Advocates Energized By Expected Appointment Of Clinton To Secretary Of State Position

Women's rights and human rights advocates are "energized" by the expected appointment of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to the secretary of state position and hope she will bring a "dramatic new focus" to women's issues worldwide, the Boston Globe reports.

According to the Globe, international women's rights advocates consider Clinton a leading figure in efforts to improve education, safety and economic opportunity for women and girls. Clinton also was a "strong advocate" for women's rights and development programs when she was first lady, delivering a speech on women's rights at the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in which she said it is "no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights."

Daphne Jayasinghe, Amnesty International's acting advocacy director for violence against women in Europe and Central Asia, said advocates are "very optimistic" about Clinton's appointment. Melanne Verveer -- who was Clinton's chief of staff at the White House and is now chair of the group Vital Voices Global Partnership -- said Clinton "literally criss-crossed the globe" as first lady, "standing with women to advance their progress, and said to leaders that no country can advance if half their country is left behind."

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, added that Vice President-elect Joe Biden has a strong Senate record on promoting women's rights and that Clinton and Biden will make a "dynamic team in terms of increasing the treatment around the world of women as human beings." In addition, women's rights advocates are "confident" that the Obama administration will lift the Mexico City Policy, also known as the "Global Gag Rule," which prohibits organizations that use their own funds to perform or "actively promote" abortion from receiving U.S. foreign aid for family planning services. The law was imposed by President Reagan, lifted by President Clinton and reinstated by President Bush (Milligan, Boston Globe, 12/1).

Obama Promises To Seek Ratification of Women's Rights Treaty

In related news, President-elect Barack Obama has promised to seek Senate ratification of several "long-stalled" treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The treaty, which has never reached the Senate floor, received approval from the United Nations in 1979 and was signed by President Carter in 1980.

The treaty declares that women have the right to equality in all areas of society. Although the treaty does not explicitly address abortion, it says women should have access to "information, counseling and services in family planning" and the right to determine "the number and spacing of their children." The treaty has been ratified by every other industrialized nation, the Chronicle reports.

According to the Chronicle, Senate passage of the treaty likely will be difficult because of opposition from some antiabortion groups. However, the treaty likely would have not have a large effect on U.S. law because it requires that nations take "all appropriate measures" to protect women's rights, according to officials from the American Society of International Law (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/1).


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