A Happy CEDAW Mother's Day!

This is a guest post by Students for CEDAW co-founders Lara Yeo & Alex Hayes. For more information find them on Facebook or email them at studentsforcedaw[at]gmail.com.


President Carter signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980. Today, the United States (US) remains one of seven countries – alongside Iran, Nauru, Sudan, Somalia, Palau, and Tonga – that has yet to ratify the Convention. The failure of the US to ratify a UN treaty is not unprecedented. In fact the United States has a history of not ratifying the majority of UN treaties, including the nine core human rights tools of which CEDAW is one.

Such a failure, however, is no cause for complacency. CEDAW matters. The American ratification of CEDAW has been decades in waiting and in such time the global relevance and importance of CEDAW has increased. Reports, statistics, and news articles on CEDAW abound, and the overwhelming conclusion is positive. CEDAW is the single most comprehensive human rights tool that outlines the full spectrum of women’s equal rights. It has also proved practical, translating into concrete change, be it legal, political, social, or cultural, in countries all over the world.

The US has not forgotten CEDAW, as is has proven itself pivotal in bringing about landmark change for the betterment of women and girls all over the world. CEDAW passed through the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1994 and again in 2002, both times never making it to a vote in Senate Treaty No. 96-53. November 2010, marked the first time CEDAW had a Senate hearing scheduled in eight years. The witness testimony one can read online shows resounding American support for CEDAW. President Obama, Vice-President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, and Senator Boxer, to name a few of the many CEDAW supporters in the Administration and Congress, have been public CEDAW advocates.

CEDAW matters in advancing the full recognition and protection of women’s and girls’ human rights. This has been recognized by the current Administration and select members of Congress, and so what about you?

Senator Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), has yet to schedule a SFRC hearing on CEDAW. The scheduling of a SFRC hearing would allow for CEDAW to come up for a vote in the SFRC, bringing it one step closer to ratification. We need an SFRC hearing on CEDAW now, as the longer CEDAW remains invisible without a hearing the less likely is its passage this congressional session.

What you can do as a belated Mother’s Day gift is to share CEDAW:

• SIGN THE PETITION calling for CEDAW to be ratified in the United States.
• Learn more about CEDAW at the CEDAW Taskforce website
• Don’t let this be the last time you think about CEDAW today. Read about it, talk about it, write about it, blog about it!
• If you are a student, visit “CEDAW: Students for U.S. Ratification,” on Facebook and learn about what other students are doing to raise awareness about CEDAW in their communities.

CEDAW matters and Mother’s Day is an occasion to remember that and to act on behalf of the all the women and girls in your life by calling for CEDAW ratification in the US!

Pay equity & CEDAW: How long must women wait?

FMF's Get Out Her Vote campaign encourages young feminists to vote around the issues we care about on Election Day, which is Tuesday, November 2nd. There are a number of reasons why it's important to vote in the mid-term elections, but I wanted to focus on two particularly timely issues: the gender wage gap and ratification of the UN CEDAW treaty.

Gender wage gap

Even though we have anti-discrimination laws, the gender wage gap begins immediately as young women enter the workforce and graduate from college, and it only widens over the course of their career. During her lifetime, a college-educated women will earn $1.2 million less than her male classmate will, just because she is a women. You know the stats.

So what can your feminist group do?

• Learn more. Read about the Paycheck Fairness Act currently before the US Senate, and get the latest wage gap data [PDF] from our friends at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Discuss the wage gap at group meetings, and how you can take political action on this issue.
  
• Hold a pay equity bake sale on campus to illustrate the effects of the wage gap and raise some dough (ha!) for your feminist group.
• Work with your campus career center and progressive groups on campus to organize workshops on resumes, interviewing, salary negotiation, and feminist careers. A great off-campus resource is the WAGE Project, which conducts workshops specifically for college women. The WAGE workshop I attended as a student was excellent.
  

Moving right along to...

Ratification of CEDAW

The US is one of the last countries that has not signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (full text) human rights treaty. This treaty would serve as a full commitment to women's equality under the law, which we still do not have in this country (see also: Equal Rights Amendment).

Ratifying countries commit to:

● Take concrete measures to ensure women can enjoy basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.
● Establish judicial procedures to ensure the effective protection of the rights of women.
● Take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by persons, organizations or enterprises.
● Submit national reports every four years on measures they have taken to comply with the treaty to protect and promote the rights of women in their country.

The Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton support ratification. A vote of two-thirds of the US Senate (67 votes) is required for ratification, and no action is required by the House of Representatives.

