IWRAW Asia Pacific has developed multilevel strategies to: improve women's ability to claim rights, foster mechanisms of enforcement, and facilitate ongoing monitoring to track progress in compliance. IWRAW Asia Pacific does not submit information or speak on behalf of national groups or issues at the national level, but, rather, facilitates the presence of local and national NGOs and individual women at the CEDAW Sessions so that they can speak to Committee members and share information with the Committee themselves. One strategy for fostering engagement with and impact on the CEDAW review process of States parties to the CEDAW Convention is through submission of alternative information (shadow reports) and dialogue with Committee members. IWRAW Asia Pacific works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, the CEDAW secretariat) to ensure that all NGO reports received by IWRAW Asia Pacific reaches the OHCHR and the CEDAW Committee.

In developing this approach, IWRAW Asia Pacific looked to its own experience with moving from a theoretical set of treaty standards to a methodology for implementation at the national level. In so doing, it integrated a dynamic and symbiotic relationship to a treaty body (CEDAW). It began by identifying a gap in the treaty system, namely, the need to: mobilise women's groups at the national and regional level to improve accountability of governments in fulfilling treaty obligations; improve the flow of information from the international level of legal standards to the local level (including monitoring and facilitating the implementation of the treaty locally); and enable women to use the treaty to advance their interests. Further, IWRAW Asia Pacific claims, the participation of the national organisations enables the Committee to gain a holistic picture of the issues in the country, and leads to the formulation of relevant and specific concluding comments.

Specifically, prior to the CEDAW session IWRAW Asia Pacific alerts national level groups to the reporting schedule, provides technical support in the writing of NGO reports by these groups, and facilitates the timely distribution of these reports to the CEDAW Committee members before the session. IWRAW Asia Pacific then conducts a training programme for national-level NGOs just before the session. The training combines theoretical aspects of CEDAW, such as the principles of the Convention and the treaty body reporting process, as well as practical aspects, such as lobbying strategies and tips.

IWRAW Asia Pacific then offers daily debriefings throughout the session as a space for NGOs to assess the proceedings and plan next steps. The organisation then:

• supports NGOs in making their oral presentations to the CEDAW Committee;
• mentors participants in observing and monitoring the formal review of their government by the CEDAW Committee and in lobbying the Committee to raise awareness on critical issues in their country; and
• hosts a one-day meeting to strategise on follow-up activities to promote the implementation of the Concluding Observations nationally.

Upon return to their home countries, NGO participants disseminate the CEDAW Committee's Concluding Observations, share their experiences at the CEDAW session with local groups, encourage their governments to implement the Convention and the Concluding Observations, and monitoring the State's implementation. IWRAW Asia Pacific then provides continuing technical assistance (such as trainings) and information updates and organises regional consultations on the implementation of the Concluding Observations.

Women, Rights.

On December 18 1979, CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It entered into force as an international treaty on September 3 1981 after the twentieth country had ratified it. By the tenth anniversary of the Convention in 1989, almost 100 nations had agreed to be bound by its provisions. The Convention was the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a body established in 1946 to monitor the situation of women and to promote women's rights. It spells out the meaning of equality and how it can be achieved. In so doing, the Convention establishes not only an international bill of rights for women, but also an agenda for action by countries to guarantee the enjoyment of those rights. Visit the OHCHR website for details.

According to IWRAW Asia Pacific, the strength of the CEDAW Convention rests in the fact that it is a legally binding document and has an international monitoring mechanism. Thus, "Women's NGOs advocating for equality between women and men have a powerful tool in CEDAW if they can learn to harness it for domestic application."

Through From Global to Local, IWRAW Asia Pacific and national NGOs have had "a continuous presence at CEDAW Sessions since 1997." As of January 2009, IWRAW Asia Pacific had worked with NGO representatives from 127 countries.