The Rev. Irene Miller Radcliff
Member at Large,
Social Justice
National Episcopal Church Women 2009-2012
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CEDAW
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Some Background and Facts about Gender Discrimination
"Thirty-five years ago (1975), the first World Conference on Women, an international movement for women’s rights was held in Mexico City, with the goal of elimination of discrimination against women and full gender equality. Subsequent conferences followed:
1980 Copenhagen
Determined that there is discrepancy in gender equality and the ability to obtain equal rights;
1985 Nairobi
Determined that efforts to reduce discrimination only benefited a small number of women;
1995 Beijing
Recognized, based on the Vienna Conference on Human Rights, that women’s rights are human rights and that every societal institution and all relations between women and men must be re-evaluated;
Adopted the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).
"The BPfA specified twelve critical areas of concern, requiring solutions necessary for the advancement of women.
- Women and poverty;
- Education and training of women;
- Women and health;
- Violence against women;
- Women in armed conflict;
- Women and the economy;
- Women in power and decision making;
- Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women;
- Human rights of women;
- Women and the media;
- Women and the environment;
- The girl child.
"In 2000, 189 Member States if the United Nations participated in a Millennium Summit, with a goal to create a plan for action that would address in a holistic manner the most persistent problems of humanity, eliminate human suffering and promote an agenda that would be inclusive of all societies. The outcome of the summit was the Millennium Declaration (MD) with a list of values essential for international relations as freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility and respect for nature.
"The MD and commitments from previous world conferences established eight objectives, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). These are:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
- Achieve universal primary education;
- Promote gender equality and empower women;
- Reduce child mortality;
- Improve maternal health;
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
- Ensure environmental sustainability;
- Develop a global partnership for development.
"The MD resolved “to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate sustainable development” and to combat violence against women and to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
"The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and became a force in 1981. CEDAW provides all States with comprehensive guidelines for adoption of anti-discrimination policies and outlines women’s fundamental human rights in the form of a legally binding international human rights treaty.
"Once States have accepted CEDAW guidelines, they have committed themselves to ending discrimination against women in their legal system and institutional arrangements. The United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which oversees the implementation of the Convention and is mandated to monitor CEDAW’s implementation through a review States reports. The Convention Committee’s review of reports encourages full implementation of CEDAW’s thirty articles. In 1995, CEDAW Committee was given the additional task of monitoring the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).."
Above information is from the CSW 54 – Beijing + 15 Handbook
A Shout Out:
The call now is to ratify CEDAW! CEDAW, a landmark international treaty for equal rights foe women, has been ratified by 186 of the United Nations’ members. The United States is the only democratic industrialized country that has not ratified CEDAW.
The Social Justice Committee of the National Episcopal Church Women Board encourages everyone
who believes that “women’s rights are human rights” to contact their senators about the urgency and need to ratify CEDAW.
Beijing + 15 Commission on the Status of Women 54 March 1 – 13, 2010
The Commission on the Status of Women adopted the following seven resolutions:
- Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS
- Release of women and children taken hostage, including those subsequently imprisoned, in armed conflicts
- The situation of and assistance to Palestinian women
- Women’s economic empowerment
- Eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of women
- Strengthening institutional arrangement of the UN for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women by consolidating the four existing offices into a composite entity
- Ending female genital mutilation
For more information visit the CEDAW web page of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/index.htm
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