What your group can do:

• FMF is part of a broad coalition working toward CEDAW ratification in the US. Learn more at http://www.cedaw2010.org/
• Host a film screening and discussion of FMF's short DVD "CEDAW: The Secret Treaty." Email us at campusteam (at) feminist (dot) org to get your free copy, and use this CEDAW handout to facilitate the conversation.
• Ask your women's studies and international relations professors to cover CEDAW in class.

Got more ideas for spreading the word on pay equity and CEDAW? Leave a comment or email us!

And remember, vote on Election Day Tuesday, November 2nd!

This was post was featured in the September 2010 campus eZine. To join our mailing list, sign up here.

Help pass important legislation for women now!

*email message from FMF president Ellie Smeal*
We must pass important legislation now! E-mail your Senators! Help pass important legislation for women. Donate to the Feminist Majority so we can organize, organize for women's rights and lives. 


 We need your help. We are in the final weeks of the 2009-2010 Congressional Session. Key legislation for women is pending in the Senate. We must act before Congress adjourns for the elections:

• *Pass the International Violence Against Women Act.* It will be voted on tomorrow in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.* Let your senators know it's time to do all we can to reduce violence against woman. Learn more about I-VAWA here and here.

• *The Paycheck Fairness Act* - Approved by the House in 2009. Tell your senators wage discrimination against women must stop. It's long past due to strengthen the Equal Pay Act (1963) and Title VII (1964) to help women workers close the wage gap - especially in these hard economic times when a women's paycheck is more important than ever. Learn more about the Paycheck Fairness Act!

• *Ratify the United Nations Convention (Treaty) to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)*. Only 7 nations of the world have not ratified CEDAW - Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and the United States. It's a disgrace and an insult to all women that the U.S. Senate has still not ratified CEDAW. The women of the world deserve and need their rights. CEDAW promotes education of women and girls, economic opportunity, and works to reduce violence against women. Please go to the new website www.cedaw2010.org for detailed information.

Let your Senators know - reducing the needless suffering of women deserves their time and their votes now. Please help the Feminist Majority organize in these last weeks of this historic Congressional session. E-mail your Senators and donate to the Feminist Majority so we can organize for women's rights and lives. You can be sure we are on the front lines daily fighting for women and girls.

Maintaining Momentum: Shaping Global Reproductive Health Campaigns Post V-Day Events

For the month of February, many feminist groups work hard to put together V-Day events and productions of the Vagina Monologues. These are examples of cultural feminism on campus that can really bring critical issues to light and open important feminist conversations on campus about the oppression women face and the damaging implications of patriarchy. They awaken people to those realities and get them fired up.

But now it's March, and following the V-Day events, we hear from numerous student groups that they run into difficulty capitalizing on the momentum that V-Day can generate. Here at FMF, we've found that a really great way to catapult your group's activism into the stratosphere is through transforming that energy toward a campaign with political ramifications.

An example of a simple way to do this is to plan an event or initiative on campus for global women's reproductive health in the next few weeks. We've got some great campaign materials, and an upcoming webinar, that can help you! Because V-Day has a global focus and often global philanthrophy, it can be nice to follow that up with similarly themed activities to propel your group forward.

The key with this type of campaign is to refine the conversation. With something like V-Day, you've expanded your audience into the community and sparked their interest.

For organizers, the task remains to shift from a presentation of how things ARE for women at home and around the world, to a discussion of a student's role in affecting change for those very women. Armed with both renewed passion and enthusiasm AND the tools to really make a difference, your feminist group will benefit from the arrival of a crop of fantastic feminist activists.

Here's a Step by Step:

1) Select a focus for your campaign - maternal mortality, CEDAW, and International Family Planning are all good examples of some broad-reaching political campaigns that can bring some weight to what you're doing on campus.

2) Gather resources - Contact your Campus Organizer, and we can help! We also have some resources we could send your way - fact sheets, DVDs, and toolkits that could help you get started.

3) Call in backup - the cast, crew, and supporters of your V-Day events obviously care about feminism, so bring them back out! Get them involved and give them responsibilities so that they're invested in your campaign, too.

4) Design an Action Component - in addition to raising awareness, you should provide a mechanism for students to take action. Involve decisionmakers as best you can; either through call-in days to the Hill or district offices, letter writing, petitions, or visits. You could think big, too, and plan rallies and demonstrations.

5) Get press or media coverage - To add another level of pressure, place op-eds or letters to the editor, or get feminist press members to cover what you're doing in both campus and community outlets.

6) Kick off your campaign! - Ready, Set, Go! Launch on campus with a bang. Advertise and get started. At every event, be SURE to include that action component - it's what will set your events apart and make students keep coming back.

