GENEVA (2 November 2026) – The UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women(CEDAW) today issued its findings on Angola, Cabo
Verde, the Cook Islands, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Paraguay, the
Republic of Moldova, and Togo after reviewing these eight
States Parties during its latest session.
The findings
contain positive aspects of each country’s implementation
of the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW Convention) and the Committee’s main
concerns and recommendations. Some of the key issues
include:
Angola
The Committee expressed
concern about the high incidence of adolescent pregnancy, at
27.1% among women and girls aged 15 to 19 and 42.5% in rural
areas. It called upon Angola to adopt an adequately
resourced national strategy to prevent adolescent pregnancy,
including through comprehensive, age-appropriate sexuality
education, access to confidential adolescent-friendly sexual
and reproductive health services and voluntary
contraception, as well as stronger measures to eliminate
sexual violence and child marriage.
The Committee
highlighted the significant barriers women face in accessing
economic and financial resources, including low-interest
loans, credit and digital technologies. It recommended that
Angola expand its Informal Economy Conversion Programme,
promote women’s entrepreneurship and facilitate access to
low-interest loans without collateral and mortgages. It also
called for investment in digital infrastructure, Internet
and mobile phone access to bridge the digital divide,
particularly for rural women.
Cabo
Verde
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The Committee was concerned
about the sharp decline in women’s representation in the
national Government, from 53.3% in 2010 to just 16.7% in the
2026 cabinet, despite progress towards gender parity in the
National Assembly and municipal assemblies. It also raised
concern about harassment, intimidation and online
gender-based violence against women in political life. The
Committee recommended that Cabo Verde amend its Parity Law
to achieve equal representation of women and men in
executive appointments, including in the national cabinet
and senior public service posts. It also called upon the
State Party to amend the Gender-Based Violence Law to
explicitly criminalise political violence and harassment
against women, including in digital spaces.
The
Committee noted with concern that the Civil Code’s
recognition of de facto unions after three years of
cohabitation may legitimise unions initiated when one party
was a minor. It also highlighted that most de facto unions
remain unrecognised, leaving women legally and economically
vulnerable upon separation or widowhood. The Committee
called on the State Party to amend the Civil Code to prevent
the retroactive recognition of unions initiated when one
party was a minor, extend formal recognition procedures to
all islands, and protect women’s rights to property,
maintenance and housing in unrecognised
unions.
Cook Islands
The
Committee underscored the disproportionate adverse impact of
climate change on women in the Cook Islands, particularly Pa
Enua women, affecting their livelihoods, cultural heritage
and economic security. It also highlighted women’s
underrepresentation in decision-making on climate change,
disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, as well as the
absence of a national action plan on women, peace and
security. The Committee recommended that the Cook Islands
ensure women’s equal and meaningful participation in these
decision-making processes, protect their livelihoods and
cultural heritage, and adopt a national action plan on
women, peace and security that integrates gender
perspectives into climate, disaster risk reduction and
national security policies.
The Committee raised
concern about disparities in support services for survivors
of gender-based violence, particularly in the Pa Enua, and
the continued use of informal and family-based dispute
resolution mechanisms, which may undermine survivors’
access to justice. It also highlighted the rise in
technology-facilitated violence against women, despite the
adoption of new cybercrime legislation in 2026. The
Committee called on the Cook Islands to strengthen
survivor-centred support services, ensure that cases of
gender-based violence are effectively investigated and
prosecuted through formal justice mechanisms, and implement
measures to prevent and address online violence, including
cyberbullying, deepfakes and other emerging forms of
technology-facilitated abuse.
Kazakhstan
While
noting the criminalisation of forced marriage and the
removal of the provision exempting perpetrators from
criminal liability for abduction in cases where the victim
has been voluntarily released, the Committee expressed
concern about the absence of a specific criminal offence of
domestic violence that reflects patterns of abuse and
coercive control in intimate and family relationships. It
recommended that Kazakhstan specifically criminalise
domestic violence and introduce a definition that captures
the violence in intimate and family
relationships.
While welcoming the measures to promote
women’s employment, the Committee remained concerned about
the limited use of parental leave by men, which perpetuates
the unequal distribution of care responsibilities and gender
disparities in employment. It recommended that Kazakhstan
adopt a comprehensive national care strategy and invest in
affordable, accessible and quality childcare and other care
services to reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic
work and facilitate women’s full and equal participation
in the labour market.
