The purpose of the briefing paper is to alert readers to the significant work that the CEDAW Committee has undertaken in relation to three key areas: gender-based violence against women, the right to education and the gender-related dimensions of disaster-reduction and climate change. Through this work the Committee has kept the Convention responsive to contemporary challenges to women’s rights and has provided substantive material for advocacy whether before judicial or policy decision-makers. It reinforces the message of a series of events held at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security under the auspices of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on a Feminist International Law of Peace and Security. These events considered the ways CEDAW can and should be used to remind states parties of their legal obligations to address structural gender inequalities that would in turn contribute to achievement of the SDGs, notably SDG 5: achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. These objectives are also core to sustainable peace. In sum, these events sought to raise the profile of CEDAW and to consider the question of where women and girls today would be without CEDAW.