List of issues and questions in relation to the tenth periodic report of Cabo Verde *

Visibility of the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto and the Committee’s general recommendations

1.Please provide information on:

(a)Efforts made to give visibility to the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto and the Committee’s general recommendations so that they are made an integral part of the training of judges, lawyers, prosecutors, police officers and other law enforcement officials. Please also provide information on the measures taken to disseminate the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/CPV/CO/9);

(b)Measures taken to raise awareness, specifically among women, of their rights under the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto and the Committee’s general recommendations, including any steps taken to make the Convention available in accessible formats;

(c)Any court judgments in which judges have invoked the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto or the Committee’s jurisprudence to decide court cases, including in family law, criminal law, civil law and labour law cases.

Women’s rights and gender equality in relation to the pandemic and recovery efforts

* Adopted by the pre-sessional working group on 31 October 2024.

2.Please describe efforts made and mechanisms put in place to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its long-term impact, and ways to apply them in the State party’s response to current and future crises, such as armed conflict, food insecurity, the energy crisis and other relevant areas, in line with the Committee’s guidance note on the obligations of States parties to the Convention in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, issued on 22 April 2020. Please provide information on strategies taken to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are a fundamental requirement in addressing such crises and in elaborating adequate responses, such as policies, the scope of essential services, assistance programmes, recovery efforts and the application of the rule of law. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure the equal and meaningful participation of women in those processes and to ensure that such crises will not lead to a reversal of progress made in the protection and promotion of women’s rights.

Legislative framework and definition of discrimination

3.In accordance with the State party’s obligations under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention, and in line with target 5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, please provide information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to adopt a comprehensive definition of discrimination that ensures the protection of women and girls against direct and indirect discrimination, including intersecting forms of discrimination, in both the public and private spheres;

(b)Legislative and policy measures taken to address intersecting forms of discrimination faced by women and girls;

(c)Measures taken to modify or repeal existing discriminatory laws and regulations to ensure compliance with the Convention and with international human rights treaties;

(d)Legal remedies and compensation available to women and girls who are subjected to any form of gender-based discrimination, in particular women and girls with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, older women and women and girls living in rural areas.

Access to justice and legal complaint mechanisms

4.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to accelerate prosecutions in cases of gender-based violence against women and girls, and to increase their number, and information on the number of convictions and the sentences imposed on perpetrators;

(b)Concrete measures taken to institutionalize and expand inclusive, accessible and high-quality public legal aid services that are adequately funded to ensure the legal representation of women without sufficient means in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings relating to gender-based violence and discrimination;

(c)Steps taken to design a comprehensive judicial policy for the elimination of institutional, social, economic, accessibility, technological and other barriers faced by women in obtaining access to justice and for the provision of adequate human, financial and technical resources, including reasonable and procedural accommodations, as well as indicators and a monitoring mechanism for its implementation;

(d)Steps taken to ensure that judges, prosecutors and police officers handle cases of gender-based violence and discrimination against women in a gender-sensitive manner and to expand the mandatory capacity-building of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, law enforcement officials and mediators on women’s rights, including their right to access to justice;

(e)Specific measures taken to implement victim protection programmes, including a referral system, and mechanisms foreseen in various gender-sensitive policies that have been adopted in the past five years;

(f)The number of complaints of discrimination on the basis of sex and gender submitted by women during the period under review, disaggregated by year, and the number of investigations undertaken and the outcomes thereof;

(g)Steps taken to design a strategy aimed at guaranteeing access to justice for groups of women who are disadvantaged and discriminated against, such as women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, older women and rural women and girls, which addresses accessibility and other cultural barriers and establishes and disseminates information on effective legal remedies and procedures enabling women to claim their rights.

