wfn.org | Congressional women, UMW urge ratification of U.N. treaty

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 14, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-71BP{526}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Several female members of the U.S. House of
Representatives have joined in urging senators to ratify a United
Nations resolution on the rights of women.

Their support was announced at a Sept. 10 press conference called by
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.). Afterward, members of United Methodist
Women (UMW) and the Women's Division staff of the Board of Global
Ministries delivered 10,000 letters of support for the treaty to
senators. The letters, written at the UMW Assembly in May, were sorted
and given to the individual senators representing each writer.

Speakers repeatedly noted that the treaty, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, was passed by
the U.N. General Assembly almost 20 years ago. Subsequently, all the
Western democracies except the United States have agreed to it.

Woolsey declared that 162 nations have ratified the document, but the
"one glaring exception is the oldest democracy in the world." She
attributed that holdup to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and the Foreign
Relations Committee of the Senate, which he chairs. His committee has
refused to allow the matter to go to the floor for a vote. Woolsey has
more than 60 cosponsors for a House resolution asking the Senate to vote
on ratification.

"This inaction sends a message to women in our own nation and all over
the world," Woolsey said. "Failure to ratify it is an insult to all
women."

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) observed that the economic future of so many
countries of the world depends on women. "For the United States, which
cares so much about its economic security, to not recognize this is
wrong," she said.

"Violence and discrimination against women ... hold back whole
societies," said Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.).

Rights for women is an issue for everyone, said Rep. Connie Morella
(R-Md.). "Ratification is long overdue." She urged that letters to the
editor be sent to local newspapers throughout the country.

"How can we claim to be a leader in women's rights if we don't ratify
this treaty?" asked Anna Rhee, director of the Washington Office of the
Women's Division. The convention addresses the rights of women socially,
politically, economically, culturally and in family life, she said. It
specifically requires countries to guarantee voting and legal rights for
women. 

"As United Methodist Women, rights of women around the world is part of
our mission," Rhee declared.

The current constitutional debate regarding impeachment makes
ratification of the U.N. treaty, with its promise of rights for all
people, especially timely, said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.). Such rights
are what the U.S. constitution is all about, she said.

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