The Impact of CEDAW on the Labor Laws of Jordan and the UAE: A Comparative Study with English Law

الملخص

This article addresses the position of labor laws in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (hereafter UAE) and England towards the issue of equality between woman and man in the workplace in light of the requirements of CEDAW** to which the three mentioned countries are parties. Generally speaking, CEDAW tends to be a convention aiming at achieving equality between man and woman in all aspects, inter alia, equality in work opportunities and rights. This vision is more suitable to English law, where it is argued that CEDAW and English law stem from the same environment, i.e. the Western environment. On the contrary, in many aspects, CEDAW contradicts the Eastern (Islamic) approach, respected by the laws of Jordan and the UAE, basing the relationship between man and woman on justice and integration rather than equality and competition. Therefore, the article examines to which extent labour laws in Jordan and the UAE have applied the requirements of CEDAW, and what obstacles are in front of realizing the requirements not applied yet.