, and activists are working without knowing it is the bedrock of women’s rights work,” she said.
Eghobamien-Mshelia said state parties were obliged to uphold CEDAW provisions, while the Optional Protocol provided a mechanism for addressing violations.
Nigeria already had laws and policies supporting women’s rights but needed stronger implementation and accountability, she said.
“We have ratified, we have all the privileges, but we have not been able to cascade it to have meaningful impact,” she said.
She advocated adopting the CEDAW Cities model to strengthen gender-responsive governance through measurable targets, dedicated funding, public reporting and community participation.
The initiative enables governments to address local gender issues through evidence-based planning and performance monitoring, she said.
Niri Tong-Goyit, ActionAid Nigeria’s women’s rights programme specialist, described CEDAW as a practical advocacy tool for influencing policies and holding governments accountable.
“CEDAW is more than an international human rights treaty; it is a practical advocacy tool,” she said.
Tong-Goyit said ActionAid and its partners had contributed to 47 gender-related policies through the Women’s Voices and Leadership Nigeria project.
However, implementation remained slow despite the numerous policies supporting women’s rights, she said.
“We are getting tired of governments just giving us verbal commitment and having policies on the shelf,” she said.
She urged partners to mainstream CEDAW into their programmes and extend capacity-building to community-based organisations to encourage wider grassroots ownership.
Stronger collaboration would help bridge the gap between government commitments and the lived experiences of women and girls, Tong-Goyit said.
She added that implementing the CEDAW Cities initiative would strengthen gender-responsive governance and improve women’s welfare across communities.
The National Coordinator of the 100 Women Lobby Group, Felicia Onibon, said Nigeria’s national CEDAW implementation committee was responsible for driving the convention’s implementation, monitoring developments, documenting women’s realities and preparing reports on progress in women’s rights.
“We are expected to monitor what is going on in Nigeria and ensure information is well recorded and reported to the global community,” she said.
Onibon said the committee had prepared a national report to inform the international community about the situation of women and girls.
She said the group was engaging partners across eight RWVL states to strengthen collaboration and promote implementation of the CEDAW Cities initiative.
