Just ‘a little UN Committee’ or important policy driver? The impact and effectiveness of the CEDAW Committee in New Zealand

This article examines the impact and effectiveness of the process of state reporting under CEDAW in New Zealand. The particular focus is on the effectiveness of the Concluding Observations (COs) of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee). It concludes that the COs of the CEDAW Committee have not driven policy or legislative changes. This is attributed to the absence of domestic mobilisation in relation to the process of reporting and CEDAW in general, but also to the limited legitimacy and persuasiveness of the CEDAW Committee in the view of Government officials. The experience with several of the COs of the Children’s Rights Committee in New Zealand and some of the COs of the CEDAW Committee in the Netherlands, however, illustrates that COs can be useful. COs can provide additional legitimacy to the demands of domestic actors advocating for change and can, hence, push an issue forward by shifting the terms of the debate.