WUNRN
CALL FOR SIGNATURES FOR USA CEDAW
STATEMENT
Dear
Colleagues,
The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
will be holding a hearing on November 18 in Washington D.C. to discuss U.S.
ratification of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). For the last 31 years, women's
rights advocates have been campaigning for U.S. ratification of CEDAW and
finally we hope to see movement and strong support from the U.S. government of
women's rights domestically and internationally!
The Center for Women's Global Leadership, as part of the U.S. CEDAW
Taskforce, is collecting organizational signatures for the below statement to
be delivered to the Committee at the end of the week.
Please
send your sign-on's to Margot Baruch at mbaruch@rci.rutgers.edu
by Wednesday, November 17.
In
Solidarity,
CWGL
SERIOUS ABOUT WOMEN’S RIGHTS? THEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT MUST RATIFY CEDAW
November 2010
The Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and the organizations listed below, call on the U.S. Congress to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) without delay. CEDAW establishes an international legal framework for the achievement of gender equality, affirming that women and men enjoy all human rights on an equal basis. It provides a regular system for assessing progress in promoting, protecting and fulfilling women’s human rights; and thus, an instrument through which governments can be held accountable. Ratification of CEDAW has led to positive changes for women around the world, combating diverse forms of violation of women’s rights from violence against women, to labor market discrimination, to high rates of maternal mortality.
By not ratifying CEDAW, the U.S. places itself amongst the very few nation states, including Iran and Sudan, who have not yet ratified the Convention. The U.S. government has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), so why not CEDAW? In the United States, women and girls, especially women and girls of color still face discriminatory practices, and still have a long way to go to attain equality.
CEDAW covers civil and political rights including provision for affirmative action and the rights to education, health, employment and other areas of economic and social life. It calls for more than just laws that eliminate overt discrimination; it calls for measures that enable women to enjoy substantive equality. CEDAW, and its associated system of monitoring compliance, has the potential to foster national and international dialogue and cooperation around improving women's lives, and expanding understanding of how to end violations of women’s rights.
The U.S. needs CEDAW because:
Though the federal Violence Against
Women Act (“VAWA”) was passed in 1994, and has
enhanced the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of violence against
women, domestic violence remains a serious
problem in the U.S. On average four women per day are murdered and 5.5
million women per year physically assaulted or raped by intimate
partners.
Women working full-time today earn, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. This is especially harmful given that women are the primary breadwinners in nearly 4 in 10 families.
In 2008, 37 percent of single-mother households were food insecure at some point during the year. A 2007 USDA study found that about 85 percent of households with food insecure children had a working adult, including 70 percent with a full-time worker. The problem is not simply the unavailability of jobs, but also that the lack of decent work is a severe problem for racial and ethnic minorities and women.
Between two and three women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth in the USA: women of color, those living in poverty, Native Americans and immigrant women and those who speak little or no English are particularly affected. One in four women do not receive adequate prenatal care, starting in the first trimester. The number rises to about one in three for African American and Native American women.
CEDAW would provide a stimulus
for greater focus on these disparities; for more effective enforcement of
antidiscrimination law; and for more equitable access to vital services. While
ratification of CEDAW cannot achieve women’s equal enjoyment of rights
overnight, it opens up a new process of reporting and monitoring that will
empower U.S. women to hold their government accountable.
--
Center for Women's Global Leadership
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
160 Ryders Lane
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8555
Tel: 1-732-932-8782
Fax: 1-732-932-1180
Email: cwgl@rci.rutgers.edu
Website: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu