GENEVA (23 February 2026) – The UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) today issued its findings on Argentina,
Czechia, El Salvador, Iraq, Lesotho, Lithuania, the Kingdom
of the Netherlands and Viet Nam 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:
Argentina
Concerning
access to justice, the Committee noted that the dissolution
of 81 Access to Justice Centres (CAJ) has significantly
reduced coverage, and that the shift to remote services,
together with staffing and budget cuts, has
disproportionately affected women in rural areas, women
living in poverty, women with disabilities and women
experiencing other intersecting forms of discrimination. The
Committee called on the State to ensure effective,
affordable and physically accessible access to justice for
all women by restoring and strengthening the local presence,
staffing and funding of the Access to Justice Centres and
other legal aid mechanisms, and by ensuring remote service
models complement, rather than replace, in-person services,
particularly for rural and marginalised women.
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On
gender-based violence, the Committee was concerned about the
significant reduction in budget allocations and operational
capacity of key protection mechanisms. It highlighted, for
instance, the modification of Programa Acompañar, which
reduced the duration of benefits and introduced additional
eligibility requirements. The Committee also noted the
substantial decrease in funding, staffing and accessibility
of the Línea 144 hotline, including the discontinuation of
specialised services for women with disabilities. It
recommended that Argentina restore and ensure adequate,
sustained and transparent funding and operational capacity
for these mechanisms. It also called for removing reporting
requirements as a condition of access, aligning benefit
duration with women’s needs and ensuring specialised,
accessible and inclusive services.
Czechia
The
Committee noted with concern that, despite having signed the
Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating
Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul
Convention) in 2016, the Czech Senate voted against its
ratification in 2024, effectively blocking the process. It
recommended that the State Party consider, in light of the
change of government, re-tabling the ratification of the
Istanbul Convention before Parliament once again.
The
Committee was concerned that Ukrainian refugee women and
girls, who make up the majority of temporary protection
holders, continue to face barriers to education, employment,
social protection and basic services, alongside a heightened
risk of gender-based violence and uncertainty about the
continuity of protection measures. It asked Czechia to
ensure effective access to education, work, social
protection and survivor-centred gender-based violence
services by removing language, administrative and
information barriers, guaranteeing the continuation of
protection measures, and securing access to basic
services.
El Salvador
The
Committee underscored that the prolonged state of exception
introduced in response to gang-related violence since March
2022 has profoundly weakened the rule of law and fundamental
rights. It was particularly alarmed that mass detention,
predominantly of young men, has continuing emotional and
socio-economic impacts on women and girls, who often lost
contact with detained relatives and are left shouldering
household income, childcare and other caring
responsibilities. It urged El Salvador to lift the state of
exception and restore constitutional guarantees. It also
called for a comprehensive gender impact assessment of all
measures and reforms adopted under the state of exception,
to ensure compliance with international human rights
standards, prevent disproportionate effects on women and
girls, and take corrective action where violations of
women’s rights are identified.
The Committee was
gravely concerned about the conditions of women in prison,
which have deteriorated under the ongoing state of
exception, placing pregnant and postpartum women and their
children at serious risk. It highlighted the lack of regular
prenatal and postnatal care, administration of expired
medication, and the denial of emergency obstetric care. It
also noted inadequate conditions for detained mothers and
children, including the lack of clean water, nutrition and
paediatric care. The Committee was deeply alarmed by the
confirmed deaths of four children born in state prisons in
2025, alongside reports of additional deaths of pregnant
women and newborns, including stillbirths resulting from the
denial of care. It urged El Salvador to bring detention
conditions into line with the Bangkok
Rules and Nelson
Mandela Rules, ensure adequate healthcare and dignified
living conditions with independent review of complaints,
guarantee 24/7 qualified staff and resources for
comprehensive maternal and paediatric care, and urgently
improve conditions for mothers detained with their children
in prison.
Iraq
The Committee
highlighted that the definition of terrorism in Iraq fails
to capture rape as a crime of genocide, and that the State
party lacks a framework to investigate and prosecute rape
and other gender-based violence as standalone crimes,
including cases involving ISIL and other non-State actors.
The Committee also underscored gaps in survivor and witness
protection and procedures that ensure survivors’
participation in justice processes. It further warned that
the Êzidî Survivors’ Law may impose burdensome and
stigmatising procedures. The Committee called for an
intersectional, survivor-centred and trauma-informed
framework to prosecute these crimes, protect survivors from
stigma and reprisals, and ensure non-retraumatising
investigations, including the adoption of the Nadia Murad
Code. It also recommended amending the Êzidî Survivors’
Law to simplify access to justice through gender-sensitive,
non-stigmatising procedures and to strengthen monitoring in
line with the Basic
Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and
Reparation, and the ICC Prosecutor’s Revised Policy on
Gender-based Crimes (2023).
