N.B.

 This was not discussed in class but you must know what the duty to disclose is, and why there is 
such a duty in torture allegations against the State   
 
● Duty to Disclose  
○ States must report to the Commission all relevant facts, documents, etc. that pertain to 
the allegation of torture.  
● Importance  
○ According to the Commission in the former case, “since torture and ill-treatment are 
alleged to occur in places under the control of the police or military authorities, evidence 
tending to show the truth or falsity of such allegations lies peculiarly within the 
knowledge or control of these authorities”. Furthermore, any “judicial remedies 
prescribed would tend to be rendered ineffective by the difficulty of securing probative 
evidence and administrative inquiries would either not be instituted or, if they were, 
would likely to be half-hearted and incomplete". 
 
Definition of discrimination against women (CEDAW)   
 
  
 
Social context where gender based discrimination came from: patriarchy; the male as the default  
 
● De facto v de jure discrimination  
○ De facto – Discrimination in practice  
○ De jure – Discrimination encouraged by law 
● Temporary special measures -   
○ what they are;   
■ Temporary special measures can include a wide range of legislative, executive, 
administrative and other regulatory instruments, policies and practices, such as 
outreach or support programmes; allocation and/or reallocation of resources, 
preferential treatment; targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion; numerical 
goals connected with timeframes; and quota systems.  
○ why they operate in a limited manner;   
■ The duration of a temporary special measure should be determined by its 
functional result in response to a concrete problem and not by a predetermined 
passage of time. Temporary special measures must be discontinued when their 
desired results have been achieved and sustained for a period of time.  
■ Extended operation may introduce inequalities when the goal of the TSM has 
been achieved  
○ purpose for TSMs  
■ Art. 4 - to speed up the achievement of women’s de facto or substantive equality 
with men, and to effect the structural, social and cultural changes necessary to 
correct past and current forms of discrimination against women.  
■ In cases where the long-term effects of discrimination have seriously 
disadvantaged women, this may require measures that give women not just 
formally equal treatment to men, but preferential treatment, in order to create 
actual equality for women. 
 ● N.B.: Did not discuss in detail in class, but know the different areas where discrimination against 
women occur and the areas of protection provided by the CEDAW (political[Art. 7, 8], 
citizenship[Art. 9], education[Art. 10], employment[Art. 11], healthcare[Art. 12], 
economic/social[Art. 13], rural women[Art. 14], equality before the law[Art. 15], marriage and 
family[Art. 16]). 
 
Intersectionality of discrimination 
● There is not a single expression or experience of discrimination; some women face multiple 
and intersecting layers of discrimination  
■ discrimination against women was inextricably linked to other factors that 
affected their lives.  
● such factors include women’s ethnicity/race, indigenous or minority 
status, colour, socioeconomic status and/or caste, language, religion 
or belief, political opinion, national origin, etc. (Check #12 GR 35)  
■ Accordingly, because women experience varying and intersecting forms of 
discrimination, which have an aggravating negative impact, the Committee 
acknowledges that gender-based violence may affect some women to 
different degrees, or in different ways, meaning that appropriate legal and 
policy responses are needed.