USA – Women Continue Prolonged & Serious Advocacy for US Passage of the UN CEDAW Convention
Author: Administrator
Date: April 21, 2023
USA – Women Continue Prolonged & Serious Advocacy for US Passage of the UN CEDAW Convention
The US ratified the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Seventy-five years later, the US has still not recognized that women and girls should have the same human rights as men and boys. Ratifying the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or Cedaw, would acknowledge a legal standard for deciding discrimination cases based on gender. It would also set a nationwide standard for gender equality that would apply to such spheres as sports, politics, education and economics.
April 12, 2023 – Washington, D.C.’s new Elimination of Discrimination Against Women law went into effect on March 10, 2023. Now that the nation’s capital is ready to carry out the principles of the United Nations gender equality treaty, it’s time for the United States to ratify the global version of the pact. Joe Biden backed ratification of it when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee more than 20 years ago. As US president, he can push for it again.
The US ratified the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Seventy-five years later, the US has still not recognized that women and girls should have the same human rights as men and boys. Ratifying the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or Cedaw, would acknowledge a legal standard for deciding discrimination cases based on gender. It would also set a nationwide standard for gender equality that would apply to such spheres as sports, politics, education and economics.
Cedaw was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and signed the next year by President Jimmy Carter, but the treaty has never been brought to the full US Senate for a vote. Today, 189 countries have ratified Cedaw. The US is the only industrialized country that has not done so, and one of only six countries that has not ratified it. The reason is not totally clear, given that the US has ratified other human-rights treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In the current political climate, it is hard to imagine the Senate will vote for gender equality with the required supermajority of 67 votes. However, this could change if people who support gender equality show up on Election Day and vote for candidates who agree with this mind-set.
In 1998, when it was apparent that the US would not ratify Cedaw in the near future, the city of San Francisco passed its own ordinance to implement the principles of Cedaw. Today, a Cities for Cedaw network supports similar efforts throughout the country.
The US ratification process begins in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which must pass a resolution to ratify a treaty. The entire Senate then votes, requiring a supermajority to pass. Although those who support ratification understand that a supermajority is not likely to happen soon, the process should begin nevertheless. It has also been found that when gender equality issues are on a ballot, the advocates often win. This is especially true when voters vote on abortion rights and reproductive freedoms.
According to Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly in a recent report in Politico, “A surge in turnout among people motivated by the erosion of abortion rights carried Democrats to victory in races for governor, Senate, attorney general and state legislatures — defying predictions that the issue had faded for voters in the months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered Cedaw in 2002, when it was looked upon favorably by the then-chair, Senator Joe Biden, D-Delaware, through a resolution of advice and consent to ratification with four reservations, five understandings and two declarations. No further action was taken, so efforts to ratify are still needed. Now that the nation’s capital has joined more than 79 cities, counties and states, including Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Toledo and Miami-Dade (county) to make Cedaw local law, it is time for the US Senate to begin the steps toward ratification. We urge the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including the chair, Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, to begin doing so immediately.
Ratification will not happen overnight, and a supermajority in the Senate will take time to develop. But the strong backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive rights and other basic freedoms in the US means that we must work to protect women’s human rights right now.
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