wfn.org | Women's rights advocates cheer vote on treaty

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 1, 2002  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-30-71B{339}

By Kelly Martini*

NEW YORK (UMNS) -- In 1998, at the United Methodist Women's Assembly in
Orlando, almost 10,000 women wrote personal letters to Congressional leaders
asking them to ratify an international bill of rights for women.
	
On July 30, more than four years after the letter-writing campaign, the
first victory occurred for United Methodist Women and other advocates of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
	
After hearings and delays, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9
to allow the United Nations convention to go before the whole Senate for a
vote this fall.
 
Jim Winkler, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, also applauded the committee's action and noted that the
denomination had supported the treaty since its inception. "Ratification of
this vital United Nations document is long overdue, and we urge speedy
action by the full Senate," he said.

The 1979 convention requires nations to give equal rights to women for
housing, employment, politics and health care.

President Carter signed the treaty as he was leaving office in 1980, but the
Senate did not ratify it.  In 1994, President Clinton recommended that the
treaty be brought to the Senate for a full vote, but that never happened.
During the past two decades, 170 countries have ratified the document. The
United States has been the only country in the Western Hemisphere that has
refused to ratify it.
		
This year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings about the
convention. Proponents say that heightened media attention to women's issues
- oppression under Afghanistan's Taliban party, female genital mutilation,
vulnerability to AIDS in Africa - gave the treaty publicity.
	
During the June 13 Senate hearings, U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.)
publicly gave credit to United Methodist Women as she talked about the
ongoing grass-roots support for the treaty, often referred to as CEDAW.
 
"CEDAW supporters, including Church Women United and United Methodist Women,
delivered more than 10,000 individually hand-written letters to Senators
urging ratification of the treaty," she said. "That's 10,000!  Needless to
say, this has been a long battle for CEDAW supporters."
	
Besides the letter-writing campaign, United Methodist Women also has
sponsored women from around the world to go to the United Nations and
observe their nation's reporting on the implementation of the treaty. After
hearing their country's report, these grass-roots women write "shadow
reports" that may give other realities and viewpoints. Then, they develop
plans to pressure the government to continue implementing all parts of the
convention.

The work of United Methodist Women is based on a resolution from the 1988
United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top legislative
body, that urges church members to encourage their governments not only to
ratify but to implement the convention.

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*Martini is executive secretary for communications of the Women's Division
of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

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United Methodist News Service
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