These are some of the basics, but if you have any questions, definitely get in touch with your campus organizer or email us at campusteam@feminist.org and we'd be happy to help you plan a Global Reproductive Health and Rights or similar campaign on your campus.

This article was featured in our March 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine.

Gearing up for International Women's Day

In a little over a month - on March 8 - International Women's Day will be upon us! I get excited about International Women's Day each year, because, let's face it, there are a lot of days on our calendars that celebrate old, mostly white men and their achievements. It's nice to have a few days a year where we can collectively celebrate the strides women have made and look forward to the things to come!

So, don't let this opportunity pass you by! This is a feminist campus organizer's dream! A ready-made day, right at the start of women's history month, to put something fabulous together for your campus.

The one thing I'll say is, whatever you do for International Women's Day, don't let it stop at awareness. Raising awareness is critical for movement building, but what we really like to see is awareness-raisers paired with action, so that participants can get involved right away and you won't lose their energy right at the door.

There's a lot of key things happening on the international stage for women these days, but I'll highlight a few here. If you want help developing events or action kits for your International Women's Day activities, contact your campus organizer and we'll be happy to help you put something together!

Idea #1: International Family Planning This is one of the most critical issues we face today. As Patrice quoted Secretary Clinton in last month's eZine article, "...one woman dies every minute of every day in pregnancy or childbirth, and for every woman who dies, another 20 suffer from injury, infection or disease every minute."

Despite this, the US is not doing its share to help close the gap between the need for family planning and funding for international family planning (IFP) assistance. Though the Obama administration released funding that the previous administration had previously withheld for IFP, we still fall short of meeting our share as promised in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

If you're interested, be sure to check out some of FMF's resources and campus materials. Some of our friends over at Population Action International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the Guttmacher Institute have some great materials for further background reading.

Idea #2: CEDAW The Women's Treaty, or the United Nations Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, was adopted by the UN on December 18, 1979. The United States is the only industrialized country that has not ratified the treaty. The treaty addresses basic human rights of women and has been used around the world as a tool for women and girls to achieve important reforms to reduce violence and discrimination.

If you want to put together an event about CEDAW, it couldn't be easier! FMF produced a really fun, short video, called CEDAW: The Secret Treaty. Contact your campus organizer directly or email campusteam [at] feminist [dot] org and we'll send one your way. Use the DVD to get people fired up, host a discussion afterward, and pass around legislative phone numbers, fact sheets, or petitions to get people taking action right there.

This is certainly not the limit or even a cursory glance at the possibilities for your International Women's Day activities. We encourage you to start thinking toward March 8, formulating ideas, and gathering resources. Be sure to be in touch with us if you need any help and to let us know how things are going. We'd love to help bolster your ideas and provide you with more resources you might not know about. Drop us a line or give us a call, any time.

Happy (early!) International Women's Day, everyone!

This article was featured in our February 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine.

photo courtesy of atbaker on flickr.

The Ratification of CEDAW Must Be a Priority

In case you haven’t heard, our Women, Money, and Power Summit was incredible! Keynote speakers Gloria Steinem, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Senator Amy Klobuchar, actress Amy Brenneman, and our FM President Eleanor Smeal, were just a fraction of the talented, ambitious and brilliant women in attendance. With women at the conference from over 30 different states, the amount of power, energy, and ideas floating around was overwhelming!

I found all of the workshops I attended to be quite informative, but one in particular, addressed an issue I am really passionate about: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). For those of you who are unfamiliar with CEDAW, it is the only comprehensive treaty that pledges to give women equal rights in all aspects of our lives including political, health, education, social and legal issues. (Check out our FMF page on CEDAW for more in-depth information!)

The panelists discussed the need for us to lobby not only our Senators and Congressman, but to send letters to the President and Vice President, local officials, family members, teachers, ANYONE and EVERYONE just to get the word out. Read up on CEDAW and spread the word. If the United States wants to remain a world leader, we must to ratify CEDAW. If we're gonna talk the talk, we gotta walk the walk.

Photo credit: flickr.com

New Legalized Gender Discrimination in Afghanistan

Yesterday Human Rights Watch learned that the revised Marital Rape law in Afghanistan was passed and published in the official Gazette on July 27. Although the amended legislation promised by the Afghan government no longer includes marital rape, it includes equally oppressive laws against women. Most notable, the law allows Shia men to deny wives of food if they refuse to perform thier husbands' sexual demands. Aditionally, the law states that guardianship of children belongs exclusively to fathers and grandfathers, and allows rapists to avoid prosecution if they pay "blood money" to make up for any injuries caused to thier rape victim.

