(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 51 right to equality and non-discrimination by the bodies tasked with monitoring these treaties and the jurisprudence of these treaty bodies by looking at the decisions they have made. While the rights to equality and non-discrimination have been expressed in general terms in the various human rights instruments, there has been growing recognition at various levels that equality should be viewed and interpreted substantively. This can be seen from a thorough comparative analysis of earlier instruments such as the Universal Declaration, the ICCPR and the ICESCR, which couched the equality guarantees in the manner mentioned above. Later treaties such as the CEDAW have evolved towards the substantive approach through provisions that go beyond requiring equal treatment between men and women. A close look at the text of the Convention reveals its adoption of different forms of equality including substantive equality. The treaty’s provisions such as those on temporary special measures and those requiring states to modify social and cultural patterns are such examples of giving value to substantive equality. A further way in which international law has moved towards the substantive equality approach is through provisions that impose on states of positive obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right.48 Apart from the treaty provisions, the interpretation and application of the equality and non-discrimination provisions by the various treaty bodies are particularly insightful in establishing development of the substantive approach in international law. These bodies which are mandated with interpreting the provision of the treaties they monitor have done so through General Comments or General Recommendations, communications they receive and Concluding Observations to different countries. The UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has underlined the importance of an interpretation of equality that goes beyond formal equality as a means of deconstructing underlying factors that impede on the realisation of women’s rights in several of its General Recommendations. The committee has stated that equality requires that states should give attention to differences between men and women which warrant non-identical treatment in order to achieve equality that is transformative, equality of outcomes and equality of opportunities.49 In addition to affirming substantive equality as a component of the equality guarantees, this interpretation has also informed how the Committee has interpreted the substance of various other rights and the state obligations pursuant to these rights. In addition to calling on states to guarantee formal equality in the enjoyment of several rights, General Recommendations compel states to take into account factors that impede different groups from enjoying rights on an equal footing.50 Even though as mentioned above the equality guarantee in the ICESCR is phrased in a general manner, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Committee on 48 49 50 Fredman and Goldblatt (n 43 above). General Recommendation 25. General Recommendation 24.