Posted on 09/12/2002 8:43:36 PM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
| Exposing CEDAW The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women By Laurel MacLeod and Catherina Hurlburt Revised: September 5, 2000 Concerned Women for America strongly opposes the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This treaty is not necessary and would challenge the laws and culture of the United States.
According to Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, treaties—along with the Constitution and United States laws—are "the supreme Law of the Land." Our founding fathers believed that any ratified treaty should be constitutional. That is, it should line up with the principles of the Constitution and our republic. CEDAW’s "use of overly broad language … allows the U.N. to invade the most personal of relationships between men and women."2 For example, it would require individual American states to give up authority in family law, allowing the federal government to take over family law. Therefore, the founding fathers certainly would have rejected it. As President Thomas Jefferson wrote, "If the treaty making power is boundless, then we have no Constitution."3 |
Advocates have not ceased in their quest to ratify the treaty, however. On April 12, 2000, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) introduced a "sense of the Senate" to hold hearings and act on CEDAW. S.Res.286 had 34 cosponsors.
The U.S. Constitution allows the president to enter into treaties with two-thirds Senate approval. It also requires the Senate to have a quorum, a majority (51), present to conduct business. Thus, with 51 senators present, CEDAW would need a minimum of 34 approving senators to ratify it.43 You can guess who—depending on whether they survive the next election—would attend the vote were CEDAW to come to the Senate floor.
Sadly, as attorney James Hirsen, J.D., Ph.D., described in one recent example, for some people, rules are meant to be broken. The Senate ratified the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty that delves into our most personal affairs, on April 3, 1992. According to the Congressional Record, only five senators were present. Majority leader George Mitchell conducted proceedings and made the motion to approve the treaty. Another senator seconded the motion, and the chair, Jay Rockefeller, called for a vote. He asked a gallery of empty chairs for any opposition. The treaty passed with "no opposition."44
In addition, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13107, "Implementation of Human Rights Treaties," on December 10, 1998. He then established an Interagency Working Group, with representatives from major federal departments, to implement America’s alleged "obligations" under U.N. treaties on human rights "to which the United States is now or may become a party in the future [emphasis added]."45 This shows how far a president can go in abusing his power.Recreating “Woman” in the 21st Century
Those who advocate most vehemently for CEDAW don’t need the treaty. They already enjoy abundant materialism, opportunities and negligible inequality. Women in the United States have the right to vote. They are fully participating members of society, protected by the federal Civil Rights Code and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), as well as state civil rights codes and state employment commissions.
Poor women in developing nations are fighting for the basic needs of everyday life—education and literacy, access to basic medical needs, nutrition, etc. Radical feminists in Western nations are using these women’s disadvantages to push an agenda of sexual and reproductive rights for females as young as age 10. Hiding under the guise of "human rights," and veiling their intentions with appeals for needy women in developing nations, they insist CEDAW is necessary.
It IS like old times,AND I AM DRINKING MY COFFEE as I read your post!!!
In her book, Ready or Not, Kay Hymowitz rightly criticized the forced maturation of adolescents today:I may agree with the substance of the article but I don't agree at all with the above. Forced maturation of adolescents today is NOT the problem. The problem is that most adolescents never develop the self-restraint that is necessary to be become an adult. What we have is a society of perpetual adolescents.
[The] generation that came of age in the sixties and seventies … hoped that they would demystify sex, free it from the control of church ladies and what sexual reform advocates had long called the "conspiracy of silence." In this new world, sex would be better and so would kids.
To Kofi Annan with love,
Bart
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