CEDAW/C/CHE/CO/4-5
Disadvantaged groups of women
Migrant and minority women
46. The Committee notes the efforts of the State party to facilitate the integration
of migrants, especially Muslim women, as well as ethnic minority women, including
Roma and related groups, Traveller women and undocumented women.
Nevertheless, it notes with concern that:
(a) Migrant women and minority women continue to be at risk of
intersecting forms of discrimination in political life, education, employment and
health care;
(b) There is underreporting of domestic violence by many migrant women
whose residence permits depend on their being married to their violent husbands,
and that the significantly high threshold of “severity” and “systematic violence”
prevails as the standard of proof before the courts;
(c) Migrant women who have been recognized as victims of domestic
violence have been deported only on account of their lack of financial
independence.
47.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Take effective measures to eliminate discrimination against migrant
women and minority women, both in society at large and within their
communities, by developing awareness-raising campaigns and engaging with
the media to avoid negative stereotypes;
(b) Introduce measures to promote migrant women’s access to
education, employment and professional training, social services and health
care, as well as to familiarize them with their rights under the Convention and
the legal remedies available to claim them;
(c) Review the legal framework concerning the burden and standard of
proof in cases of domestic violence committed against migrant women;
(d) Grant temporary residence permits to migrant women who have
been recognized as victims of domestic violence but are at risk of being
deported owing to their lack of financial independence.
Marriage and family relations
48. The Committee is concerned that its previous recomme ndations to better
redress gender disparities and economic disparities (“shortfalls”) upon divorce have
not been followed, and that the amended Child Maintenance Act has not introduced
a federal scheme of deficit-sharing and a minimal contribution to child maintenance,
and, as a result, child maintenance is determined only to the extent that the person
duty-bound to pay such maintenance is financially able to pay. It is also concerned
that the default rule of joint parental authority and preference for shar ed custody
may lead to a reduction in the number of child maintenance orders, with no
mechanism to ensure that shared custody is indeed practised, and reflects the reality
of time and cost allocation between parents. The Committee is further concerned at
the lack of information on the impact of the current pension system on divorced
16-20858
17/19