the obligation of states to respect human rights including womens rights referred to the obligation to refrain from doing anything that could violate those rights any wrong committed within the private sphere without any direct intervention by state agents was not considered a human rights violation the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women covers both public and private acts its article e specifically addresses the obligation of states to address discrimination against women perpetrated by any person organization or enterprise and its article f concerns the modification and abolition not only of discriminatory laws and regulations but also of customs and practices its article a requires states to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women rutgers university press