Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Ninety-second session

Summary record of the 2191st meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Haidar

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Argentina (continued)

Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Argentina (continued) (CEDAW/C/ARG/8; CEDAW/C/ARG/QPR/8)

At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Argentina joined the meeting.

The Chair invited the delegation to resume replying to questions raised at the previous meeting concerning articles 1 to 9 of the Convention.

A representative of Argentina said that one of the challenges of monitoring cases of violence against women was ensuring the security of data, which was especially important in situations where a data breach could mean the difference between life and death. Efforts were under way to create a centralized database, which would reduce the risk of hacking.

Pursuant to Act No. 26.485 on the comprehensive protection of women and to resolution No. 157 of 2022 of the National Agency for Controlled Equipment, priority was given to the swift processing of reports of cases of violence against women or domestic violence involving a firearm, which were immediately notified to the National Firearms Registry, triggering the relevant administrative procedures, including bans on firearm possession for individuals involved in acts of violence against women. Over half of the murders of women in 2024 had been committed using a firearm. The specific situation of domestic violence involving members of the security forces was being examined in order to provide an adapted response, given the added complication that the weapon was also the alleged perpetrator’s work tool and that both the civilian and military jurisdictions were involved.

In a democracy, there was no control over who was ultimately elected. Therefore, although there were quotas for women political candidates, they did not systematically result in increased representation. Work was needed to demonstrate the value of women’s contribution to society. Moreover, by virtue of the State’s federal nature, provinces had autonomy in establishing the configuration of their administrations, including at the municipal level. Nevertheless, 22 of the country’s 24 jurisdictions had laws guaranteeing gender parity in their respective legislatures, while the remaining two jurisdictions had quota systems requiring 30% of women on party lists. At the federal level, women currently held high-level positions, including that of Minister of Security. While there were no female provincial governors, half of the deputy governorships were held by women. Gender parity had been achieved in the diplomatic corps.

A representative of Argentina said that the three main bodies of the judiciary were taking steps to ensure that as many women as possible reached senior positions. The Council of the Judiciary, which was the federal-level body, had required the judicial nomination board to include at least one woman in the shortlist for any given position, provided that she had passed the requisite examination. The Public Prosecution Service and the Public Defence Service had established that if fewer than 30% of candidates for a given examination were women, the application period would be extended by 10 days for women only.

A representative of Argentina said that there were a number of measures, led by the National Register of Persons, in coordination with the municipal and provincial authorities and civil society, to ensure that everyone had a national identification document, including in remote, rural and vulnerable communities. All hospitals had a documentation unit enabling the on-site registration of births, and flexible administrative mechanisms were in place for the late registration of births and the regularization of individuals without a birth certificate, irrespective of sex, ethnic origin or socioeconomic status. Those measures had a direct impact on Indigenous women and other women in a vulnerable situation by removing barriers to access to a legal identity and promoting their admission to the healthcare, education and social protection systems. The State continuously assessed possible strategies for expanding coverage, within available resources. Moreover, a number of public services were accessible without documentation.

Articles 10–14

Ms. Pia-Comella said that the Committee commended the State Party for the progress achieved in establishing universal compulsory education, for the high enrolment rate of girls in secondary education and for the effective legal measures adopted to prevent pregnant students and young mothers from being excluded from school. However, it was concerned about the structural deficiencies linked to early pregnancy that had a direct impact on girls’ education, including dropout. It was particularly concerned about the uneven, insufficient and ineffective implementation of comprehensive sex education across provinces, which hindered the prevention of unplanned pregnancies, access to rights-based information and the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. Furthermore, there had been cutbacks to the budget for comprehensive sex education and an increase in pressure, including harassment and reporting of teachers and schools, aimed at restricting or preventing the roll-out of comprehensive sex education.

Accordingly, the Committee wished to know what specific measures the State Party intended to take to ensure that comprehensive sex education was taught in practice in all provinces, to assess the impact of the suspension of sex education training for teachers and to protect teachers and schools and thus ensure that schools were free of censorship and stigmatization. In addition, it would welcome information on reports of the discontinuation of the National Plan to Prevent and Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Adolescence and on steps taken to address the rise in sexually transmitted infections among young people and in serious abortion-related infections.