The Committee stressed
that Iraq’s transition from oil dependence to a
diversified economy requires the State Party to harness its
full human capital, including all women, and to ensure
gender equality as a human right and a pivotal macroeconomic
policy. It also underscored that a strengthened human rights
framework, multilateralism and gender equality, as
foundations of renewed national development, serve as a
bulwark against disruptions to the social and political
fabric caused by global economic shifts, regional conflicts
and the legacy of armed conflict. The Committee raised
concern about women’s insufficient representation in
efforts to diversify industry beyond an oil-dependent
economy and called for 50:50 parity in the new economy and
across all economic diversification
initiatives.
Lesotho
The Committee
stated its concern about child marriage that persists in the
context of an inconsistent legal framework, including
statutory exemptions allowing marriage under the age of 18
with parental or guardian consent and customary law
permitting marriage after puberty without a clearly defined
minimum age. It called on Lesotho to harmonise statutory and
customary law to set 18 as the minimum marriage age for both
women and men without exceptions. The Committee also
recommended enforcing the minimum marriage age through age
verification, mandatory civil registration before religious
and traditional marriages, and adequate penalties for those
who facilitate child marriage.
The Committee was
concerned about the high incidence of gender-based violence
against women and girls, including sexual and domestic
violence. It urged the State Party to strengthen specialised
investigative and prosecutorial capacity for such cases,
provide mandatory and systematic training for judges,
prosecutors, police and other law enforcement officers on
survivor-centred approaches and gender-sensitive
investigation and interviewing methods, and ensure effective
enforcement and monitoring of protection orders. It also
called for expanding access to shelters, psychosocial
counselling and legal aid for survivors, particularly for
rural women, women with disabilities and LBTI
women.
Lithuania
The Committee
expressed concern that the ratification of the Council of
Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence
against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention)
remains pending before the Seimas. It recommended ratifying
the Istanbul Convention without delay and ensuring its
incorporation into domestic law and its full and effective
implementation in law and in practice.
While noting
steps taken to apply temporary special measures in economic
life, including the 2024 transposition of the Listed
Companies Directive and draft amendments to the Law on Equal
Opportunities, the Committee underlined the State Party’s
reluctance to introduce such measures to accelerate
substantive equality of women and men in political life,
where women are persistently underrepresented. It
recommended expediting the amendments to ensure that the law
explicitly provides for temporary special measures in all
areas where women are underrepresented, promoting
understanding among State officials, political parties and
the public of the non-discriminatory nature and
transformative value of such measures, and adopting a 50:50
gender parity quota to secure women’s equal and inclusive
representation in political life.
The Kingdom
of the Netherlands
Concerning trafficking in
women and girls and exploitation of prostitution, the
Committee highlighted the risk of forced prostitution, minor
sex workers, and limited access to exit programmes for women
who wish to leave sex work. It asked the State Party to
prevent and address forced prostitution and sex work among
minors, simplify access to exit programmes for women and
girls who wish to leave sex work, provide adequate support
services, and reform police reporting procedures to ensure
they are accessible, confidential and
victim-centred.
The Committee stated its concern that
abortion is criminalised in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
and that migrant women face challenges in accessing safe and
affordable abortion services throughout the State Party. The
Committee called for decriminalising abortion in all cases
and legalising abortion at least in cases of rape, incest,
risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman and severe
foetal impairment in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, and
for ensuring women’s access to safe, legal, culturally
sensitive and affordable abortion services throughout the
State Party.
Viet Nam
The
Committee underscored its concern that rural, Indigenous and
ethnic minority women have been disproportionately affected
by climate change, landslides, floods and loss of
biodiversity. It also raised concern that women from these
marginalised groups have been facing discriminatory
patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes, which restrict their
access to decision-making and land and limit their access to
basic services, education and housing. It asked Viet Nam to
intensify efforts to ensure adequate rural infrastructure
and service delivery, including access to education,
employment, health services, social protection, housing,
water and sanitation. It further recommended that rural
women participate effectively in decision-making on rural
infrastructure and services, and that a gender perspective
be incorporated into climate change and disaster risk
reduction strategies, legislation and policies. It also
called for programmes to address women’s and girls’
specific needs and build their resilience and effective
adaptation to climate change.
The Committee was
concerned that the capacity to advance gender equality
within the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health,
the National Committee for the Advancement of Women and the
Viet Nam Women’s Union is significantly constrained by
recent restructuring and inadequate resources. It also
highlighted the lack of gender-disaggregated data on human
rights, which limited the adoption and effective
implementation of targeted strategies and programmes to
advance women’s and girls’ rights. It asked Viet Nam to
continue to strengthen the above national machinery by
providing a strong mandate, a unified monitoring framework
and adequate human, technical and financial resources. It
also recommended systematic and comprehensive data
collection, including dedicated surveys, stronger
administrative data sources and capacity-building for the
National Statistics Office to compile disaggregated data, to
inform evidence-based decision-making and legislative
action.