Women and peace and security

5.Please inform the Committee of the steps taken to:

(a)Develop a national action plan on women and peace and security, in line with Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions and with the Committee’s general recommendation No. 30 (2013) on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, that is linked to the national security strategy and emphasizes the three pillars of the women and peace and security agenda – prevention, participation and protection – to foster the role of women, women’s organizations and women human rights defenders as important agents driving resilient and peaceful societies, nationally and regionally;

(b)Ensure that women are fully and meaningfully included and consulted in dialogues on conflict resolution and in climate change and foreign policy negotiations in an environment that supports women’s space and participation in civil society.

National machinery for the advancement of women

6.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to create a fully authorized and adequately resourced separate entity to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Convention in the light of paragraph 14 (a) of the Committee’s previous concluding observations;

(b)Mechanisms to promote the participation of and consultations with women’s organizations in the adoption and implementation of public policies and programmes by the national machinery for the advancement of women.

National human rights institution

7.With reference to paragraphs 15 and 16 of the Committee’s previous concluding observations, please provide information on steps taken to implement the recommendations made by the Sub-Committee on Accreditation of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, in order to bring the National Commission for Human Rights and Citizenship into full compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), and on steps taken to seek the support and advice of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the process.

Temporary special measures

8.In line with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures, please provide information on temporary special measures applied during the reporting period to accelerate the achievement of substantive equality between women and men, in particular in the areas of education, formal employment and economic empowerment. Please provide information on temporary special measures taken for the most disadvantaged groups of women, such as women with disabilities and rural, older and migrant women.

Gender stereotypes

9.Please provide detailed information on:

(a)Specific steps taken to eliminate gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes towards the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society, including awareness-raising and educational programmes that engage men and boys, and media campaigns that convey positive images of women as active participants in economic, social and political life, and the impact of those measures;

(b)Measures taken to address gender stereotypes and negative portrayals of women and girls, including all forms of objectification of women in the media, social media and advertisements, and the monitoring and results of those measures;

(c)Steps taken to mainstream gender equality into education curricula and textbooks, including measures addressed to teachers, and impact assessments of capacity-building activities relating to women’s rights and gender equality.

Gender-based violence against women

10.Information received by the Committee indicates that there is an increase in the number of cases of gender-based violence against women, including femicides and child sexual abuse, in the State party. In the light of the Committee’s general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, and target 5.2 of the Goals, eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation, please provide information on:

(a)Updated and disaggregated data on the number of femicides and cases of child sexual abuse that occurred in the State party in the past five years;

(b)The status of the implementation of and results obtained thus far from the gender-based violence law and its regulatory framework, the dedicated budget allocations to justice, police, health, education and the victim support fund, and whether there is a current national plan to combat sexual violence against children and adolescents;

(c)Progress made towards drafting and enacting legislation to prohibit all violence against women in all settings, in line with the framework for legislation on rape (model rape law) and other relevant United Nations guidance;

(d)Specific measures taken to prevent all forms of gender-based violence against migrant women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, and lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women.

11.Please also inform the Committee of measures taken to:

(a)Prevent cases of gender-based violence against women in institutions, in particular detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, centres for persons with disabilities and centres for minors, and ensure that all types of institutions are supervised by independent authorities;

(b)Provide victims with effective protection, rehabilitation and remedies, including compensation;

(c)Ensure that rural and migrant women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence have effective access to protection orders, shelters and psychosocial counselling;

(d)Collect statistical data on gender-based violence against women, disaggregated by form of gender-based violence, age, ethnicity, disability, relationship between perpetrator and victim, number of prosecutions and convictions, and sentences imposed on the perpetrators;

(e)Provide accessible information to women with disabilities on available remedies and redress in cases of gender-based violence against them;

(f)Expand the coverage of shelters for women and girl survivors of domestic and other forms of gender-based violence, including women with disabilities, and provide information on the number and accessibility of shelters and the support available to survivors.