A representative of Argentina said that government action, notably in the area of education, was conditioned by the country’s constitutional framework, which encompassed international instruments, including any reservations and declarations, such as the declaration that questions relating to family planning were the exclusive concern of parents. The only obligation arising from the Convention was for States to provide information on family planning; there was no mention of comprehensive sex education or measures to prevent unplanned pregnancies. Moreover, the federal Government’s role was limited to ensuring interinstitutional coordination, not to supplant parents’ right to choose their children’s mode of education. Nevertheless, under Act No. 26.150 on the national comprehensive sex education plan, sex education content must be introduced at all levels and in all modes of education. The relevant policy, which was coordinated by the Education Secretariat of the federal Ministry of Human Capital, took a comprehensive, science-based and age-appropriate approach with the aim of strengthening children’s ability to make informed decisions, improving respect for rights and preventing violence. All the country’s jurisdictions had technical teams responsible for designing and implementing comprehensive sex education modules, at a total cost of some 314 million pesos (Arg$) from the State budget.

The National Plan to Prevent and Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Adolescence remained in effect, although, as an education-related issue, its implementation fell to the provinces. However, data on teenage pregnancy showed a negligeable difference in rates between provinces that had applied the Plan and those that had not. Therefore, steps were being taken to find more effective ways of reducing early pregnancy, including possibly emulating successful efforts in Costa Rica, which revolved around empowering girls to create life plans, a notion also supported by the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Street Children (Villagrán Morales et al.) v. Guatemala. Schools were required by law to admit pregnant students, and specific support was available to such students, including at the university level.

She wished to clarify that the fact that training providers were stretched beyond capacity did not mean that training, including for teachers, had stopped. On the contrary, efforts were under way to diversify course offerings on topics relevant to women’s rights.

Ms. Schläppi said that, some positive results notwithstanding, pre-existing structural inequalities in employment remained, approximately half of women were working in informal situations and the gender wage gap was as high as 26%. Accordingly, she wished to know what specific measures, including temporary special measures, the State Party intended to take to address the gender gap in salaries and employment, both in the public and the private sectors, and what measures it was taking to promote the integration of women in the formal economy in line with recommendations of the International Labour Organization. She also wished to know what was expected from the ongoing labour law reform, in particular with regard to persisting gender inequalities, especially for women with care responsibilities, how gender specific dimensions were taken into account in the legislative process, how the gender-specific impact of the revised law would be assessed and how possible negative impacts on migrant, Indigenous and rural women and women with disabilities would be mitigated. She was curious to hear how the State Party intended to address the unequal distribution of care work between women and men and between girls and boys and why the idea of a comprehensive care policy system had been abandoned. She would welcome information on the measures planned to ensure that women domestic workers enjoyed decent working conditions, to fill data gaps regarding domestic work and to collect and analyse data on the situation of women who might face a particular risk of exploitation, including migrant women, young women and Indigenous women.

A representative of Argentina said that the country had been a pioneer in the area of labour rights, especially with regard to protecting maternity and the family, and was taking steps to close the gap between law and practice. Unlike in the Nordic countries and other parts of Europe, where tax revenue fed into the provision of public services, in Argentina, the care of older persons, persons with disabilities and children fell primarily to families. The importance of families for society, and thus of their protection, was recognized in a number of international instruments, supporting the view that care should not be considered as work but as a human duty stemming from familial relations. Shared responsibilities, including for parenting, were a cross-cutting issue in domestic law, chiefly because, in the face of an inverted population pyramid and the impending demographic winter, providing sufficient care facilities was not realistic.

Furthermore, it was important not to stigmatize women for the choices they made and, instead, to adopt laws, including in the labour domain, enabling them to carry out care tasks, which most of the women surveyed wished to do, rather than try to replace women’s childcare functions. Therefore, while much had been done in terms of promoting shared parenting responsibilities, it was also vital to support women’s chosen life plans. In that connection, the Government implemented income-protection policies, including the universal child benefit and direct cash transfers, to compensate for those tasks and provide households with greater economic predictability; a budget of over Arg$ 6.5 billion had been allocated to such initiatives in 2026. Thanks to the policies, many mothers were able to balance their care responsibilities through flexible working arrangements.

