The Treaty for the Rights of Women is the most complete international agreement on basic rights for women. The Treaty is officially known as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The United States played an important role in drafting the Treaty, which185 nations have ratified as of March 1, 2007. Ironically, the United States is now one of only eight countries that have yet to ratify CEDAW, alongside Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, Iran, Nauru, Palau and Tonga.
The Treaty for the Rights of Women addresses basic human rights of women and can be useful to reduce violenece against women, ensure access to education and health care, and provide legal recourse against violations of women's human rights.
1 comment:
The ratification process with these treaties is very interesting. In this case I'm left with the suspicion that "the United States was instrumental" does not mean that the government of the US, or at least the government as a whole, was instrumental in drafting the document. Was it some group internal to the US, made of concerned US citizens, that was instrumental?
This kind of thing points up a rather sharp difference of opinion between US citizens and the US government on a number of issues -- national health care, the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and civil rights abroad in general seem to be among these.
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