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Members, Urge Your Senators to Ratify CEDAW Today!
Contact your Senator (whether for, against, or uncommitted)
and encourage him/her to support the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW).
Contact your Senator if he/she is a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC). Encourage them to urge
the SFRC's leadership, Joseph Biden (D-DE) to move CEDAW out
of the SFRC to the floor for a vote this Congress.
For more information and suggestions to ensure the ratification
of CEDAW,
click
here or visit www.womenstreaty.org.
Senate Moves on Treaty for
the Rights of Women
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing
on Thursday, June 13, the Committee considered, for the first
time since 1994, U. S. ratification of the Treaty for the
Rights of Women, or CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women).
The treaty, aimed at providing
a universal standard for the rights of women, promotes the
fair treatment of women in education, employment, health care,
marriage, politics, law, and other areas. Adopted by the
U. N. General Assembly in
1979, CEDAW was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Although CEDAW has been ratified by 169 countries to date,
the United States has yet to act on it.
Advocates are urging the United
States, as a leader in promoting international human rights,
to ratify CEDAW as a demonstration to the international community
its commitment to protecting human rights and advancing the
international rule of law.
Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE),
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is pushing for
Senate ratification this year. "It is long past time
we join the rest of the world" in support of the treaty,
he said at the Committee hearing, passing the gavel to Sen.
Barbara Boxer to chair the hearing in recognition of her longtime
support of the treaty in the Senate.
"We are standing with
non-ratifying countries like Syria, Iran, and Somalia,"
Boxer stated. "In my opinion, this is a disgrace."
A representative panel of
House members, including Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Juanita Millender-McDonald
(D-CA), Constance Morella (R-MD), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA),
joined Boxer in urging U. S. ratification of CEDAW.
Other witnesses who testified
in support of the Treaty included Harold Koh, Professor at
Yale University and former Assistant Secretary of State for
Human Rights, Juliette McLennan, former U. S. Representative
to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and Jane E. Smith,
chief executive officer of Business and Professional Women/USA.
The State Department recommended
ratification of the treaty last February, stating that it
is "generally desirable" and "should be approved."
The American Bar Association
(ABA) officially has supported U. S. ratification of CEDAW
since 1984, when the House of Delegates adopted its ratification
policy, and reaffirmed its position in 1996, following the
1995 Beijing World Conference on Women. Father Robert F. Drinan
testified on behalf of the ABA at the last Senate hearing.
This year, the ABA provided a written statement of support
at the hearing, and extended comments will be submitted for
the record.
Members can help encourage
a timely vote out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and urge Senate approval of ratification this year by to contacting
Senators directly, especially those on the Foreign Relations
Committee, to express their support for ratification. An automated
system for sending e-mail messages to Senators and Administration
officials is available at www.womenstreaty.org.
The Section’s Women’s Rights
Committee is planning a CEDAW "rally for ratification"
during the 2002 ABA Annual Meeting in Washington, D. C., in
August. For more information on how to become involved in
the Section’s work on CEDAW ratification, please contact the
Section office (tel.: 202/662-1030) or visit the Section website
(www.abanet.org/irr).
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