Ms. Al-Shukairi said that the Committee welcomed the fact that the State Party recognized unpaid care work. However, women spent more time on household tasks than men did, which adversely affected their access to the labour market and to the pension scheme, thus increasing their risk of falling into poverty in their old age. Furthermore, some migrant women had to wait up to 15 years before gaining access to the pension system or to allowances for dependent children, persons with disabilities or older persons. It appeared that the Committee’s recommendations on supporting women’s work-life balance, made following the previous review, had not been implemented. Accordingly, she would welcome information on the number of older women affected by the change to the pension system in March 2025, disaggregated by geographical location and socioeconomic status, and the measures taken to assist them. She would also welcome information on the measures taken to empower women financially, to expand the social security scheme to women engaged in unpaid household tasks and to streamline residency procedures for foreign women so that they could access the social security and pension schemes.

A representative of Argentina said that the mechanism by which individuals could top up their pension contributions post facto had indeed been abolished in 2025. Not only was there no obligation under the Convention or any other international instrument to provide social security extensions to any group, but many States did not provide them for the simple reason that the social security system was under severe strain. Argentina had spearheaded efforts to organize international discussions on the future of older persons, especially older women, particularly those in countries with smaller economies where there was less of a tradition of the welfare State. Nevertheless, there was access to free, high-quality services, including in the areas of health and education, of which older women could avail themselves.

It was difficult to assess how many persons had been affected by the change in the pension system because it was impossible to know how many would have made top-up contributions had the option been available. In any case, in 2026 the Government had introduced a new non-contributory pension that was available to all persons, including migrants who met certain conditions, and compensated at least in part for the withdrawal of the top-up option. In addition, it had adopted legislation establishing an obligation for relatives to provide for older family members in need. The demographic winter necessitated an emphasis on personal responsibility to provide for one’s own future that was likely to become more pronounced. The State could not continue to fulfil its role in protecting the family, providing support for maternity and promoting equal opportunities and equal pay for equal work without adjustments to the pension system and recognition of the family’s primary duty.

Ms. Peláez Narváez said that she would like information about the measures taken to ensure the continuity of the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, vaccination and maternal and child health programmes that had been run in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) prior to the State Party’s withdrawal from that Organization, and about the measures in place to address the provincial disparities, high cost of medicines and other challenges that prevented vulnerable women, including women with disabilities, Indigenous women and migrant women, from exercising the right to health on an equal footing. She wondered why the State Party did not disaggregate health-related data by gender and the aforementioned vulnerabilities, as doing so would facilitate policy development. It would also be useful to hear about the procedures in place to ensure that free and informed consent was obtained prior to any medical intervention.

She was curious to know how the State Party was addressing recent increases in maternal and infant mortality and the fact that less than half of children under 5 years old were fully vaccinated, and how it planned to address the gaps in sexual and reproductive health services that were likely to emerge after the previously successful National Plan to Prevent and Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Adolescence had been phased down and contraception was reportedly less easy to access.

Following the adoption of Act No. 27.610, which represented a major advance towards guaranteeing access to safe, legal abortion, data showing levels of distribution of mifepristone and misoprostol nationwide and by province for 2024 and 2025 and the number of women who had voluntarily terminated a pregnancy in each of those years would be useful. Information about measures taken or envisaged to ensure that the legally established time frame of 10 days was respected and break down the barriers, such as conscientious objection, that continued to impede access to legal abortion would also be helpful. She wondered how many complaints related to access had been received in 2024 and 2025 and whether any specific mechanism had been established to prevent conscientious objection from constituting an insurmountable barrier.

Lastly, she asked what the State Party was doing to address the rise in suicides, which had reportedly been the main cause of death among girls aged from 10 to 14 years old in 2023, and what was being done to ensure that mental health legislation reflected the rights of persons with disabilities and protected women with disabilities against harmful practices such as forced sterilization and forced abortion.

A representative of Argentina said that some of the data mentioned by the Committee were completely at odds with data in the delegation’s possession. Furthermore, while the delegation was open to addressing any question related to rights enshrined in the Convention, it was not prepared to address questions that fell outside that framework.

