SECOND SHADOW REPORT FOR THE CEDAW COALITION
EGYPT 2009

Introduction:

After 12 years of establishing the CEDAW Coalition in Egypt, it produces this Report
which is the second for the Coalition on women's status in Egypt, with reference to
the Convention on the "Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women"
(CEDAW). The present Report comes 8 years after the first one which was produced
in January 2001. During such period, many changes took place with regard to the
status of women and the women's rights organizations. The performance of
women's rights activists had also witnessed significant changes during these years,
where the activities gathered momentum in terms of disseminating awareness on
the Convention from the part of the National Council of Women (NCW) and the
NGOs' activists who played an important role not only locally and nationally but also
regionally, with the intent to build the capacity of a number of governmental and
non governmental bodies to implement and enforce the Convention.
The present Report seeks to assess the progress in implementing the CEDAW in
Egypt in the period following the report previously discussed in January 2001. The
Report was developed by drawing on a standard tool1 which was used by many
states worldwide to assess women's legal conditions (de jure), as well as in the field
monitoring reports which were prepared by the member organizations in the
CEDAW Coalition in Egypt. This Report is an assessment of the de facto conditions of
women in Egypt. The said member organizations also reviewed a range of studies,
researches, surveys, and statistics extracted from reliable sources.
With this report, the CEDAW Coalition seeks to help all the concerned parties, such
as the Egyptian government, NGOs, international organizations, and the citizens
(men and women), with the aim to assess and enhance equality between men and
women in Egypt.