Description
In the race to sustainable development and the elimination of gender-based inequalities reporting mechanisms are crucial components. They provide a snapshot of action taken and progress made within a given period. Country reports also serve as instruments in the world society do signal the extent of nation-state’s compliance with global cultural models. This study focuses on country reports from 12 low to middle-income states on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEDAW). My research examines the discourse employed in the reports, how they serve to positively represent the reporting state and promote decoupling from international norms. Emerging results from this study show that similar discourse is applied among nation-states to mask the decoupling of state action from international standards. Nation-states, using the art of representation, can create or magnify successes towards the achievement of gender equality while maintaining domestic androcentric cultural models. This strategy allows such states to benefit from the perks of international norm compliance without being committed to global models.
