E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 17 portrayal of women or practices detrimental to their status are based on religion or society’s deeply held beliefs. The affirmative role that can be played by States individually or collectively has to be pursued in this specific area of negative cultural and traditional attitudes. Article 2 of the Convention requires States to eliminate “discrimination against women”, i.e. including discrimination based on or imputed to the religion or traditions of the community concerned. 59. The Convention, which was adopted on 18 December 1979 and entered into force on 3 September 1981, illustrates the paradox discussed at the beginning of the present study, namely the difficulty of coexistence between a community’s rights, particularly with regard to religion and traditions, and women’s rights as components of the fundamental rights of the individual. Despite the Convention’s markedly universal character, given that 165 States had ratified it by 4 February 2000, some States have not acceded to it or still not ratified it. That is the case of many Middle Eastern States, which argue that this text—as well as others—presents an overly Western view of the rights of women and disregards the values of Islam.45 60. It is also one of the international conventions having the largest number of reservations, to the point where one might legitimately debate the diversity, not to say disunity, of the legal regime and minimum principles that it sets out for States parties. There is no unanimity among Muslim countries in regard to their reservations to the Convention. Also, none of the Convention’s articles has been the subject of reservations by only Muslim States and the same reservation can be expressed on the same article by States possessing other religious traditions.46 61. In regard to the subject of the present study, the issues which have given rise to major disagreement essentially from Muslim countries relate in general to equality during marriage and at its dissolution, parental authority for care and custody of children, choice of family name, ownership and administration of property by spouses, rights of inheritance and transmission of nationality to children.47 Consideration of these reservations and declarations warrants more detailed analysis. Four categories of country can be identified: (a) Reservations by the same State sometimes relate to many aspects of the Convention dealing with particular provisions which the State claims are incompatible with its religiously based domestic law or with an article of its constitution referring to religion. That applies, for example, to Algeria48 and Tunisia;49 (b) In other cases, specific provisions forming the subject of reservations are cited as conflicting with Sharia law based on the Koran and Sunna, but with no further details. That applies to Bangladesh.50 Sharia is invoked by Maldives in relation to article 16 and by Libya concerning article 2 in relation to inheritance and marriage and family responsibilities (art. 16 (c) and (d)).51 It also applies to Kuwait regarding article 16 (f) on care, custody and adoption of children, which “conflicts with the provisions of the Islamic Sharia, Islam being the official religion of the State”.52 It further applies to Israel, which cites the “laws on personal status which are binding on the various religious communities” in the country,53 and to Singapore, which reserves the right not to apply articles 2 and 16 of the Convention where they are contrary to the personal and religious laws of minorities;54 (c) In rarer cases, non-conformity of the Convention’s provisions with Sharia is relatively better formulated by the reserving State. That applies to Egypt, Morocco and, to some extent, Iraq in connection particularly with article 16;55