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

12.Please provide information on:

(a)Measures taken to prevent and eliminate trafficking in persons, in particular trafficking in migrant women and rural women for purposes of exploitation of prostitution, forced labour and sexual exploitation, including awareness-raising campaigns and community networks that address the heightened risks for girls in marginalized and rural areas, and those at risk of gender-based violence and child and/or forced marriage;

(b)The results of the implementation of the national strategy and national action plan to combat trafficking in persons for the period 2023–2026;

(c)Steps taken to develop standard protocols for early identification, referral and provision of support of victims of trafficking and to ensure that all relevant professional groups, including law enforcement officials, immigration officers, social workers and civil society organizations, receive adequate training on such protocols;

(d)Measures taken to improve international, regional and bilateral cooperation with countries of origin, transit and destination to prevent trafficking in women and girls, through information exchange and the harmonization of legal procedures to prosecute and punish perpetrators;

(e)Efforts made to build the capacity of the judiciary and the police to effectively and in a gender-sensitive manner investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of trafficking in women and girls and exploitation of prostitution;

(f)Steps taken to ensure the protection of women and girls who have been victims of trafficking and to provide them with free and immediate access to specialized shelters, medical care, psychosocial counselling, legal aid and rehabilitation and reintegration services.

13.Please indicate the resources allocated to exit strategies, including alternative income opportunities and adequate social benefits, to allow women to leave prostitution and to prevent women with limited means from entering prostitution. Please indicate the measures taken to prevent and address child prostitution and punish perpetrators. Please also specify any awareness-raising campaigns to eliminate the demand for prostitution and the objectification of women.

Participation in political and public life

14.In the light of the Committee’s general recommendations No. 23 (1997) on women in political and public life and No. 40 (2024) on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, please describe measures taken to:

(a)Achieve parity in the representation of women and men in political and public life, in particular in parliament (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 84);

(b)Promote women candidates in local elections, provide them with training on political campaigning, facilitate fundraising for their campaigns and promote women in leadership positions in political parties and within their communities;

(c)Adopt specific goals and timelines for the participation of women belonging to minorities, for example, through statutory quotas for the parliament, political parties, public administration and the foreign service and for senior government positions;

(d)Measure the results of the Parity Law (ibid., para. 81).

Education

15.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The school dropout rate among girls for the past five years, indicating how the State party addresses dropout due to factors such as poverty, child pregnancy, competing household and caretaking obligations, and the recruitment of girls as domestic workers;

(b)The impact of the Social Support Plan for Education and Training of Adolescents and Young People (2023–2026) on the enrolment, attendance and completion of the secondary and vocational education of adolescents and young people belonging to households in poverty (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 96);

(c)Steps taken to ensure that all women and girls with disabilities have access to high-quality inclusive and accessible education, including their retention in schools;

(d)Measures taken to ensure mandatory, age-appropriate and comprehensive education on sexual and reproductive health and rights at all levels of education, including on responsible sexual behaviour and modern contraceptives;

(e)The career choices made by women, disaggregated by age and location (urban or rural area), and measures taken to encourage women and girls to choose non-traditional fields of study, such as information and communications technology and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Employment

16.Please provide information on:

(a)Measures taken to address the persistent gender segregation in the labour market, in which women are concentrated in employment in domestic work, the health sector, commerce, education, and the hotel and restaurant sector (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 109);

(b)Progress made towards promoting women’s access to formal employment, in particular for rural women, women with disabilities and migrant women;

(c)Steps taken to ensure social protection for women working in the informal economy, including the recognition of maternity leave, paid sick leave and disability, old-age pension benefits and protection against work-related diseases for those in the agricultural, industrial, service and fishing sectors;

(d)Progress made towards adopting a regulatory framework for domestic work, considering paragraph 33 of the Committee’s previous concluding observations;

(e)Efforts made to promote the equal sharing of family and work responsibilities between women and men, and the provision of affordable childcare facilities and allowances for women heads of household;

(f)Steps taken to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) and the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) of the International Labour Organization.

