Legal Barriers To Gender Equality In Developing Nations: A Critical Analysis Of International Obligations And Domestic Reform
- IJLLR Journal
- 5 days ago
- 1 min read
Shafa Lilothia, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi (DU); Global College of Law, Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU)
ABSTRACT
Gender equality remains one of the most pressing yet systematically undermined human rights imperatives of the twenty-first century. Despite near-universal ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developing nations continue to maintain legal frameworks that structurally subordinate women. This paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the principal legal barriers to gender equality in developing nations, including discriminatory personal laws, constitutional exclusions, customary and religious legal pluralism, gaps in legislative enforcement, and institutional deficiencies in access to justice. Drawing on comparative jurisprudence from Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, the paper examines how domestic legal architectures intersect with international treaty obligations to either entrench or dismantle gender-based discrimination. The paper further proposes a multilayered reform framework grounded in constitutional transformation, legislative harmonization, judicial capacity-building, and community-based legal empowerment. The central argument advanced is that gender inequality is not merely a social phenomenon but a legally constructed and legally perpetuated condition that demands systematic legal deconstruction.
Keywords: Gender Equality, CEDAW, Legal Pluralism, Developing Nations, Discriminatory Laws, Women's Rights, SDGs, Customary Law, Constitutional Reform.
