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Ending Sex Discrimination in the Law
EQUALITY NOW – BEIJING+25
ECONOMIC STATUS
Australia, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Women are now allowed to apply for all jobs in the army
Bahamas
Women now have equal inheritance rights to men
Bolivia, France
Women are no longer prohibited from working at night
Latvia
Women are no longer prohibited from working overtime and travelling for work
during pregnancy and one year after childbirth
Lesotho
Property can now be registered in the name of women married in community
property
Nepal
Certain restrictions on women’s property rights have now been lifted
eSwatini (formerly Swaziland)
A woman married in community of property can now register
property in her own name
Poland
Women are no longer restricted from passing their surname to their children
VIOLENCE
Argentina
A sexual abuser is no longer exempt from punishment by agreeing a settlement
with the victim
Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala,
Lebanon, Palestine, Peru, Uruguay
A rapist can no longer avoid punishment by marrying the victim
India*, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea,
Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore,
Tonga
Marital rape is now a crime
Haiti, Jordan, Morocco
There is no longer an exemption from penalty for men who murder
their wives and/or female relatives in certain circumstances
Malta
A perpetrator is no longer exempt from punishment by marrying the victim that
he abducted
* Although India’s domestic violence law of 2006 gives women the option to bring a civil case for marital rape, India continues to
exempt marital rape from its criminal law when the wife is over the age of 18.
** Malaysia added a new provision to the Penal Code which criminalizes a husband who “causes hurt or fear of death or hurt
to his wife” in order to have sex with her, which is a positive step toward addressing marital rape. However, it did not delete the
exception for “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife” in the provision on rape and does not criminalize the act of rape
itself committed by a man against his wife. This does not afford women full protection against marital rape.
Partial amendments have been undertaken in Japan (waiting period for remarriage) and Ireland (paternity leave), and will soon
take effect in Russia (number of occupations restricted to women).