UN Treaty to Move to Senate Floor for First Time in US History
WASHINGTON, DC — In a 12-7 bipartisan vote, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved US ratification of the United Nations treaty that sets a global standard for women’s rights.
"Today we are celebrating a victory for women," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority. "For the first time in 22 years, with the steadfast leadership of Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), the committee’s current chair, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the committee’s sole female member, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has moved this historic treaty to the Senate floor in time for a vote before adjournment."
On the heels of today’s victory, the full Senate will next debate US ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for the first time since it was drafted in 1979.
CEDAW http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.