Not only is does this legislation strip women of some of thier most basic human rights, it is also unconstitutional according to the Article 22 of the Afghan constitution which states that men and women have "equal rights and duties before the law". Additionally, this legislation defies the international convention CEDAW, which Afghanistan has signed to end discrimination against women. Although President Hamid Karzai promised to amend the previous marital rape law, it has been speculated by many feminist groups that the president supported this pathetic alteration in order to garner support from religious conservatives for the upcoming election on August 20.

It is completely unacceptable for women, or for any human being to be so horribly discriminated against under the law. The dignity and quality of life of the women of Afghanistan is being tossed around by male political and religious leaders more interested in power than in equality, safety, and the well being of the Afghan society as a whole. This legislation cannot be ignored by the international community, or by feminists around the world. Let President Obama know that it is important to you that he pressure the next Afghan President to repeal this legislation and guarantee the Afghan women the fundamental rights that they deserve. Call your representative today!

The Feminist Majority Foundation is committed to achieving full political, social and economic freedom and equality for the women and girls of Afghanistan, through the Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls and the Feminist Campus Afghan Women's Health Initiative.

FemNews: CEDAW

In this edition of FemNews, we're talking about CEDAW. As many of you might know, CEDAW is a UN treaty from 1979 that works to advance women and cut down on discrimination. The United States is one of 8 countries that hasn't ratified it yet. Sort of a big deal.

Newsday Tuesday: June 23 Edition

Welcome back for the hard hitting feminist news for the week of June 16 through June 23.


This week, we have officially welcomed the start of Summer (on Sunday, June 21), also known as the Summer Solstice, which is the longest day of the year. Let's find out what has been going on elsewhere in the country and around the globe.


Big news in the feminist world was the election of the new NOW president, Terry O'Neill. It was a tight race between O'Neill and opponent Latifa Lyles, who is the current NOW Membership Vice President. O'Neill will be replacing NOW president Kim Gandy, who has served in this position for the last 8 years.

Global Elections

• Egypt - The Egyptian parliament passed a law on Sunday that reserves 64 seats exclusively for women in the lower house of the legislature. This law is geared towards giving Egyptian women a voice in the Egyptian government, following the terms outlined International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which Egypt has signed.

• Iran - Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights leader, wants the recent presidential election results to be voided and to have a new vote be held. Ebadi is also calling for the release of people who were arrested for challenging to the election results and to end violence against other protesters of the past election.

US Politics

• The Washington, DC Board of Elections and Ethics rejected a proposed referendum that would have allowed voters to decide whether the District will recognize same-sex marriages performed out-of-state.

• On Wednesday, President Obama signed a presidential memorandum expanding benefits to same-sex partners of federal workers. This would allow civil service employees to take leave to tend to sick partners, add them to a long-term care program, and including the partners of Foreign Service workers in housing assignments and medical evaluations. However, the memorandum has come under some scrutiny for being limited in the benefits that it guarantees.

• Also on Wednesday, The House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee for State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved the single largest increase ever in funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs. The subcommittee approved $648 million for these programs. This marks a 40 percent increase in funding over the past two years. The funding includes $588 million for USAID programs and a $60 million contribution to the UN Population Fund.

Global Violence Against Women

• South Africa - According to a survey by the Medical Research Foundation (MRC), one in four men in South Africa have admitted to committing rape. There were 1,738 respondents to the survey and almost half claim that they have assaulted more than one individual. The study also found that men who commit violence against women are less likely to use condoms and are twice as likely to be HIV-positive.

• China - A court in the Hubei Province of China ruled this week against penalizing 21-year-old Deng Yujiao, a waitress who fatally stabbed a Communist Party official who was attempting to rape her. Her release was based on the fact that Deng acted in self-defense, surrendered to police, and had limited criminal responsibility due to manic depression.

• Peru - A 16-year-old Peruvian rape survivor filed a petition with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) against Peru Thursday. The petition alleges that the failure of the Peruvian government to adequately enforce existing laws on abortion led to the anonymous survivor's paralysis.

Enjoy the start to your summer everyone! Time to grab that sunscreen and your favorite book and head outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. Not sure what to read? The Feminist Campus website has a great list of some fabulous summer reading.

Pandemic, Shmandemic--What about THE Epidemic?

It's very interesting how the H1N1 virus has received so much media attention over the past several weeks. Heads of states and our most prominent global health watchdog, the World Health Organization, have done countless interviews and released statements recognizing this virus as a pandemic. Among numerous epidemics--i.e. hunger, poverty, corruption, AIDS, etc.--the media seems to capitalize on what seems to be a convenient story at the present time.

