As U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice released a statement today in commemoration of the 30^th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Rice said that “notable progress” has been made in the 30 years since the introduction of CEDAW, which is informally known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women. Ambassador Rice called for action to “close remaining gender gaps, both at home and abroad.” Speaking on the commitment of the United States, one of the only remaining nations that has yet to ratify CEDAW, Rice said:

“The Obama Administration strongly supports this landmark treaty, and is committed to United States ratification.”

The Ambassador went on to note U.S. support of the creation of a UN agency that will be dedicated solely to women and gender issues. Rice further added: “The battle to eliminate discrimination and enshrine women’s equal rights is not yet won. The U.S. will not rest until, with others, we make this shared goal a reality.”

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice- U.S. Mission to the United Nations

On December 18, 1979, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), informally known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women. Today, 30 years later, the international community commemorates the adoption of this critical instrument for the preservation and practice of women’s rights.

The Treaty for the Rights of Women is an international instrument for governments, activists, advocates and citizens joined in a global movement towards the full realization and practice of women’s rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, the Treaty has since been ratified by 186 nations as the preeminent treaty acknowledging the comprehensive rights of women as fundamental human rights. In defining discrimination against women, the Treaty includes any restriction or exclusion, made on the basis of sex, which has as its purpose or effect a denial of the full recognition and exercise of a woman’s fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any other sphere.

CEDAW uniquely addresses prejudice as a social construct with systemic and systematic consequences, citing social and cultural patterns of conduct based on perceived inferiority or superiority as root causes that perpetuate discrimination against women. Written in the progressive spirit that was later echoed by the historic 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the Treaty urges that women and men recognize and remedy a reality that permits socially constructed gender roles to dictate the experience and opportunity afforded an individual.

The Treaty is a decisive call for the promise of equal opportunity to be practically extended to women in areas of political and public life, education, employment, health care, economic and social rights, as well as in marriage and family relations. In distinguishing de facto equality from de jure equality, the Treaty seeks to engage signatories as partners in an active movement to realize women’s rights, promoting concrete measures to be taken by states parties in an effort to accelerate equality between men and women.

Currently, only the United States, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and three other countries have not ratified CEDAW. A signatory since President Jimmy Carter signed the treaty in 1979, the U.S. has been at an impasse in Congress since then, and despite several attempts, the Treaty for the Rights of Women remains unratified. The Obama Administration has declared ratification of CEDAW a priority. Failure to ratify has often undermined American credibility in its rebuke of human rights abuses abroad and calls for women’s human rights.

Following their ratification of the Treaty, various countries across the world have taken action based on CEDAW in efforts to empower women and legitimize and enforce their rights.

• Nicaragua, Jordan, Egypt and Guinea are among other nations that have seen significant increases in literacy rates after improving access to education for women and young girls.
• Colombia has, since ratification, criminalized domestic violence and required protection for victims.
• Ukraine, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines are among other states that have passed legislation to address sex trafficking.
• Uganda, South Africa, Brazil and others have incorporated provisions of the Treaty into their constitutions and domestic legal codes.
• India developed national guidelines on workplace sexual assault after the Supreme Court found that CEDAW required such protections.

Vital Voices Global Partnership stands with hundreds of NGOs in support of U.S. ratification of the Treaty, so that our country, long respected as an advocate and example of human rights, may lend its full support and credibility to its commitment to ensure the human rights of women across the world.

If you are interested in supporting CEDAW, here are a few ways that you can express your support:

Ratify CEDAW on its 30^th Anniversary –Citizens for Global Solutions

Working Group on CEDAW

Physicians for Human Rights

Related: The Significance of CEDAW in Turkey: Interview with Urun Guner-Vital Voices

In her remarks on Human Rights Day during The Courage to Lead: A Global Summit for Women Leaders, a gathering convened by Vital Voices and The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang spoke about women worldwide taking the lead in an effort to eliminate discrimination and secure the equal rights of all people. Noting that only six years remain before the 2015 deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals, Kang pressed for greater efforts to address global gender disparities.

The Deputy High Commissioner went on to cite the importance of certain UN conventions, namely the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Kang said that age-old prejudices persist, threatening the full practice of women’s human rights:

“These underlying prejudices and practices determine gender roles, entrench discrimination in other contexts, such as education and participation in decision-making, and also render women more vulnerable to many forms of violence, including trafficking.”

Women Leaders: The Courage to Lead -UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Related:

On Human Rights Day 2009, UN High Commissioner Calls for Non-discrimination -Vital Voices Blog

In August of this year, the Philippines adopted the Magna Carta for Women (MCW), a bill that prohibits discrimination against women in education and employment and provides for equal protection in marriage and health care. This legislation added to 27 preexisting laws concerning the rights of women.

Although women’s groups celebrate the MCW’s passage, many claim that implementation hasn’t occurred. The Philippines has had two female presidents, however many see these success stories as outliers. Mary Joan Guan of the Centre for Women’s Research told IPS that “Most Filipino women live on the fringes of society, where many undertake low-skilled irregular or contractual employment.”

Guan added that in order for these laws to have true meaning, men must also demand equal treatment for women.

National coordinator of United Nations Development Fund for Women, Luz Rodriguez, said, “We have won a battle but not quite the war.”

Women’s Rights Laws in Place- IPS

In a late August report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) found Japan’s efforts to ensure gender equality “insufficient”.

Finding little progress in the past six years, the Committee set a two-year time limit for Japan to revise a number of areas of inequality.

Some of recommended revisions include:

• Marital discrimination: Japanese civil code does not allow married couples to choose separate surnames and only women face a waiting period before they are able to remarry
• Wage discrimination: Women earn 60 to 70 percent of men’s wages, one of the biggest gaps in industrial nations
• Political discrimination: women in Japan have one of the lowest political representations of industrial nations, at only 11.25 percent

Women’s organizations have been encouraged by the deadline and have posed their own recommendations.

Yasuko Yamashita, a representative of the Japanese NGO Network for CEDAW (JNNC) said, “I’d like to see an expert panel on elimination of discrimination against women set up within the Council for Gender Equality to oversee how government measures are being implemented.”

U.N. to Japan: Get serious on gender equality- International Herald Tribune