2024 has been a transformative year for expanding our networks and deepening our collaborative impact. Working alongside our coordinating committee members and growing number of partners, we’ve strengthened our collective voice for family law reform.
Our year began with powerful moment at #CSW68, where our side event “The Economics of Family Law: A Domino Effect on Gender Equality” brought together nearly 100 participants. It was co-hosted with the Governments of Chile and Sweden, alongside all nine of our coordinating committee members, the World Bank, and ACT Alliance.
Photo by Simon Chambers / ACT
We provided inputs and language on unequal family laws to the ACT Alliance submission of the #CSW68 Zero Draft to the Government of Sweden.
March also saw us strengthen collaborations with regional networks through the Africa Family Law Network. We supported the AFLN with issue expertise and strategising for an Africa regional convening of 34 advocates from 12 countries in Uganda who developed local action plans for family law reform.
Expanding our CEDAW Engagement
Our coalition’s growing influence was evident in our engagement with the CEDAW Committee’s 88th session. In 2024, GCEFL submitted a total of 6 country reports on family laws: Three summary reports for Kuwait, Malaysia, Rwanda and Three thematic shadow report on Brazil (in collaboration with CLADEM/Brazil), Saudi Arabia (in collab with Saudi advocates & Musawah) and Canada (in collab with GAMBE) to the CEDAW Committee for the 88th and 89th CEDAW sessions.
Tamara Goncalves from CLADEM Brazil made an excellent intervention during an oral statement highlighting the issue of ‘false’ parental alienation syndrome (PAS) in Brazil. As a direct outcome of this intervention, the CEDAW Committee recommended that the PAS law be repealed in their concluding observations (COB’s) to the State. PAS related issues were included for the first time in Canada’s Concluding Observations as well.
In May, to mark the International Day of Families, we gathered a diverse set of individuals representing different organisations and issues from the broader women’s rights movement and academia to learn more about the importance of family law reform through a fun and interactive Games Night. To achieve this, we created an online game format to encourage conversation and participation, and to allow individuals representing areas such as sexual and reproductive health rights and gender-based violence to connect their knowlege and experience to the subject of unequal family laws. This innovative format was a highly effective way of developing our network, and reinforcing the idea that we all, across all issue areas, stand to benefit from equality in the family as a basis for equality in society.
GCEFL at the Human Rights Council
In June, GCEFL was invited by OHCHR to participate in a high-level panel during the 56th HRC’s Annual full-day discussion on women’s human rights. We made a compelling case for the economic impacts of discriminatory family laws and the urgent need for reform to advance gender equality.
Campaign Manager Hyshyama Hamin, and Equality Now’s Esther Waweru, highlighted the way discriminatory family laws and practices have multiple intersecting impacts in all other areas of the lives of women and girls. She further stressed that inequality in family law limits the right to education, employment, economic independence, and full participation in society, and further increases the risk of gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices such as child and forced marriage.
On behalf of the GCEFL and Equality Now, Hamin also delivered an oral statement during the Interactive Dialogue of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls (UN WG DAWG) after they presented their report Escalating backlash against gender equality and urgency of reaffirming substantive equality and the human rights of women and girls. She raised concerned with the stagnation of progress globally in the reform of unequal family laws, a process largely delayed and blocked by nationalist, fundamentalist, and conservative groups, often working in tandem with governmental bodies and decision-makers; and called on Member States to prioritise reform of unequal family laws and establish a legal framework of gender equality in the family.
Strengthening expert networks
September marked a significant milestone with our Expert Group Meeting on Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) and Family Law, convening 17 advocates, academics, and experts from seven countries. Participants discussed key strategies for pushing for family law reform amidst the heightened use of FoRB by conservative actors.
This was immediately followed by our HRC 57 side event, sponsored by the Government of Malawi, OHCHR, and UN Women, which attracted participation from 17 governments including Ireland, Sierra Leone, Norway, and the United States.
We also deepened our interfaith engagement through participation in GIN-SOGIE’s intersessional meeting on “Gender, Faith, and Sexuality,” in collaboration with ACT Alliance and Act Church of Sweden and participated in a crucial seminar on widowhood rights by Widows Rights International – the first of its kind inside the UN in Geneva. These partnerships have helped us build crucial bridges across faith communities and intersectional issue groups and strengthen our advocacy for diverse families.
Looking forward to 2025
As we close this remarkable year, our coalition stands stronger and more diverse than ever. Through our coordinating committee’s leadership and our expanding networks of partners, we’re well-positioned to advance family law reform across regions and contexts. Together, we’re building a movement that amplifies all voices for egalitarian family law reform globally.