Well, I'd like to take a moment to highlight an epidemic that has been a part of the human race since the very existence of war, power, and control--sexual violence. In a recent article in the UK's The Guardian, a survey recently conducted by the Medical Research Council in South Africa found that a quarter of men have admitted to committing rape. An overwhelming majority of those who admitted to committing this sexual offense have also claimed that they carried out these assaults before the age of 20. Think that's pretty frightening? Well let's not forget the many women who have fallen victim to "corrective rape" in the country because of their sexual orientation.

But that's just in one part of the world. In Tokyo, women commuting by train are demanding for women-only carriages to avoid unwanted groping. Approximately 2000 arrests were made in 2007 for cases of groping.

Then of course in the U.S., the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday, June 10th to discuss the continued importance of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Among the panelists, Actress, Gabrielle Union, and Acting Director of Office on Violence Against Women in the DOJ and others gave testimonies that highlighted issues of police response, funding for preventive programming, and shared victim/survival stories. Union offered her personal experience as a rape survivor, and strongly advocated for more funding for better preventive measures.

We know the alarming stat's and we've heard too many stories, so what can we do to make a global impact on this epidemic? Well for starters, call your local representative and urge them to get the U.S. on board by ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In doing so, the U.S. will be legally bound to practice the provisions of the treaty. Because our country is still supposedly and arguably a super powerhouse of the global community, we can offer some legitimacy to the Convention by which the entire world would may seek to take on this issue more vigorously.

Let's demand more aggressive attention toward one of our gravest wars yet unmet--violence against women!

Coercive Sterilization is NOT OK!

Women across the globe face a number of obstacles to having control over their own bodies, including coercive sterilization. Believe it or not, women are still being sterilized without their knowledge or consent, which seems pretty archaic.

Women are asked to sign forms, often after giving birth, that are not explained to them. Coercive sterilization is an outrageous violation of women's rights to make decisions and to have control over their bodies. Not to mention there are health risks involved. No one, other than the woman herself, has the right to make the important decision about sterilization. And, getting a woman to sign her consent after giving birth, which I can only assume is absolutely exhausting, without any explantion, does not cut it.

RH Reality Check posted a story today about a Romani woman who was coercively sterilized in 2001 and had her case reffered to CEDAW, who found that her sterilization was a violation of her human rights! Finally, after all these years, the Hungarian government is going to compensate her and decided to amend their Public Health Act to make sure that women recieve appropriate information so that they can actually give informed consent. Score one for CEDAW and women everywhere!

NYWLC '09 Poem

Written during FMF's 2009 National Young Women's Leadership Conference by Eleanore Wieland, of Portland Community College:

CEDAW

Women, stand together.
Stand up for each other.
Fight.
Love.
Win.

I am a poor woman,
A queer woman,
A disabled woman,
A student.

My sisters are women of color
Mothers, daughters, grandmothers
All over the world

The struggle, the oppression
of ONE woman
hurts ALL women.
It hurts me.

Women, stand together.
Invest yourselves in each other's success.
Lead, follow, love.

Women are the beating heart of this world.
When women win, the world wins.

---

Eleanore, thanks for sharing your poem with us. I know we and a lot of the other feminists in the room really enjoyed it.

If anyone else has feminist artwork or prose they want to share with us, hit us up at campusteam@feminist.org. Good night and good luck!

NYWLC's Day Two’s Opening Plenary, Feminism Without Borders, Just Wrapped

Day two’s opening plenary, Feminism Without Borders, here at the National Young Women’s Leadership Conference has just wrapped. With increased economic globalization there is an increasing need for women worldwide to come together to fight for the rights of all our sisters.

The plenary speakers did a wonderful job of explaining the historical context of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty aims to give women equal legal standing according to the laws of each nation, and the current situation of Afghan women and girls with the first hand accounts of courageous Afghan activists of various ages.

Did you know? Even though Americans helped to author CEDAW, they are among a handful of nations worldwide including Sudan, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia that have not ratified the treaty. We need to push now for the Senate to ratify this treaty!

We were also shocked to learn that 1 in 6 women in Afghanistan die during childbirth compared to 1 in 2,500 in the US. Afghan women have had acid thrown in their faces while trying to go to school and dozens of schools have been destroyed to prevent women and girls from attending, all while about 85% of the country’s women can not read or write.

The daily atrocities faced by women both domestically and internationally cannot be addressed unless women step up and speak out for themselves. Plenary speaker Mavis Leno summed it up very well by saying, “If women don’t speak up for women, no one speaks up for women. It’s us or no one!”

We will be continuing to blog from the conference and tweeting. Make sure to follow us on the conference twitter widget; we will be using the hash tag #nywlc for all conference-related tweets.