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Introduction

On April 14, 1998, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to adopt and pass legislation implementing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This is a quick guide for those considering implementing CEDAW in your own city or county.

CEDAW provides a broad definition of discrimination against women as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex.” It requires that women receive equity in the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. This includes full access to health, physical and mental services, and information; education; economic development, including access to non-traditional jobs, access to credit, and the right to work; and the obligation to counter stereotypical views of gender. It could be used to address violence by the state, in the community, and in the home. CEDAW guarantees equal access to the law and participation in political arenas.

Many states, counties and cities have passed resolutions urging U.S. ratification of CEDAW. Taking it a step beyond resolutions by implementing local legislation strengthens our commitment to women’s human rights and ultimately has a larger impact on the quality of our lives. Local ratification of human rights treaties is important for several reasons.

• It demonstrates to elected federal officials and the President how critical ratification and implementation of CEDAW are to women in the United States.
• Advocating under CEDAW allows us to combine all women’s issues under the umbrella of human rights.
• Implementing human rights treaties brings the weight of international human rights into our communities. Further, enforcing such standards connects us to the global women’s movement and provides us with mechanisms to adopt international success strategies and best practices here in the United States.
• It provides us with a proactive strategy to promote change, rather than a reactionary one.

You need three interconnected methods to achieve implementation: education, advocacy, and action. Human rights education involves in-depth interaction with a limited group of interested persons through workshops and other methods, whereas advocacy involves public hearings, speeches, and media work that will reach far more people but provide less information. The action element comes through drafting, implementing, and monitoring the ordinance.

The final ordinance implementing CEDAW must be the means to your human rights work, not the end; the end should be the improvement in the lives of women and girls in your community. Further, the public education and awareness arising out of advocating for local implementation of rights is almost as important as the actual product because it provides the means and skills to build a community based upon respect and protection of human dignity.

We have set forth some basic steps to think about when working to implement human rights treaties in U.S. communities. We tried to present the general steps in the local ratification and implementation of human rights, but obviously some steps are very specific to the San Francisco context. If you would like more information or assistance in the process, please contact WILD.

Next: Getting Started

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