Women's History Month 2004:
Treaties, Voting Rights and Activism

U.S. Joins Afghanistan in Refusing to Ratify
"Treaty for the Rights of Women"

Women, Voting and Rights Today

The Deltas Descend on Capitol Hill to Fight for Social Justice

Talk about women, democracy, and social justice! Click here.

U.S. Joins Afghanistan in Refusing to
Ratify "Treaty for the Rights of Women"

By Vonda L. Marshall
SeeingBlack.com Contributing Writer

For more than twenty years, the United States has failed to ratify one of the most important treaties to ever to come before the United Nations General Assembly—the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, also known as the "Treaty for the Rights of Women." As of January 5, 2004, 175 countries had ratified or acceded to this treaty, unfortunately the United States is not one of them. The United States joins the company of Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Somalia; every other industrialized country has ratified this treaty.

The Treaty for the Rights of Women is the most comprehensive international agreement on the basic human rights of women. It was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 18,1979, and is an important tool for all those who seek to end abuses of women and girls. The call for the treaty emerged from the First World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975. Until 1979, when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the treaty, there was no document that comprehensively addressed women's basic human rights within political, cultural, economic, social, and family context. "This 'Women's Bill of Rights' stands as a milestone, " said Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the U.N. "It reflects the principle of universal and indivisible rights shared by all nations, foreign to no culture and common to both genders."

According to Zainab Salbi, founder and president of Women for Women International, a nonprofit organization that provides economic assistance and training to women in war-torn countries, "Since the convention, hundreds of laws have been put in place to protect and promote the human rights of women worldwide." Because of the treaty, millions of girls are now receiving primary education who were previously denied access; measures have been taken against sex slavery, domestic violence and trafficking of women; women's health care services have improved, saving lives during pregnancy and childbirth, and millions of women have secured loans or the right to own or inherit property.

The treaty commits ratifying nations to overcoming barriers to discrimination against women in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, health care, politics and finance. Like all human rights treaties, this one sets benchmarks within traditional enforcement mechanisms that respect sovereignty and democracy. Despite its successes, women and girls still disproportionately suffer from discrimination, lack of education, violence, and physical and mental abuse. For example, in 2003:

• at least 4 million women and girls were sold into sexual slavery each year;
• two-thirds of the world's 875 million illiterate adults were women;
• 510,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related complications;
• women are four times more vulnerable than men and 1.3 million die each year as a result of HIV/AIDS;
• an estimated 25 to 30 percent of all women experience domestic violence; and
• 130 million women were victims of female genital mutilation.

Ratification of the treaty does not require any change in U.S. law and would be a powerful statement of America's continuing commitment to ending discrimination against women worldwide. "Although US law is already in compliance with most provisions of the [treaty], ratification by the US would bolster advocacy for the human rights of women [and] if the U.S. were a party to the treaty, it would be a stronger platform to hold repressive governments accountable," asserts Zalbi. Under the terms of the treaty, the U.S. would submit regular reports to an advisory committee, which would provide an important opportunity to spotlight our best practices and assess where we can do better.

Currently, the treaty remains pending in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In order to be ratified, the committee must vote to send the treaty to the full Senate for a vote. The committee last considered ratification of the treaty on July 30, 2002 when it was voted favorably out of committee by a vote of 12 to 7. Unfortunately, the Senate adjourned before the matter was brought up for a vote by the Senate. Consequently, the treaty was sent back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for reconsideration. No further action has been taken in the Senate. On January 1, 2003, Representative Lynn Woolsey (CA) introduced House Resolution 21. The Resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: (1) the full realization of the rights of women is vital to the development and well-being of people of all nations; and (2) that the Senate should give its advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty. House resolutions do not have the force of law but are used as tools to influence important matters pending before the Congress. House Resolution 21 has 102 co-sponsors.

The current Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Richard Lugar (Republican-Indiana), has indicated he is waiting for the Bush Administration to complete a review of the treaty. However, Lugar voted against the treaty when it was considered in 2002, even though the State Department notified the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the treaty was "generally desirable and should be ratified." Nevertheless, the Bush administration has not yet taken a formal position on the treaty.

A coalition of 190 U.S. religious, civic, and community organizations have endorsed U.S. ratification of the treaty. They include the AARP, American Nurses Association, National Education Association, National Coalition of Catholic Nuns, American Bar Association, Black Women's Agenda, Black Women United for Action, B'nai B'rith International, Center for Reproductive Rights, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Arab Women's Council, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the National Association of Women Lawyers, Sigma Delta Epsilon, the League of Women Voters of the United States, The United Methodist Church, the YWCA, and Amnesty International.