Kenya
The Committee
expressed concern about the high prevalence of gender-based
violence against women and girls in Kenya, including
femicide, intimate partner violence and sexual violence. It
noted that femicide is not defined as a specific offence and
that marital rape is exempted from punishment under the
Sexual Offences Act. It recommended that Kenya criminalise
femicide as a specific offence and establish a femicide
watch. It also called for a time-bound and adequately funded
action plan to implement the recommendations of the
Presidential Technical Working Group on Gender-Based
Violence, including femicide, and asked Kenya to expedite
the adoption of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill to
explicitly criminalise marital rape.
The Committee
expressed concern that laws and provisions declared
unconstitutional or discriminatory by the courts remain in
force, and that customary, religious and statutory laws
coexist, are often inconsistent with one another, and
discriminate against women. It also raised concern about
inconsistent penalties for the same offences across
different laws, including child and forced marriage and
related sexual offences. The Committee recommended that
Kenya repeal or amend without delay all provisions declared
unconstitutional or discriminatory by the courts, ensure
that customary, religious and statutory laws comply with the
Convention, and harmonise penalties for the same offences to
ensure consistency and
proportionality.
Paraguay
The
Committee expressed concern that Paraguay’s replacement of
the terms “gender equality” and “gender perspective”
with “equality between man and woman” could undermine
efforts to address deeply rooted discrimination against
women, including gender stereotypes and structural
inequalities. It also raised concerns that the Education on
Affectivity and Sexuality in Schools (EASE) materials
reinforce gender stereotypes and fail to adequately address
consent, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health
and rights. The Committee recommended that Paraguay ensure
its domestic laws are interpreted in line with the
Convention, adopt gender-responsive frameworks to combat
discrimination, and review the relevant resolutions and
withdraw the EASE materials in question to ensure that
sexuality education is comprehensive, age-appropriate,
scientifically accurate and gender-responsive.
The
Committee raised concern about the persistence of
criadazgo, a practice in which girls are placed in
other households, often under the pretext of gaining access
to education, but are instead subjected to unpaid domestic
and care work, exploitation and violence, and deprived of
educational opportunities. It also highlighted inadequate
protection for affected girls and a lack of comprehensive
studies and information on the practice. The Committee
called on the State Party to conduct a nationwide study on
the prevalence and root causes of criadazgo,
strengthen social protection for affected girls, and
establish mechanisms to identify and protect them, monitor
their school attendance, and ensure their reintegration into
education and social protection programmes.
Republic
of Moldova
While noting the establishment of eleven
hospital-based units providing services to survivors of
gender-based violence, the Committee remained concerned that
restrictions introduced in 2025 on medical abortion services
provided through telemedicine may disproportionately affect
rural women, women with disabilities, women with limited
financial means and survivors of gender-based violence. It
recommended that Moldova review these restrictions and
ensure access to safe medical abortion through telemedicine,
particularly for women facing geographical, financial or
disability-related barriers and survivors of gender-based
violence.
The Committee voiced its concern about the
lack of information on the effective implementation of the
revised regulatory framework governing the Governmental
Commission for Equality between Women and Men, including
whether it has sufficient resources to coordinate and
monitor gender equality policies at the national and local
levels. It recommended that Moldova ensure the effective
implementation of the relevant Government Decision, provide
the Commission and its secretariat with adequate human,
technical and financial resources, and systematically follow
up on reports submitted by public authorities to address
gaps in
implementation.
Togo
The
Committee was concerned about reports of shrinking civic
space in Togo, including the suppression of peaceful
protests, arbitrary detention, and abuse and torture of
women exercising their freedom of expression, during
peaceful protests and online. It also highlighted reports
concerning the arrest in September 2025 and continued
detention of a former female minister, reportedly in
connection with her political activities. The Committee
called on Togo to create an enabling environment for women
human rights defenders and activists to carry out their work
freely and exercise their rights to freedom of expression,
peaceful assembly and association, both offline and
online.
The Committee raised concern about low
enrolment and completion rates among girls in secondary and
higher education, including universities and vocational
training. It also highlighted barriers to girls’
education, including gender stereotypes, disproportionate
domestic responsibilities, lack of birth registration,
unsafe journeys to school, education-related costs and
displacement caused by insecurity in northern Togo. The
Committee recommended that Togo remove barriers preventing
girls without birth certificates from enrolling in schools,
improve safety in and around schools, support low-income
families with education costs, ensure access to education
for displaced and refugee girls affected by armed conflicts
in the Sahel region, and to enhance data collection to
accurately assess the situation of women and girls in all
areas of the Convention.
The above findings, known as
Concluding Observations, are now available on the
Committee’s session
page.
