LATEST FEMINIST LIBERAL BULLSHIT

Liberals Push Women's Treaty by Pete Winn, associate editor. Document gives U.N. committee authority to dictate family policy.
Senate Democrats may be on the verge of resurrecting a treaty that could be used to require U.S. compliance with liberal policies, such as a right to abortion and legalization of prostitution. The treaty -- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) -- was signed by President Carter in 1980, but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate and has been in limbo ever since. More than 180 countries have ratified the treaty, which established a United Nations committee to monitor participation in CEDAW . "What happens is that each of these countries has to appear before a panel of 'experts' at the United Nations… to explain how they are implementing the treaty," said Austin Ruse, who heads the Washington, D.C., office of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. The committee monitors everything from relationships between husbands and wives, to educational content in the schools, to employment and hiring practices --- even how many women are elected to local state and national offices. Abortion is a key issue for the committee. "They have directed 37 countries to change their laws on abortion," Ruse said. "What we could easily see, if we ratify CEDAW, is pressure to strike down parental-notification laws, to strike down laws against partial-birth abortion, to strike down any regulation on abortion drugs like RU-486." Abortion isn't the only issue the committee has spoken on. It also directed China to legalize prostitution -- even though the treaty condemns it. "They directed Kyrgyzstan to legalize lesbianism," Ruse said. "They criticized Belarus for establishing Mother's Day because they said Mother's Day promotes 'a negative cultural stereotype.' They directed Libya to reinterpret the Koran to fall within committee guidelines. They criticized Ireland for allowing the Catholic Church to have too great a say in public policy." Thomas Jacobson, Focus on the Family Action's liaison to the United Nations, describes CEDAW as "The Equal Rights Amendment on steroids." "It would subject every family, school and business -- as well as every county, state and local office -- to oversight by United Nations 'experts.' " Jacobson said the original intent was to eliminate real discrimination against women, but it has become a politically correct nightmare. "The first article of it says that making any kind of distinction (between men and women) is to be construed as 'discrimination,' " he said. "That's crazy." Ruse said left-leaning groups are pushing the Senate for quick consideration and a ratification vote -- perhaps as early as March. "We believe CEDAW will be low-hanging fruit for the new Democratic majority in the Senate," he told CitizenLink. "They are under a lot of pressure from radical feminists in the United States to put it to a vote. At this point, I think that they probably have the votes to pass it." Ruse said he has no doubt that if the U.S. signs on, the U.N. committee would, at some point, say that social conservatives -- the so-called 'Christian Right' -- have too much say in American public policy. "This is an out-of-control U.N. committee, the members of which hardly anybody can name," he concluded. Jacobson, meanwhile, called CEDAW, "un-American and unconstitutional." "We fought the War of Independence to be exactly that -- independent, to be free to govern ourselves and to not have a foreign power dictating our personal and internal affairs" he said. David Wagner, associate professor of law at Regent University Law School, said if the Senate ratifies it, the treaty would take effect. But President Bush could refuse to send it back to the U.N. -- or could even remove President Carter's signature "There is some precedence for that," Wagner told CitizenLink. "We 'un-signed' the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In 1978, President Carter himself repudiated the Taiwan Relations Act, which was a treaty with Taiwan that had been ratified by the Senate. The courts refused to hear a legal case about his power to do so, saying they couldn't answer the question." Ruse and Jacobson warn that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is being pressed for a vote on March 8 -- International Women's Day. TAKE ACTION Please contact your senators and insist that they oppose CEDAW. In addition, please ask President Bush to consider removing the President Carter's signature from the treaty