House Bill Would Strip U.S. Funding for Women's Global Rights

Today, a House Committee will consider a bill that seeks to eliminate U.S. funding to the U.N. committee tasked with improving the status of women around the world — an unprecedented move. The Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a landmark international agreement ratified by every country in the world except the U.S., Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and two small Pacific islands, affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. The CEDAW Committee assists countries in implementing these principles, by recommending nonbinding best practices to ratifying countries. Countries have often undertaken important reforms based on the CEDAW Committee urging that they live up to their CEDAW commitments. For example, women in Kuwait won the right to vote for the first time in 2005 immediately after the CEDAW Committee brought international attention to Kuwaiti women's disenfranchisement. In 2007, Nepal responded to recommendations from the CEDAW Committee to take steps to address trafficking of women and girls by enacting strong new laws, in line with CEDAW's provisions. That same year, Sierra Leone passed a Domestic Violence Act committing to protect women from violence, within a month of the CEDAW Committee's recommendation to place the highest priority on enactment of such a law.

It is already an embarrassment that United States is one of only six countries in the world that has not ratified CEDAW. This bill (the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011) would go further, seeking to place roadblocks in the path of CEDAW implementation for the rest of the world, and would send a disturbing message about our lack of support for the struggles of women and girls around the globe. International implementation of CEDAW protects women from violent practices such as genital mutilation and honor killings, advances women's health, ensures that girls can receive the same education as their brothers, and promotes women's basic human rights. Why exactly would we want to stand in the way of that?

The House Foreign Affairs Committee should reject this bill. Moreover, the Senate should ratify CEDAW without delay, strengthening the United States as a leader standing up for women and girls around the world.