Contributed by Gwendolyn Beetham

So… I was a little late in getting this to Jessica, but I wanted to write a quick post on the UN Human Rights Committee, which is meeting in Geneva this week to review U.S. compliance with international human rights agreements.

A couple U.S. women's rights organizations got together to write a gender shadow report for the Committee, and you can find that here. It’s an interesting (and shocking) report – and I’m not only saying that because I’m quoted in it for work I did at the National Council for Research on Women.

The shadow report basically documents the various ways the U.S. has been violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including: the fact that the U.S. does not comply with international standards for the treatment of incarcerated women, does not recognize women seeking asylum from gender-specific persecution, refuses to adopt laws to address the gender pay gap, and does not clearly prohibit sex discrimination in the U.S. Constitution. The list goes on…

Women’s eNews also has great coverage of the shadow report and the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York did a separate shadow report specifically focused on reproductive rights. Check it out here. And hurray for “American human rights.� (Sorry, not feeling particularly patriotic after reading this shit.)

1 Comments

July 19, 2006 9:52 PM

[0+]  Alon Levy said:

The occupation-controlled wage gap really worries me. Although the overall wage gap is shrinking, albeit at a pace that wouldn't win the Olympics anytime soon, the occupation-controlled wage gap has remained the same for years, and is remarkably consistent across different countries, at least in the West.

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