Health

17.Please provide updated information on:

(a)Measures taken to ensure access to comprehensive, accessible, free and affordable healthcare services throughout the country, including sexual and reproductive health services, in particular in rural and remote areas and in humanitarian situations;

(b)Any steps taken to make abortion and post-abortion health services free of charge and to ensure that no girl or woman faces obstacles in acquiring access to safe legal abortion services, in line with paragraph 35 of the Committee’s previous concluding observations;

(c)Measures taken to prevent early pregnancy and to strengthen access to affordable modern contraceptives throughout the territory;

(d)Data on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, including measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as access to antiretroviral treatment;

(e)Access to healthcare for disadvantaged groups of women, in particular women with disabilities and rural women.

Economic empowerment

18.Please share information on:

(a)Measures taken to alleviate poverty, in particular among women, and any results achieved through the project Economic Empowerment – Promotion of Women (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 148), in particular in the light of the climate crisis;

(b)Steps taken to empower women, in particular rural women, to engage in income-generating activities, start their own businesses and gain access to markets by providing them with financial services, including financial technology, microcredit at low interest rates, start-up and scale-up funds, venture capital, equipment financing and leasing, and social security benefits, including buffers for the informal sector;

(c)Data on women’s involvement in key aspects of the economic sectors in the State party, including the tourism sector and the blue economy.

Rural women

19.Recalling the Committee’s general recommendation No. 34 (2016) on the rights of rural women, please indicate measures taken to:

(a)Reinforce its investment in the provision of water, including desalinated water, and sanitation in rural areas and ensure that women effectively participate in municipal environmental, water and sanitation committees and sanitation divisions in accordance with paragraph 41 (a) of the Committee’s previous concluding observations;

(b)Improve access for rural women and girls to basic services, including healthcare and family planning services, education, formal employment, social protection in both the formal and the informal economy, means of economic empowerment, justice, land ownership and credit.

Disadvantaged groups of women

20.In view of the intersecting forms of discrimination faced by disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women, please provide information on the situation of older women, migrant women, refugee and asylum-seeking women, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, and women in detention, as well as on obstacles preventing them from enjoying basic rights, such as access to healthcare services, social benefits, education and participation in political and public life. Please also:

(a)Provide a timeline for the accession to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), the Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (1969), the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954) and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961);

(b)Provide detailed information on any plans for the establishment of an asylum system to identify women and girls in need of international protection and for the improvement of refugee reception facilities;

(c)Provide updated and detailed information on the implementation of an integrated system of care for immigrants (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 166) and on access to housing and basic services, such as healthcare and education for refugee and asylum-seeking women;

(d)Indicate the measures taken to protect women and girls with disabilities from gender-based violence, violations of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and other forms of discrimination and to ensure that they have equal access to all rights under the Convention.

Climate change and disaster risk reduction

21.In the light of the Committee’s general recommendation No. 37 (2018) on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change, please provide information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to mainstream a gender perspective into national disaster risk reduction management and relief and recovery strategies;

(b)The involvement of women in the formulation and implementation of disaster risk reduction, post-disaster management, and climate change policies and programmes;

(c)Measures taken to provide relief and recovery to women affected by natural disasters, including droughts;

(d)Measures taken to ensure food security for rural women in the light of the effects of climate change.

Marriage and family relations

22.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to promote the recognition of de facto unions (CEDAW/C/CPV/10, para. 177) and to promote the registration of marriages to ensure that women enjoy adequate legal protection during such unions and upon their dissolution;

(b)Measures taken to amend the Civil Code to prohibit the de facto union of girls who are under 18 years of age, to recognize only those de facto unions that commence when both partners are at least 18 years of age and to amend articles 141 and 142 to eliminate the exception that allows marriage before the age of 18 years (ibid., para. 57);

(c)Updated information on any steps taken to prohibit polygamy (ibid., para. 173), including by introducing such a prohibition in the Civil Code and conducting awareness-raising campaigns on the harmful effects of polygamy on women and society at large.