Working on social media at a women's rights, legal rights organization this past semester, a week or two of my twitter-life were filled with the Senate judiciary subcommittee on human rights and law hearing regarding the ratification of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. Women's rights organizations all over the internet started campaigning like, implementing action campaigns to call senators, writing strongly worded blog posts, and live tweeting the hearing. On the other side, right wing and religious organizations implemented their own action campaigns, fearing the ratification of CEDAW would threaten homeschooling, stay at home mothers, and mandate abortion access. Despite the amount of activity within the blogisphere and on Twitter, interestingly enough, very little, to almost no, attention was paid to the topic. True, the hearing was small with more women's rights supporters attending then congressional members, and the hearing itself lack the ability to take any further action on ratifying CEDAW, but the treaty still carries a great deal of importance, both for the for and against sides.
The Lincoln Tribune published a short article going through the basics of the treaty. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the treaty, a year after the United Nations passed it, however CEDAW never even made it to a vote in the Senate where it would require 67 votes to pass. This times around, Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin brought the bill up in the committee he chairs stating, "Throughout history, we have tried to be a leader in the world to advance human rights. But many times we have lost our credibility when other countries have challenged us." This argument, that the passage of CEDAW would be instrumental for the legitimacy of United States action abroad, especially in the Middle East, has been used in addition to the arguments regarding the importance of women's rights I'm sure people have heard over and over again by now. One of the testimonies brought in pointedly addressed this subject, with Wazhma Frogh from the Afghan's Women's Network testifying that the lack of United States ratification is a frequent argument made by conservatives within Afghanistan for why advancements on women's rights are not of significant importance. Furthering this point, the only other countries in the world still to have not ratified CEDAW are Iran, Sudan, Somalia, and a few pacific island countries. Great company we're keeping right?
CEDAW certainly has the backing of the powerful such as Sandra Day O'Connor, President Obama, and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer. As technorati.com reported in an article on the matter, O'Connor wrote an open letter to the Senate including, "Ratification of CEDAW would enhance the authority of the United States to advocate on behalf of women's rights in countries, including both CEDAW parties and non-parties, that do not respect women's rights to the same extent that the United States does." In today's political climate, with tea partyers and citizens fretting about terrorism and national security, effective arguments must be framed in the context of national security to may any leeway, especially if they include unpopular aspects.
Personally, the ratification of CEDAW seems like it should be a no brainer. But obviously many people just don't see eye to eye with me. Homeschoolers apparently believe CEDAW will allow more governmental control over schooling, whether it be at home, public, or private, on the pretense of gender bias. Concerned Women for America remain convinced CEDAW will be the demise of Mother's Day. Following America's aversion to participation within the international community, CEDAW would also subject America's laws to review by the UN, an obviously intolerable event, forget the fact that in reality this committee could do little to actually coerce the United States to change policies. However, opponents of CEDAW have indeed hit on one fear that may actually materialize were CEDAW to be ratified. In some instances, the treaty has been used to increase access to abortion services under the guarantee of non-discriminatory medical care. CEDAW's prospects for passing, especially during the lame duck session are slim to none, but hopefully we'll one day see the sense the rest of the world does.
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