For Shame: US Won’t Sign UN Women’s Bill Of Rights
September 21, 2011 1 Comment
With liberty and justice for… some.
The United States is the only developed nation that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This international bill of rights for women has been around since 1980 and acknowledges that gender equality does not yet exist. CEDAW’s agenda includes improving the legal status of women world wide, giving them more rights and making it easier for women to gain leadership roles. It has been signed by dozens of countries, but not the US.
As an American citizen I am ashamed and embarrassed. Afghanistan has ratified the treaty, but we haven’t. And yet we sent troops in a decade ago to teach them about democracy and freedom?
Almost every American political candidate has referred to the our country as “the leader of the free world.” What a joke. We can’t possible lead the free world if our own country doesn’t live up to its promises of freedom and equal rights. So, why haven’t we signed it? Do our country’s leaders refuse to recognize crimes and discrimination against women?
Maybe it has something to do with CEDAW’s protection of women’s reproductive rights. The treaty reaffirms a woman’s right to reproductive choice. That one sentence may be stopping our leaders from ratifying the treaty and helping women world wide (although they could include a reservation about that one part).
Until our country ratifies this treaty, the only thing we are leaders of is hypocrisy.
Contact the author here: jennY@morningquickie.com
America is the center of the universe so whatever “the rest of the world thinks” is irrelevant and totally unimportant. Didn’t ya’ll know this? (No ethnocentricism here!)