The WILPF Advancing Human Rights/CEDAW Committee is committed to promoting the values and principles of human rights as preeminent goals and standards of US laws, policies, and regulations, both foreign and domestic. To that end, we work in our states and local communities to advance the understanding and application of international human rights instruments, with special emphasis on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Working Locally toward a Global Vision

WILPF's Committee on Advancing Human Rights/CEDAW fosters a deeper understanding of and respect for human rights and promotes international human rights standards and process values as normative for U.S. domestic law, regulations, and policy.

Before the U.S. can effectively promote human rights abroad through its foreign policy, we as a country need to learn how to abide by the standards outlined in the international human rights treaties here at home. Therefore, WILPF's Advancing Human Rights/CEDAW committee supports the adoption of human rights legislation at the municipal and state level as a movement building strategy and important tactic for transforming U.S. legal culture. Through this work we embrace the opportunity to explore the interdependency and indivisibility of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, and contribute to the articulation of newly emerging rights such as those relating to development, human sexuality, and environmental sustainability.

WILPF’s Committee on Advancing Human Rights/CEDAW connects human rights activists in communities where our branches are already working in order to quicken our learning about how human rights law can be implemented at the local and state level in jurisdictions across the United States.

In 2001, the state of Pennsylvania renewed its commitment to fulfilling and protecting the human rights of its residents by passing HR 473. This past winter, an ordinance demanding accountability to CEDAW and CERD standards was introduced into the City Council of New York. WILD for Human Rights in San Francisco, encouraged by the results achieved under San Francisco’s CEDAW ordinance of 1998, has launched a broader human rights campaign that aims to address issues of minimum wage, chronic homelessness, and the vulnerabilities of immigrant populations.

Other popular tools for building human security while extending human rights include the use of gender budgeting and gender analysis of government budget cuts.

If you want to find out how these successful strategies might be adaptable to your community, join the WILPF's Committee for Advancing Human Rights/CEDAW. Join an on-line working group. Contribute copies of your municipality’s human rights ordinances to our growing library. Learn how to build a coalition in your community. Organize a workshop for the national meeting of your professional organization.

Only by pooling our know-how, can we grow this movement.

Contact:

Laura Roskos
Massachusetts CEDAW Project
roskos@masscedaw.org