Originally published on the CGS blog on June 16, 2014.
The United States has led the way for democracy and equality around the world. Through its own work as well as through collaborating with international organizations, the US has strived to guarantee better lives for all citizens. Despite such progress, recent issues regarding equality between the sexes within the US have brought to light the domestic problems we still face and how such problems prevent us from helping others around the world.
News headlines in recent months have been filled with stories of inequality and injustice against US women. President Obama’s speech on equal pay for women has led many once again to bring up the need for women to be treated as equals in the workforce and to receive the same benefits as their male counterparts.
The recent shooting near UC Santa Barbra that took the lives of seven individuals has shed light on the violence continually committed against women in the United States. The assailant, a 22-year-old male that had attended the university, left a video explaining how his actions were targeted against women as consequence of their continually rejecting him. This misogynistic attack led to a social media campaign entitled #YesAllWomen, which sought to bring attention to the need for greater protection of women’s rights.
It is evident by these recent events within the US that equality for all citizens has not yet been obtained. There is some assurance, however, that equality will eventually be achieved due to the responsive nature of the government to the wants and desires of American citizens. But what about those nations around the world that do not have such a government? What can be done to help their fight for equality?
The Women’s Rights Treaty (CEDAW) is an international treaty that promotes equality between the sexes and binds all those that ratify it to further women’s rights.The United States stands as the only developed nation in the world not to have ratified the treaty. The two-thirds vote needed for ratification has yet to be achieved due to claims that agreeing to the treaty will diminish American sovereignty and actually restrict the rights of women within the United States. The dispersal of this kind of misinformation is what has prevented US ratification.
The truth is that ratifying the Women’s Rights Treaty would ensure that the equality that the US preaches becomes a global value, advancing the rights of women within the United States and around the world. US sovereignty would still stand, and women would gain rights, not lose them.
If the US were to ratify, the equal pay we strive to achieve within this country could be achieved around the world. The treaty could ensure that acts of violence against women similar to those within the US are stopped on a global level. As the supposed global leader of human rights, it is the responsibility of the United States to support all international efforts towards equality and to ratify the Women’s Rights Treaty.
