UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (LSN) – In a press conference on Friday, the UN Commission on the Status of Women released more details on the upcoming “optional protocol” for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Aloisia Woergetter, Chairperson of the Open-ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a Draft Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, told reporters that the latest “breakthrough” in terms of the Optional Protocol was a move “forbidding reservations to the protocol.” This would then mandate that all countries that ratified this protocol would be legally bound to uphold CEDAW in every detail, which would include upholding the “reproductive rights of women” (including abortion) and would also include targeting any “culture and tradition” which stands in the way. In the press conference, Woergetter also confirmed reports issued earlier by United Families International president Susan Roylance. Woergetter said her Working Group “focused on elaborating a protocol that would establish a right of petition for individual women to appear before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.” Thus an individual woman who felt her “right” to an abortion was compromised by a pro-life organization’s very existence could bring her case forward to the UN. The petition “would also trigger an inquiry procedure by which the Committee could address serious or systematic women’s rights violations ” by countries which have ratified the convention. According to Woergetter, in the case of an individual’s complaint against a country, the Committee would first assess the admissibility of the case and then proceed to make known its “views and recommendations” to the country in question. Given that the Protocol would “forbid reservations,” all recommendations given by the Committee would be mandatory. “Those (recommendations) might include revising discriminatory legislation or promoting a policy change to enable the State to fulfil its Convention obligations, or compensation might be sought for the complainant,” she said. Woergetter also noted that the wording of the document would not be finalized until next year.
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U.N. MARCHES TOWARD MANDATING ABORTION
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (LSN) – In a press conference on Friday, the UN Commission on the Status of Women released more details on the upcoming “optional protocol” for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Aloisia Woergetter, Chairperson of the Open-ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a Draft Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, told reporters that the latest “breakthrough” in terms of the Optional Protocol was a move “forbidding reservations to the protocol.” This would then mandate that all countries that ratified this protocol would be legally bound to uphold CEDAW in […]
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