In July 2002, the following senators voted against sending the treaty to the full Senate for a vote: Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senator George Allen (R-VA), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). We urge our readers to contact your senators and urge them to ratify it. The Administration's failure to act harms this country's self-image as the so-called progenitor of basic human rights for all people and calls into question its commitment to the advancement of equal rights of women. "In the course of the 20th century, we have made great strides in defining universal norms of gender equality," said Kofi Annan. "As we enter 21st century, it is time to implement those norms."

It is also time for the U.S. to implement those norms here at home.

ACTION: For more information on CEDAW, log on to http://www.womenstreaty.org. For information on how to contact your senate representative, log on to http://www.senate.gov.

Women, Voting and Rights Today
By Sonia Ivette Dueño

American women are just 16 years shy from celebrating the 100th anniversary of obtaining the right to vote. Yet today, only eight women currently serve as governors, nine if you add the first female governor in Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States. Women comprise 14 out of the 100 members in the US Senate and only 48 of the 435 members in the House of Representatives. According to the Center for Women and Politics, only 29 women have held cabinet or cabinet–level positions in the history of the United States. Of these, only three were women of color and none were Native American.

For women of color, there is cause for alarm. While both the African American and Latino community combined represent the majority of the population in the US, none of the female governors are of color, as are none of the female members in the US Senate. Needles to say, there are no Native American women representatives in the US House or Senate.

According to various studies, women's participation in general elections has seen an increase, particularly since the 1996 Presidential race and a national push at that time for women to be elected to public office. The women's vote pushed President Bill Clinton into the White House, but his payback was to implement drastic welfare reforms that impacted women of color and poor white women disproportionately. In another initiative, he reinforced the second class citizenship of the homosexual community when he signed the Defense of Marriage Act.

This current administration under President Bush has overseen even further draconian cuts to areas such childcare, rollbacks of worker rights and decreases in healthcare services to not only our seniors but also to our brothers and sisters in the military. Welfare reforms currently in the Senate seek to increase the work hours of welfare recipients, allowing for less time to study and improve their marketable skills.

Newly approved reforms to Medicare will have our seniors, especially elderly women, paying more out of pocket. Restrictions on reproductive health, both nationally and globally, will only guarantee a permanent underclass worldwide. The never-satisfied appetite for global reach and hegemony has led to the consideration of reinstatement of the draft. With the economic downturn, more people of color are lining up to enlist, seeing in the military an opportunity for economic stability. Presently, there are over two million women veterans. Women make up 10% of the National Guard and 14% of the armed forces but for those who are state employees, their jobs and those of their male counterparts are not guaranteed when they return home from active duty.

But there is hope on the horizon.
The living wage movement is gaining steam nationwide as over 100 cities, municipalities and villages have passed legislation in support of this effort. The introduction of the new Civil Rights Act of 2004, includes among others, enhanced safeguards against age, race, sex, national origin, color and disability discrimination.

On the one hand, the de facto Democratic candidate for President, John Kerry, promises to place women of all colors and backgrounds in positions of authority if elected. The possibility of a female running mate has raised the issue of the importance of women's vote. Yet the women he is appealing to are middle class woman, reinforcing and continuing the class division in this country. On the other hand, the only female candidate in the Democratic race, Carol Mosely Braun, the first Black woman and the only woman of color to have served in the US Senate, dropped out for lack of general and financial support, despite the endorsement of two of the largest women's organizations, NOW and National Women's Political Caucus.

National, state and local organizations are organizing non-partisan voter education initiatives targeting various segments of society inclusive of the religious community. Latino initiatives, such as the Southwest Voter Project and the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration have targeted the burgeoning Latino community to harness their vote. The NAACP has done the same with the Black community. Yet a large gap existed in the last Presidential election and may remain untapped in this election: the vote of the single woman. According to a study released in December 2003, single women are the largest nonvoting group and also one of the most dissatisfied with the country's direction.

The Deltas Descend on Capitol Hill
To Fight for Social Justice
By Vonda L. Marshall

When more than 700 members of Delta Sigma Theta gathered in the nation's capital last month, getting out the vote was high on their agenda. One theme of the gathering was, "You Can't Afford to Ignore Election 2004: Vote!"

Dr. Ramona Edelin, Co-Chair of the Sorority's National Social Action Commission, told conference participants that, "we have to vote like the whole world depends on it because it does." Delta Sigma Theta, along with other civic, religious and fraternal organizations, has partnered with the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation to register and mobilize new voters through its "Unity '04 Voter Empowerment Campaign" which is being led by Mark Morial, President of the National Urban League. This campaign was established in response to the voting irregularities that occurred throughout the nation in the 2000 elections.

