Guidelines for WHO

In 2001, Rights and Humanity was commissioned by the Department of Gender and Women’s Health of WHO to develop guidelines for WHO staff on how the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) could be used to improve women’s health.


Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) specifically prohibits discrimination against women in the context of health care services. States Parties commit themselves to take:
“all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning.”

CEDAW Article 12 goes on to provide that States Parties shall:

  • ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, and
  • ensure adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.

States Parties are obliged to report on the steps taken to implement these obligations. Like the other main UN human rights treaties, CEDAW has a monitoring committee of independent experts, mandated to review these states party reports and to make observations and recommendations for strengthening the realisation of women’s rights.

Aim of Guidelines
The aim of the Guidelines was to strengthen WHO’s capacity to assist Member States in preparation of health components within country reports to the CEDAW Committee. We also sought to encourage national level follow-up of the recommendations and observations made by the CEDAW Committee on reviewing state reports.

Rights and Humanity identified the consequences of discrimination on women’s health under six headings:

  • Inequality and discrimination as a cause of vulnerability to ill-health and injury
  • Violence against women (one of the most serious manifestations of discrimination against women) as a cause of injury and death
  • Discrimination against women in access to health care services, information and education
  • Inadequate provision of health care services/ information/ research related to the specific needs of women and inadequate resource allocation for women’s health
  • Discrimination against women on the grounds of ill-health or disability
  • Discrimination against women in the context of participation in health policy and programming and in decisions affecting their own health.


We prepared a preliminary draft of the Guidelines between May and November 2001. These explained how the CEDAW reporting process could be used to improve women’s health. Rights and Humanity stressed the importance of an holistic, life-cycle approach to women’s health. The Guidelines provided a checklist of health issues required by the CEDAW committee to be included in states party reports and identified possible activities for WHO.

The Guidelines were field tested in Jordan and reviewed by WHO staff in all regions of the world. The completed Guidelines were submitted by WHO to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination at its session in 2002.

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