The International Models Project on Women’s Rights (IMPOWR) Research Database is an on-line collaborative information network created to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on issues related to gender-equality laws and women’s rights. By providing access to information, this initiative empowers the global community of human rights advocates assisting their efforts for the effective implementation of gender-equality laws worldwide.
Supported by the American Bar Association (ABA), IMPOWR aims to accelerate and enhance gender equality and women’s rights by sharing continuously updated, easily comparable and readily searched information on legal reform efforts in different countries. The IMPOWR network operates in a wiki-like fashion and is host to hundreds of volunteer contributors worldwide who provide new content and update information on relevant issues including: civic life, healthcare, marriage and family relations, economic and social life, crimes and violence, access to justice and many others. The database has become a real-time online library of legal and rights-based documentation facilitating direct comparison between 190 countries on 40 topics.
By providing comprehensive and multifaceted cross-country comparisons of law reform efforts concerning women’s rights, the IMPOWR Research Database has played a distinctive role in supporting the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Despite the Convention, millions of women around the world remain unprotected and highly vulnerable to human rights violations and discrimination. The IMPOWR Research Database aims to become a multi-lingual research resource used by policy markers, jurist, non-government organizations, legal experts, advocates, students and volunteers to continue fighting for gender equality. Â
