SEEKING ACCESS TO THE CEDAW COMPLAINT MECHANISM.

I want to reflect on the access of women victims of violence to the CEDAW complaints system.

The recognition of women's human rights and the validity of CEDAW has been one of the greatest achievements of women in their fight for equality and eradicating gender-based violence.

However; The creation of the complaint mechanism presents several challenges included in accessing it for the victims.

The first challenge he faces is the knowledge of the CEDAW population, the rights it guarantees, and the complaint mechanism, foreseeing that the community outside the world of law is very rarely interested in learning about legal issues, in addition to the skepticism that exists about the claim of women's rights, which is typically considered a whole matter of feminists movement, who in the most conservative societies are stigmatized.

It is precisely this false statement that creates a significant obstacle; the stigmatization that is a feminist issue creates the first barrier to make CEDAW more widely known and understand that it should be known to all—usually being the exclusive knowledge and management of the feminist movement and non-governmental organizations related to it.

Ignorance of the guarantees contained in CEDAW and the complaint mechanism means that victims do not try to access it.

But from my perspective, perhaps the most serious obstacle is the economic investment represented by accessing the CEDAW complaints mechanism. Often, a victim may know the mechanism and have all the intentions to present their case before him.

Still, you usually will have to resort to the support of a lawyer or someone who knows about the subject; you must have money to travel to the headquarters of the Committee. Many times you can turn to an NGO that supports. Still, for this possibility, the NGO must be interested in The case, which is usually related to the NGO's object and the relevance of the case. This also limits access because many times, there are cases that need to be brought to justice and not remain in impunity even though they are not cases considered paradigmatic.

From my perspective, this would have a solution, creating a support fund for victims so that they can access the complaint mechanism without being limited by any NGO's strategic interests.