From recommendations to reality: A new tool to track CEDAW’s impact

As 2025 unfolds, the fight for women's rights is confronting unprecedented threats. In the face of global backlash against women's rights we need new ways to hold governments to account.

The George Institute for Global Health hosted a parallel event to progress government accountability for women's rights during the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 20 March 2025.

At CSW, The George Institute showcased a digital dashboard we are developing to show how countries are implementing their obligations to advance women's rights, called The CEDAW Index. The dashboard will provide an easy way to navigate the status of women's rights around the world. Using recommendations from each Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) review, the dashboard will determine the nature, scope and extent of governments' implementation of programs, policies and regulatory strategies in response to Committee recommendations and distil key local, regional and global lessons and insights.

We were joined by representatives from grassroots women's organisations, Women's Legal Centre in South Africa and IWRAW Asia-Pacific who provided a "reality check" on the implementation of CEDAW recommendations and highlighted the challenges and opportunities for government accountability for women's rights.