Liechtenstein und die UNO-Frauenrechtskonvention CEDAW (Patricia M. Schiess Rütimann)

In the Liechtenstein public, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is omnipresent. Women's organisations, the Association for Human Rights in Liechtenstein and some members of the parliament remind repeatedly of the Recommendations of the Commitee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Therefore, this contribution presents the implementation of the CEDAW and the accompanied Optional Protocol to the Convention in Liechtenstein. The CEDAW - together with other international human Rights conventions (in particular the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC)) - is one of those international agreements which can be relied upon before Liechtenstein's constitutional court the same way as with regards to the rights guaranteed by the constitution. From a dogmatic point of view, it poses a challenge that Art 31(2) of Liechtenstein's constitution allows an unequal treatment of women and men only insofar as the reason lies in the biological difference of men and women whereas the CEDAW contains an asymmetric concept that protects exclusively women.