The following is a post written by Mikhail Bell, a Human Rights Program Intern with Vital Voices. Mikhail Bell is a 2008 graduate of Hamilton College (Clinton, NY). He is interested in studying sex trafficking and plans to pursue an advanced degree in International Affairs.

On January 21, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed an attentive Newseum audience. The gathering, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, outlined the Obama Administration’s plans to increase internet access and freedom of expression within the international community. Her comments, delivered nine days after the Haiti earthquake, positioned “21st century statecraft” as an important tool in America’s foreign policy arsenal.

Even now, state-sponsored technology is helping survivors of Haiti earthquake. The State Department’s text campaign lets mobile users text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 dollars towards American Red Cross relief efforts. The effort, which has raised over $25 million since it began, is one of the few resources that provides emergency alerts and locates victims. Two survivors, a woman and a 16-month old infant, were found beneath the rubble because people texted for help.

Secretary Clinton asserted that technology is forming a new nervous system, which is keeping more governments accountable and increasing transparency in certain places, such as Iran. She also noted that information networks are a double-edged sword. While demonstrations were organized online, the Iranian government also used websites like Youtube to crush protests and locate dissenters.

Encouraging Americans to promote internet freedom, Secretary Clinton declared:

“We cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear the cries.”

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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

Join us tonight for the Vital Voices Artisan Bazaar! This evening we are opening up our offices to host an annual bazaar, which features jewelry and crafts fashioned by women artisans from around the world. A fabulous silent auction will also be held, featuring a unique selection of items.

If you are in Washington, DC, be sure to come by and celebrate with us as we showcase beautiful products from the many talented women artisans we work with internationally. Our office is located at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 850. Parking will be available in the building garage or on side streets nearby. Join us from 5:30 to 9 pm this evening.

In a statement released to mark Human Rights Day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recognized two champions of human rights, Maksharip Aushev of Russia (honored posthumously) and Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia. Aushev was an activist and independent website editor who bravely shone a spotlight on human rights abuses in Russia’s North Caucasus; he was killed in late October after unknown assailants fired more than 60 bullets into his car. Ambassador Yovanovitch was recognized for her “principled leadership and innovative use of a full range of diplomatic tools” to pursue due process of those arrested after the 2008 contentious national elections in Armenia.

Secretary Clinton said that while she honors two extraordinary defenders of human rights as we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she also looks to recognize “the many quiet heroes around the world who have also stood up for human rights this year, often against great odds and at high personal risk.” She went on to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to global human rights:

“The human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration are the birthright of every human being. They are the basis of human dignity, and they underpin international peace and progress.”

Secretary Clinton Honors Champions of Human Rights - Marks International Human Rights Day -U.S. Department of State, Press Release

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the following video message on Human Rights Day 2009. Ban Ki-moon states in his message that while discrimination is outlawed by international treaties, the world community must make more than abstract commitments to bring an end to discrimination and ensure the full practice of the human rights of all. He spoke of the work still to be done, saying:

“We must confront inequality and intolerance wherever they are found.”

Watch the message of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Human Rights Day.

December 10, 2009 is Human Rights Day, recognized internationally by governments and citizens since its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950. Established to commemorate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Day is a time of reflection on the progress of the past year, as well as a look forward to all that remains to be accomplished in the field of human rights. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said today in a speech that non-discrimination is central to progress on human rights:

“Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order.”

Pillay went on to say that both old and new forms of discrimination and intolerance continue to threaten the human rights of citizens around the world, inhibiting the full practice of rights. Citing discrimination as a “multilayered” issue, Pillay said that marginalized groups encounter ”further exclusion and a curtailment of their rights when they attempt to have the access that international law entitles them to housing, food, health care and education.” The High Commissioner further added that discrimination not only denies an individual his or her rights, but also denies entire communities their chance to develop and prosper:

“Discrimination undermines the social and economic cohesion of societies. It saps their resources. It squanders talent. It marginalizes productive individuals and groups, and depresses their creativity and initiative.”

Pillay concluded by calling for the international community to make the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a reality for all.

Human Rights Day: Navi Pillay -UN Dispatch

On December 7, representatives from 192 nations gather in Copenhagen for the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As these representatives discuss a global response to the climate crisis, we consider the role of women and gender in climate change agreements.

IPS News recently interviewed Lorena Aguilar Revelo, global senior gender advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is part of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance, launched at the United Nations in 2007. Revelo says that while women have had a significant role “in the management of natural resources for centuries,” especially within the agricultural center, considerations of women and gender are currently absent from the major UN climate change agreement, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Despite “innumerable global mandates calling for integrating a gender perspective into environmental and poverty reduction efforts,” a concerted effort to include women and gender issues continues to evade climate talks and agreements on the national and international fronts, says Revelo.

In an effort to ensure that women are not left out of future agreements, the Global Gender and Climate Alliance has been working closely with delegates of the Copenhagen conference, updating and training representatives on impact that climate change has on women. Following the advocacy efforts of her organization and others, Revelo is confident that gender will be noted in any declaration that comes out of Copenhagen.

Q&A Gender Missing in Climate Agreements - IPS News

On December 1, as the international community commemorates World AIDS Day, we turn our attention to the considerable impact that AIDS has on women and girls worldwide. This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is “Universal Access and Human Rights.” In a statement released by UNIFEM Executive Director Ines Alberdi, a recent report from the World Health Organization is cited in which research indicates “AIDS is the leading killer of women of reproductive age in poor and middle-income countries.” Alberdi goes on to say, “This is unacceptable at a time when HIV treatment is available.”

In a call for improved, targeted actions, Alberdi says that a health sector approach must be compounded by “an equally rigorous and well-financed effort to address the root causes of HIV…that lie within social, economic and political structures.” To this end, research must lend itself to a focus on gender and the different ways that AIDS affects men and women. Advancing gender equality is a central component of AIDS eradication efforts, says Alberdi:

“We all know that women’s vulnerability to HIV is closely connected to gender discrimination and the continued violation of women’s rights…HIV and AIDS and persistent gender inequality are mutually reinforcing crises; we must tackle them together to achieve lasting change.”

Women’s Rights Are at the Core of Addressing the AIDS Pandemic -UNIFEM

WASHINGTON – Today (Tuesday December 1, 2009), the Save Darfur Coalition is honoring Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, as part of an initiative associated with the internationally-observed “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.” For each of the 16 days, the coalition’s unique campaign will honor a leader in the fight to empower, protect and uplift women in Sudan, and offer a corresponding action for activists. The international movement is observed between November 25, 2009 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and December 10, 2009 (International Human Rights Day).

As the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Verveer works to increase women’s involvement in political processes and advance their social and economic opportunities. Verveer is also co-founder of Vital Voices, an organization that empowers women within their communities. During Verveer’s tenure as Ambassador, she has advocated for the eradication of violence against women in Darfur and throughout Sudan.

In October, Verveer testified in front of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on violence against women. In her testimony, she explained that, “the displaced women in Sudan’s Darfur region risk rape when they leave camps to collect firewood – rape by some of the same perpetrators that caused their displacement and by other militia and bandits. In refugee camps in eastern Chad and in Kenya, women risk attack by local people protecting their resources as well as by armed groups.”

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