Recording with original English audio. Recorded on May 18, 2023
Recording with simultaneous Chinese translation. Recorded on May 18.
How CEDAW Is Implemented in East Asia
Date: May 18, 2023
Time: 8:00-9:30 AM Eastern Time
Speaker: Professor Carole J. Petersen
Summary of the webinar
Professor Carole Petersen, professor of law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, presents comparative case studies of CEDAW’s implementation in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong SAR, highlighting key factors that have affected the impact of CEDAW in these jurisdictions both positively and negatively.
She begins by explaining that her goal in making such comparison is “trying to identify what factors might help to promote CEDAW as a useful tool.” The three jurisdictions she selected all have constitutional guarantees of equality for women and the practice of judicial review; all also underrepresent women at the upper levels of business, government, the judiciary, and the legal profession.
In Japan, although its 1947 Constitution prohibits gender discrimination and its Supreme Court has handed down several progressive decisions, the judiciary has generally been reluctant to refer to CEDAW when interpreting the constitutional clauses and has shown great deference to the legislature. As a result, Japan’s compliance with CEDAW has been characterized as “medium degree.” It has long reject many of the Committee’s recommendations, especially about introducing “temporary measures” such as quotas to improve women’s representation in the legislature.
Although South Korea shares many cultural traditions with Japan, such as a strong patriarchy, Professor Petersen said that CEDAW has had a greater impact there than in Japan. South Korean judges have been proactive in applying CEDAW when interpreting the constitution. The South Korea government also ratified CEDAW’s optional protocol, showing its willingness and confidence in its ability to comply with the treaty and enhance its international reputation in the process. However, the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May 2022, has shown hostility to women’s rights, playing to male voters who believe women already have too many rights. This makes the future of Korea’s gender equality uncertain. .
As a UK colony, Hong Kong originally asked to be left out of CEDAW when London joined. Overtly discriminatory laws were prevalent. A civil society-led women’s rights movement in the 1990s successfully pushed for Hong Kong to join CEDAW and put an anti-discrimination law in place in the last years of British rule. Although Hong Kong has a dualist legal system, meaning that international treaties have to be incorporated into domestic law to be enforced, courts do look to CEDAW when they interpret local anti-discrimination laws. The impact of Hong Kong’s 2020 National Security Law on the implementation of CEDAW remains to be seen.
At the end of the webinar, Professor Petersen shares her preliminary conclusions. CEDAW is more comprehensive than the equality clause in domestic constitutions and can incentivize government to adopt progressive reforms. But whether this happens largely depends on civil society engagement, governments’ desire to improve their international image, and judges’ attitudes towards interpreting domestic law with reference to CEDAW.
Webinar highlights
4:36 Reasons the US has not ratified CEDAW
7:26 The value of comparative study on this topic
9:37 Reasons for choosing these three jurisdictions for comparative study
12:59 Factors that may influence CEDAW impact on progress towards gender equality
15:24 Monist vs. dualist systems
17:30 The CEDAW reporting process and role of the CEDAW Committee
20:40 CEDAW’s requirement of substantive equality
24:55 Two recent Japanese Supreme Court cases upholding the constitutionality of a civil code provision that requires married couples to use the same family name
27:22 CEDAW’s impact in Japan: the removal of patrilineal laws and changes in age of consent
31:58 Japanese government’s attitudes towards the Committee’s concluding observations
33:09 South Korea’s constitutional framework
37:00 The ratification of CEDAW by South Korea and the development of domestic law in compliance with CEDAW
41:47 Challenges brought by South Korea’s current conservative administration
44:09 South Korea’s position on abortion rights
45:57 South Korea’s gender quota system
48:50 The history of Hong Kong’s “transnational constitutionalism”
52:53 Hong Kong’s women’s movement
54:47 Three women legislators who pushed for gender equality
1:00:54 How Hong Kong judges look to CEDAW when interpreting local laws
1:01:53 The participation of Hong Kong civil society organizations and the challenge brought by the National Security Law
1:06:06 Preliminary conclusions from the case studies
1:09:07 Q&A: Hong Kong’s gender equality advocacy, independence of its judiciary, and the central government’s heightened control
1:12:40 Q&A: Scholarship on domestic compliance with CEDAW from the comparative perspective
1:20:54 Q&A: the prospects for LGBT rights in Hong Kong
About the webinar:
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is one of the most widely embraced international conventions, ratified by 189 states including states in East Asia. But what impact has it had on the actual lives of women in East Asia? In this webinar, Carole Petersen, a law professor and CEDAW expert at the University of Hawaii, will present a comparative case study of CEDAW’s implementation in three East Asian jurisdictions: Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. All three jurisdictions have a constitutional right to equality and well-developed economies, which should assist the governments in complying with their obligations under CEDAW. Yet the convention’s real-life impact differs significantly among the three. Professor Petersen will consider what factors may account for these differences.
About the speaker：
Carole J. Petersen is professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa. She teaches international law, international protection of human rights, and gender and law. She taught law in Hong Kong from 1989-2006, and assisted members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council to draft bills prohibiting discrimination. More recently, she has worked with the International Labor Organization on programs to assist the Chinese government in implementing ILO Convention 111 (equality in employment). Carole's current research focuses on the impact of human rights treaties on China's domestic laws and policies, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She has written extensively about human rights in Hong Kong, including a 2002 article "The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: A Comparison of Its Implementation and the Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong" in Hastings International and Comparative Law Review.