Fwd: [CEDAW Taskforce] Update on CEDAW
Beth Dehghan
Dear Friends,
CEDAW is back in the news. The headline in The Huffington Post on 9-21 was “Hillary Clinton Promotes Women’s Rights Treaty that U.S. Has Not Yet Joined.” Secretary Clinton, along with other female world leaders, participated at an event on women’s political participation at the United Nations just prior to the convening of the General Assembly.
The Joint Statement on Advancing Women’s Political Participation was signed by Secretary Clinton and mentioned by President Obama in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly.
The Joint Statement reads in part:
“We call upon all States to ratify and fulfill their obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and to implement fully Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security and other relevant UN resolutions.”
We ask that you send Secretary Clinton a Thank You Note for the Obama Administration’s support for U.S. ratification of CEDAW.
In other news, the Pacific Island of Nauru ratified CEDAW, leaving the United States now one of only 6 countries that have not ratified the women’s rights treaty. This past week, the Pacific Island of Palau signed CEDAW and we expect they will ratify the Treaty shortly.
And for those of you who live in Washington, DC, take a walk past the World Bank building to see it draped in banners on gender equality. The Bank has issued a new report which is the basis of a Politico Op-ed by President Robert Zoellick titled “Empowering Women Powers Nations.”
Thank you all for your good work and continued efforts to achieve U.S. ratification of CEDAW.
June
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June Zeitlin
Director, CEDAW Education Project
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The Leadership Conference Education Fund
1629 K Street, NW, 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006
202-263-2852 - Phone