Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel

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.

The word "CEDAW" may not ring a bell even for committed women's rights supporters in the United States. But the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a landmark international women's rights agreement that almost every country in the world has ratified in the 30-plus years since its introduction.