The National Coalition has a web site, www.unity04.net, where the public can access information and literature on voting, and has implemented a toll-free voter registration hotline, 1-866-OurVote (1-866-687-8683), where problems with voting facilities on election day can be reported, and individuals can obtain information on the voting precincts in their local areas.

Although voter reform legislation was passed as a result of the election debacle in Florida during the 2000 election, funding has yet to reach all states that need to upgrade, replace and/or standardize their voting apparatus and machinery. Voting irregularities still exist in many states due to disparities in polling equipment, and allegations of voter and election fraud continue to persist.

Greg T. Moore, Executive Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, told conference participants that during the California recall election (which resulted in the installation of Arnold Schwarzenegger as that state's governor), 378,000 votes were "wiped out" because of faulty voting machines. He stated that communities of color continued to face difficulty in exercising their right to vote due to substandard voting machines and inaccessible poll locations.

This was the Delta's 15th annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C. "Delta Days in the Nation's Capital" is an annual event which brings together members of Delta Sigma Theta from all over the country to attend workshops and training on effective lobbying and advocacy, voter mobilization and education.

Conference participants also attend briefings by members of Congress and civil rights and civic organizations on pending legislation, and on the final day of the conference, spend time lobbying on Capitol Hill on matters of national and local concern to the African-American community. More than 700 Deltas attended the conference representing 200 congressional districts located in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

This year, 34 Senate seats are up for re-election and Democrats hold 19 of these seats. Currently, there are 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 1 Independent in the Senate. We cannot afford to lose any Democratic member of the Senate.

The conference also focused on several pieces of legislation, including The Leave No Child Behind Act, The U.S. Patriot Act, The Help America Vote Act, and the Healthcare Portability Act. In addition, they were informed about "Fairness: The Civil Rights Act of 2004" introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy and Congressmen John Lewis, John Conyers and George Miller, on February 11, 2004, and co-sponsored by 65 members of Congress. This legislation was drafted in response to several Supreme Court decisions which severely limit access to the court system by victims of employment and age discrimination, and provides for the enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act which protects an employee's right to minimum wage and overtime pay.

Federal judicial appointments continue to be of serious concern to our community. Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, told the audience that "interests that involve the courts are civil rights issues," and noted that the Bush Administration continues to nominate conservative right-wing individuals as judges for the nation's highest federal courts.

These are lifetime appointments that will affect the interpretation and application of civil rights, anti-discrimination, and criminal justice laws. On February 20, 2004, while Congress was in a weeklong recess, President Bush appointed William J. Pryor, Jr., Attorney General for the State of Alabama, to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prior to this appointment, Senate Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee successfully blocked sending Pryor's nomination to the full Senate for a vote because of his ultra-conservative and anti-civil rights record. Pryor has been one of the leading proponents of reviving states' rights at the expense of federal civil rights protections.

During his tenure as Attorney General, Pryor urged Congress to consider eliminating a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, which protects the right to vote for African-Americans and other racial minorities. While testifying before a Congressional Committee in July 1997, Pryor urged the Committee to "consider seriously…the repeal or amendment of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," which he labeled "an affront to federalism and an expensive burden that has far outlived its usefulness."

Another Bush nominee, California Supreme Court Judge Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American, also holds views contrary to the interests of communities of color. In several dissenting opinions (which means that the majority of the court disagreed with her opinion), she has argued that the First Amendment protects the use of racial slurs in the workplace even when it becomes illegal race discrimination, and has suggested that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination, violates the First Amendment.

Brown has also expressed a desire to limit legal recourse for victims of disability discrimination and has issued decisions demonstrating hostility toward affirmative action and has expressly stated that affirmative action is at odds with Title VII. Her dissenting opinions also demonstrate hostility towards criminal defendants. Brown is being considered for appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The D.C. Circuit is widely regarded as the second most important court in the United States, after the U.S. Supreme Court.

Henderson urged conference participants to continue letter writing and email campaigns to their senate representatives opposing the nomination and confirmation of right-wing conservative individuals such as Pryor and Brown.

Sonia Ivette Dueño is Coordinator of the Washington Office on Vieques/Racial and Economic Justice. Fellowship of Reconciliation-Peace, Justice and Nonviolence.

Vonda L. Marshall is a labor attorney based in New York City.

-- March 15, 2004

© Copyright 2001-05 Seeing Black, Inc. All Rights Reserved.