No vaccination programmes had been eliminated as a result of the country’s withdrawal from WHO. As vaccination was a primary government obligation, vaccination schedules and fulfilment of the right to health were not dependent on membership of an international organization. In fact, a new vaccine, against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), had been added to the schedule for pregnant women in 2024, the age of administration of the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine had been brought forward from 5 years to 18 months, and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was included in the schedule for girls from 11 years of age. In addition, the quality and management of data had improved, a new dashboard had been introduced that would help provincial authorities to manage and monitor vaccination records, and provincial records had been integrated and harmonized with NOMIVAC, the Federal Vaccination Register.

Mass media campaigns and notifications sent via the “Mi Argentina” mobile application were used to issue health updates and reminders and encourage citizens to get vaccinated. High-cost medicines, including treatments for Chagas disease, tuberculosis, leprosy, syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections, were provided free of charge through the national system if the provincial health authorities were unable to cover them. Safety and traceability were guaranteed following the introduction of an electronic prescribing system. The Government was committed to improving all areas of women’s health and believed that singling out any one particular area could have a limiting effect.

Based on the Argentine legislature’s interpretation, there was no right to abortion under international law; rather, international law established an obligation to protect life. The State therefore had no obligation to guarantee free access to safe abortion. There was also no consensus, in international law, regarding the existence of sexual and reproductive health rights and the right to freedom of sexual expression. Nonetheless, in addition to protection for the right to life, the Government provided access to family planning and abortion up to 14 weeks without charge and with very few restrictions.

National policy on sexual and reproductive health was set forth in Act No. 25.673, establishing the National Programme for Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation, and Act No. 27.610, on access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. However, the country’s federal structure meant that responsibility for implementing those laws fell to the provincial authorities. Comprehensive healthcare during pregnancy and infancy was guaranteed under Act. No. 27.611, which provided for access to essential medicines, nutritional support, early detection of risks and intersectoral coordination.

The Government believed that free and informed prior consent was a fundamental right of all persons, particularly women, in all healthcare facilities and also in prison settings. That requirement applied also to abortion, and the Government therefore had an obligation to ensure that women were offered alternatives to termination. Where necessary, cultural or language interpreters were provided to ensure that consent had been freely given.

Ms. de Silva de Alwis, noting that legislation adopted in 2024 established incentives for inward investment and thus positioned Argentina as a major player in the global economy, said that she would like to hear the delegation’s comments on the consequences, for rural women, of investments in technology, mining, steel, energy, oil, gas and critical minerals and how they might be engaged in development initiatives.

While she saluted the State Party’s continued commitment to the Paris Agreement and the constitutional guarantees that protected the right to communal land ownership, ancestral land and bilingual education, she was concerned about the gender gap still evident in land titling and land tenure and its impact on the financial autonomy of rural women. The State Party’s respect for regional treaties and jurisprudence was also commendable, and, in that context, she would be interested to know what was being done to ensure the domestication and justiciability of the 2020 judgment in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had concluded that the State Party was responsible for upholding Indigenous communities’ right to land. Similar information would also be appreciated with regard to the domestication and justiciability of the Court’s response to the State Party’s request for an advisory opinion defining the scope and content of the right to care.

Since one of the most important contemporary resources was data, and given that Indigenous Peoples should have sovereignty over data related to their communities, territories and epistemic knowledge, it would be useful to know whether Indigenous women were involved in data governance, and, if so, how.

She would like to hear about the practical application of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the Bangkok Principles for the implementation of the health aspects of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, including the use of non-custodial measures for women offenders, particularly pregnant women and mothers with dependent children.

Lastly, she would like to know how the State Party honoured historical memory, including the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and what measures were in place to ensure that the pledges made in the “Never Again” report were upheld.

A representative of Argentina said that some of the issues raised fell outside the scope of the Convention. While climate change was one such issue, Argentina indeed had a range of climate-related policies. With regard to Indigenous women’s issues, which obviously were central to the Convention, Argentina, as a Party to the International Labour Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), complied with the requirement for consultation with Indigenous communities prior to any mining or extraction activities. She personally had been involved in various negotiations and decisions in which Indigenous women had had a key role.

While responsibility for monitoring compliance with the ruling issued in Indigenous Communities of the Lhaka Honhat (Our Land) Association v. Argentina lay firstly with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs also engaged in regular follow-up. The Government attached great importance to maintaining historical memory comprehensively, equitably and without distortion and believed that restorative justice was essential to peace. However, the question that had been posed in that connection was wide-ranging and fell outside the scope of the Convention.

Articles 15 and 16

Ms. González Ferrer said that, although new legislation had strengthened women’s rights in marriage, there remained a significant gap between de lege and de facto equality when it came to care responsibilities, financial autonomy and judicial and administrative practices. For example, the Civil and Commercial Code established mechanisms for addressing post-divorce inequalities, but the tools provided were not always implemented owing to a lack of gender-specific guidelines and insufficient access to legal assistance. In that context, she wished to know how the State Party was ensuring that institutional and budgetary reforms did not affect access to justice and the resources available to women involved in civil and family proceedings; what monitoring and accountability mechanisms had been established to ensure that bias in rulings and administrative practices was identified and remedied; and what was being done to ensure that divorce settlements took account of the financial impact of domestic and care work. Information would be helpful about measures taken to ensure that legal provisions safeguarding women’s inheritance and property rights, including those of women in de facto unions, were enforced. In addition, since, as a tool for resolving marital conflict, mediation could perpetuate inequalities when women were financially dependent and/or exposed to domestic violence, she wondered what safeguards were in place to ensure that it was not used in such situations.

She would like to receive data, disaggregated by age, province, Indigenous origin and level of schooling, showing the number of marriages in the country that involved girls under the age of 18 years. In view of its harmful effects, she wished to know what the federal Government was doing to definitively eliminate the judicial dispensation that permitted under-age marriage in certain circumstances.

Lastly, she invited the delegation to provide information on the situation of children who had been separated from their family environment and/or given up for adoption because their mothers were deemed unable to exercise parental responsibility owing to an intellectual or psychosocial disability.

A representative of Argentina said that extensive research had been conducted prior to the adoption of the updated Civil and Commercial Code in 2015 to assess how the amendments, which included provision for fast, easy divorce, would affect women’s rights. Since adoption, if the couple were able to agree on custody arrangements and the distribution of property, a divorce could be finalized within a week. However, when agreement was not achieved, the matter was referred to the courts, which formulated their judgment based on the legal provisions governing custody and alimony and taking account of any pre-existing medical conditions. The amount of the financial settlement was determined solely by the court following a comprehensive assessment of circumstances and without State intervention. While the delegation did not have data attesting to the amount of such settlements, the current inflationary context in any case made year-on-year comparisons difficult. The amounts awarded were generally low, but judges were required to incorporate a gender perspective in their rulings to prevent disproportionately adverse impacts on women.

There was no discrimination between men and women in inheritance matters in Argentina and the country had achieved the highest possible scores on the inheritance and access to property indicators included in the Women, Business and the Law report issued by the World Bank Group. Depending on the terms of their husband’s will, married women received between 50% and 100% of the marital estate provided the deceased had no children with a different partner or a third if there were other children.

The rights of partners in de facto unions were not related to issues of gender equality but rather to lifestyle choices; couples might choose not to enjoy equal inheritance rights and therefore not to marry. In other areas, however, their rights were broadly the same as those of married partners. The only other difference was that the surviving partner in a de facto union was entitled to claim financial compensation whereas surviving spouses were not. They also had the right to continue living in the shared home for two years after their partner’s death.

In domestic violence cases, the use of mediation was strictly prohibited under Act No. 26.385, on the comprehensive protection of women against violence.

The only available data on early marriage were unofficial statistics drawn from a study undertaken by an independent researcher on behalf of an international organization. That study estimated around 4% of marriages to involve minors, which was a high rate given that marriage under the age of 18 years was permitted only with parental consent and that judicial authorization was required if that consent was withheld. The delegation recognized the need to compile official statistics.

With regard to the right to a family environment, in a recent case in which a mother with an intellectual disability had been denied the right to care for her child on the grounds of incapacity, the Supreme Court had ruled that the relationship between the mother and child should be re-established, thereby upholding the right to family. Unfortunately, owing to the mother’s condition, that ruling had failed. However, the decision reflected the importance attached to the bond between mother and child. Only in very exceptional circumstances, and when deemed in the best interests of the child, were children separated from their mothers.

Her delegation thanked the members of the Committee for the interest and concern evident in their questions and expressed its appreciation for the constructive dialogue. It would respond to any questions it had been unable to answer during the meeting, whether because of time constraints or lack of data, after having returned to Argentina.

The meeting rose at 5.10 p.m.