Willow's Pagan Place Pg.12
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Women's Rights for the New Millenium
Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women
A majortiy of the US Senate supports ratification of
the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). But the US will
enter the new millenium as the only Western nation not
a party to this important treaty UNLESS your Senators demand that
the Senate leadership makes ratifying CEDAW a priority
for the 106th Congress.
CEDAW helps
women - CEDAW is an international
treaty
that defines discrimination and requires governments
who ratify it to take action to stop discrimination
and violence against women. It has been used to
change government laws, help draft constitutional
provisions and mobilize grassroots coalitions to
help women. It influenced the constituions of Brazil,
Columbia, and Uganda. The Supreme Court of India used
CEDAW to interpret its constitution to require protection
from sexual harassment in the workplace.
Much More
Needs to be Done - Although CEDAW is
helping
women in many parts of the world, the situation of women
in many countries remains bleak. In Afghanistan, the
Taliban has imposed what one UN official calls
"gender aparthied". In many areas, government
authorities
fail to take adequate action against such practices as
female genital mutilation, dowry deaths, honor killings,
and other forms of violence against women.
Why the United
States should ratify CEDAW? If the US
ratified CEDAW, US officials would be in a much stronger
position to insist that other countries stop discrinination
against women. The US could also nominate a US citizen as a
member of the committee that monitors compliance with CEDAW.
US failure to ratify strengthens the hands of those who would
continue to discrininate against women.
The Senate approved a treaty on race
discrimination swiftly
on a bipartisan basis. That treaty has been in effect for
over four years. Why hasn't the Senate acted on CEDAW?
The United States must enter the new
millenium demonstrating
to the world that it supports worldwide efforts to stop
discrimination and violence against women.
Please write or call YOUR Senators to
ask them 1) to support
ratification of CEDAW and 2) to contact Majority Leader
Trent
Lott (Republicans) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (Democrats)
to request that they make a Senate vote on CEDAW a priority
of the 106th Congress.