Anne Hellum is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, Department of Public and International Law, University of Oslo, Norway. Henriette Sinding Aasen is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Norway.

'… this is an extremely valuable and rich book … very much in the forefront of a dynamic interpretation of the CEDAW Convention, which hopefully extends the work of the CEDAW Committee. The authors and editors of the book provide us with useful tools for further development of the Convention. This book deserves the attention of the larger community - including NGOs, at national, regional and international levels - that works with the CEDAW Convention in practice.' Niklas Bruun, Nordic Journal of Human Rights

• Introduction Anne Hellum and Henriette Sinding Aasen; Part I. Potential Added Value of the CEDAW: 1. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women Andrew Byrnes; 2. The United Nations Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice Fareda Banda; 3. CEDAW: a holistic approach to women's equality and freedom Rikki Holtmaat; 4. CEDAW as a legal framework for transnational discourses on gender stereotyping Simone Cusack; 5. From CEDAW to the American Convention: elucidation of women's right to a life's project and protection of maternal identity within inter-American human rights jurisprudence Cecilia Bailliet; 6. Pulling apart? Treatment of pluralism in CEDAW and in Maputo protocol Celestine Nyamu Musembi; Part II. Actual Added Value of the CEDAW: Socio-Economic Rights: 7. Engendering socio-economic rights Sandra Fredman; 8. 'Women's rights are human rights!' The practice of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Fleur van Leeuwen; 9. Property and security: articulating women's rights to their homes Ingunn Ikdahl; 10. Maternal mortality and women's right to health Henriette Sinding Aasen; Part III. The CEDAW in National Law: 11. The implementation of the CEDAW Convention in Australia: success, trials, tribulations and continuing struggle Andrew Byrnes; 12. The Canadian experience with the CEDAW: all women's rights are human rights - a case of treaties synergy Lucie Lamarche; 13. India's CEDAW story Madhu Mehra; 14. Judicial education on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Nepal Kabita Pandey; 15. From ratification to implementation: 'domesticating' CEDAW in state, government and society. A case study of Pakistan Shaheen Sardar Ali; 16. Zimbabwe and CEDAW compliance: pursuing women's equality in fits and starts Choice Damiso and Julie Stewart; 17. The CEDAW after all these years: firmly rooted in the Dutch clay? Marjolein van den Brink; 18. CEDAW in the UK Sandra Fredman; 19. Domestication of the CEDAW in France: from paradoxes to ambivalences and back again Hélène Ruiz Fabri and Andrea Hamann; 20. Rise and fall of the CEDAW in Finland: time to reclaim its impetus Kevät Nousiainen and Merja Pentikäinen; 21. Making space and giving voice: CEDAW in Norwegian law Anne Hellum; Conclusions Anne Hellum and Henriette Sinding Aasen.