Treaty on the Rights of Women

The United States is one of the only seven countries in the world that has failed to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a landmark international agreement for human rights and women's equality. Women abroad and at home deserve action on CEDAW today.

Highlights

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Promotes Women's Health

October 27, 2010

CEDAW seeks to end discrimination against women in health care, and to ensure that prenatal and obstetrical care is made available to all women who need it. Through these broad provisions, CEDAW seeks to improve women’s health throughout their life spans, from birth to old age.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Supports Families

October 27, 2010

CEDAW recognizes the status and importance of mothers and provides that motherhood should be honored, not diminished or disparaged or discriminated against. CEDAW adresses the realities most women face in balancing work and family, protects mothers be seeking to eradicate family violence, and promotes mothers' health.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Supports Education for Women and Girls

October 26, 2010

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women, and two-thirds of its unschooled children are girls. CEDAW seeks to end discrimination against women and girls in education by promoting equal educational opportunity, helping girls stay in school, and encouraging broad access to educational programs in which girls and women are often underrepresented.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | Support CEDAW for Women and Girls

August 24, 2010

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women is a landmark international agreement that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. To date, 186 of 193 countries have ratified CEDAW. The United States is one of only seven countries—including Iran, Sudan, Somalia, and three small Pacific island countries (Nauru, Palau and Tonga)—that have not yet ratified CEDAW.

 Read more...

More Resources

Legal Briefs & Testimony | Testimony of Coalition before Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for a Hearing on Women and the Arab Spring: Spotlight on Egypt, Tunisia and Libya

November 02, 2011

Testimony for a hearing on "Women and the Arab Spring: Spotlight on Egypt, Tunisia and Libya" before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues and The Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Central Asian Affairs. The hearing shines a spotlight on the importance of ensuring women’s rights as these new democracies begin to take shape and urge that the committee consider the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in supporting these efforts.

 Read more...

Legal Briefs & Testimony | Testimony of Marcia D. Greenberger before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Ratification of CEDAW

November 18, 2010

CEDAW affirms principles of human rights and equality for women, principles that embody American law and values.  It calls upon ratifying nations to take “all appropriate measures,” as determined by each country for itself, to end discrimination against women and girls.  CEDAW stands for the fundamental proposition that women’s rights are human rights.  It is long overdue for the United States to ratify CEDAW, bringing its leadership and vision to this crucial effort to secure equality and justice for women and girls around the world.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Promotes Women's Health

October 27, 2010

CEDAW seeks to end discrimination against women in health care, and to ensure that prenatal and obstetrical care is made available to all women who need it. Through these broad provisions, CEDAW seeks to improve women’s health throughout their life spans, from birth to old age.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Supports Families

October 27, 2010

CEDAW recognizes the status and importance of mothers and provides that motherhood should be honored, not diminished or disparaged or discriminated against. CEDAW adresses the realities most women face in balancing work and family, protects mothers be seeking to eradicate family violence, and promotes mothers' health.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | CEDAW Seeks to End Violence Against Women and Trafficking

October 27, 2010

CEDAW’s focus on ending discrimination against women includes a focus on ending gender-based violence such as family violence and abuse, forced marriage, dowry deaths, acid attacks, female genital mutilation, and compulsory abortion and sterilization. The CEDAW Committee has observed, “Family violence is one of the most insidious forms of violence against women” and “put[s] women's health at risk and impair[s] their ability to participate in family life and public life on a basis of equality.”

 Read more...