Maternal Mortality Hijacked by Abortion Advocates
An inaugural conference on “Global Health, Gender and Human Rights” was recently held at American University Washington Center for Law (WCL) and co-sponsored by PAHO/WHO and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala, which promoted the use of international human rights treaties as tools to “improve health policies” including advancing legalized abortion under the guise of reducing [...]
US Ratification of CEDAW Focus at World Bank Event
To commemorate International Women’s Day the World Bank in collaboration with the Nordic Trust Fund, the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the UN Foundation, hosted an event on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and women’s rights to focus on the success of CEDAW in advancing gender equality in [...]
From Russia with Love: 126 non-governmental Organisations in Russia and Ukraine condemn UN attempts to manufacure false “human rights”
On 24 November 2011, representatives from 126 non-governmental organisations in Russia and Ukraine have adopted an impressive statement called the Saint-Petersburg-Resolution, calling the UN and its various organisations to order. The Resolution, which in unconpromising language condemns the “anti-family tendencies prevailing in the UN and various of its committees”, is built on the model of [...]
No…Ratifying CEDAW is not about unisex bathrooms and ending Mothers’ Day
I just read an op-ed by Linda Tarr-Whelan, calling for the U.S. to ratify CEDAW. Whelan is a former U.S. ambassador to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women during the Clinton administration. Whelan used a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, who said America must be “the best possible mirror of democracy” since “the people of [...]
CRR Donation Solicitation Falsely Claims UN Decision “Requires” Peru to Liberalize Abortion
In a fundraising appeal email to their subscribers the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) falsely claimed that a recent decision by the CEDAW committee “requires” Peru to change their abortion laws. CRR brought this case to the UN committee on behalf of a teenage girl, claiming she is now a quadriplegic due to doctors refusing [...]
Arabs spring for U.S. support of CEDAW?
Campaigners for CEDAW ratification in the U.S. are using Arab Spring inspired rhetoric to secure new support for their initiative. They claim that US ratification of CEDAW would not only provide meaningful support to women’s rights activists living under these newly formed governments but that it would also encourage governments to implement and institutionalize the [...]
The 50th Session of the CEDAW Committee is Concluded
The 50th Session of the CEDAW Committee conluded last week in Geneva. The Committee issued its Final Observations to Chad, Côte d’ Ivoire, Kuwait, Lesotho, Mauritius, Montenegro, Oman, Paraguay. The obligations the Committee has been imposing on the countries reporting to CEDAW during the 50th session include: access to abortion and mandatory sexual education at [...]
CEDAW Pushes Radical Abortion Agenda on Costa Rica
The CEDAW Committee Continues to Misrepresent the Convention on Discrimination Against Women and continues to impose its reproductive rights agenda on signatories.
Columbus Day Shenanigans at the UN
CEDAW Committee Remains Silent on Sex Selection
The CEDAW Committee finished its 49th meeting last week in New York, issuing recommendations to the states parties that are unsurprising to observers: advocating for increased access to legal abortion, contraceptives, fertility treatments, in vitro fertilization, and comprehensive sexuality education for girls and boys (both in and out of school). Also unsurprising is the Committee’s [...]
Provenance of a treaty and its archaic ideas
Here is Christina Sommer’s new article in Policy Review about the fight over CEDAW ratification in the US. Sommers gets to the heart of the debate about treaties: once ratified, who decides how it is interpreted? A corollary: what power if any do reservations really have? Sommers rightly notes that this is one of the [...]
Making the Connection: UNICEF and UNFPA
What brings UNICEF and UNFPA together? Providing sexual and reproductive health services- especially to adolescent girls. UNICEF and UNFPA sponsored an event last week during the Commission on the Status of Women, entitled “Women or Children: Whose Rights Come First?” The panelists explored the strong existing ties between UNICEF and UNFPA, and called for the [...]