US Ratification of CEDAW Focus at World Bank Event

By Lisa Correnti | March 7, 2012

To commemorate International Women’s Day the World Bank in collaboration with the Nordic Trust Fund, the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the UN Foundation, hosted an event on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and women’s rights to focus on the success of CEDAW in advancing gender equality in developing countries and to encourage support for the ratification of CEDAW by the U.S.

In her opening remarks Cathy Calvin, CEO of the United Nations Foundation, questioned why the United States had not ratified CEDAW some 30 years after its adoption by the UN. “It’s not just ironic, it’s shameful,” said Calvin.

Melanne Verveer, ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s issues also said that U.S. ratification was long overdue and she reiterated the Obama administration support of ratification but conceded that support in the senate has not been there.

Throughout the event CEDAW was credited with improving the lives of women and girls in developing countries by eliminating discrimination and achieving gender equality allowing women greater access to education, healthcare, and economic, civic and political freedom.

CEDAW however goes beyond basic human rights with an extensive reproductive rights agenda, including access to abortion in countries where it is restricted. And, while this objective is integral, it will never be discussed in a forthright manner.

It is well known in the pro-life community that CEDAW is an instrument used by radical feminists to legalize abortion across the globe. The CEDAW “compliance committee” which carries no legal authority has told over 90 countries that they must “legalize abortion or further liberalize their abortion laws. We have already seen abortion laws change in Columbia due to their ratification of CEDAW when their high court “struck down their laws against abortion based on CEDAW.”

If the U.S. ratified CEDAW we would become legally bound to its provisions. CEDAW would limit women’s freedom and subject them to the oversight of a U.N. committee, thereby infringing on the liberty guaranteed to us in our Constitution.

If achieving basic human rights for marginalized women and girls was the central premise of these groups they would make CEDAW abortion neutral. We know this will never happen. For the mindset of these ideologues is that the fewer children women have the happier they will be.

To read more on the dangers of CEDAW please refer to a C-FAM staff publication prepared by our own Susan Yoshihara. Dr. Yoshihara is C-FAM’s Senior Vice President for Research.

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