Christina Hoff Sommers: Feminism by Treaty: Why CEDAW is Still a Bad Idea

Article here. Excerpt:

'On November 18, 2010, a surprisingly large and boisterous crowd gathered in a U.S. Senate chamber to witness new hearings on a decades-old United Nations treaty. Guards had to caution the excited attendees to keep their voices down. Senator Richard Durbin, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, requested that another room be opened to accommodate the large gathering of feminist leaders, human-rights activists, lawyers, lobbyists, and journalists. "Women have been waiting for 30 years," said Durbin in his opening statement. "The United States should ratify this treaty without further delay."

The treaty in question — the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) — commits signatory nations not only to eliminating discrimination but also to ensuring women's "full development and advancement" in all areas of public and private life. The document was adopted by the General Assembly and submitted to UN member states in 1979. Since then, nearly every nation has ratified what many now call the "Women's Bill of Rights" or the "Women's Magna Carta." The only holdouts are three Islamic countries (Iran, Sudan, and Somalia), a few Pacific islands — and the United States. "Look at the company we are keeping in refusing to ratify this treaty," said a dismayed Senator Durbin. "We can do better."
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Helms's watch is now long over, and treaty supporters can see daylight. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are strong supporters. So are key Senators John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is an enthusiast, as is Harold Koh, former dean of the Yale Law School and now the State Department's chief legal adviser. An influential advocate of "transnational jurisprudence," Koh invokes the sad irony that "more than half a century after Eleanor Roosevelt pioneered the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, her country still has not ratified . . .CEDAW."
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The question the Senate has to consider is not, as Chairman Durbin suggested at the November hearing, "Should the United States stand with oppressed women of the world?" Of course we should, and we do. No nation on earth gives more to foreign aid or has more philanthropies and religious groups dedicated to women's causes. Voters across the political divide welcome innovative programs to help women struggling with repressive governments and barbaric traditions such as child marriage, dowry burnings, genital cutting, and honor killings. What the senators have to answer are two more basic questions. One, is CEDAW a necessary and worthy addition to an already vibrant national effort to help the world's women? Two, for better or worse, how will ratification affect American life?
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Even more telling, the UN Division on the Advancement of Women, the agency that monitors the treaty's implementation, is emphatic that the document is obligatory, not hortatory: "Countries that have ratified or acceded to the Convention are legally bound to put its provisions into practice." Moreover, many American legislators — and judges — will sincerely feel we are obligated to bring our laws in line with a treaty we have agreed to honor.

But, according to the ABA and Amnesty, as well as Durbin, Biden, Boxer, and Koh, these arcane questions of international law are irrelevant. Because American laws are already in full or near-full compliance with the treaty, it will have few if any domestic consequences. This argument brings us to the most striking feature of the discussion: the treaty's most engaged and knowledgeable proponents — activist women's groups — disagree with the for-export-only argument emphasized by public officials and human-rights groups like Amnesty. NOW, the Feminist Majority Foundation, and their sister organizations actually agree with conservative critics that CEDAW would have a dramatic impact on American laws and practices.
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If the United states ratifies CEDAW there will be a three-ring circus each time we come up for review. American laws, customs, and private behavior will be evaluated by 23 UN gender ministers to see whether they comply with a feminist ideal that is 30 years out of date. The Committee will pounce on all facets of American life that fail to achieve full gender integration. That many American mothers stay home with children or work part-time will be at the top of their list of "discriminatory practices." Committee members like Cuba's Magalys Arocha Dominguez will want to know what our government has done to change our patterns of behavior. The American delegation will then enter a "consultative dialogue" with the Committee to develop appropriate remedies.

They will get plenty of help from organizations like now, the Feminist Majority, and the American Association of University Women. Groups of which Americans know little or nothing will take CEDAW as a legal mandate to implement their worldview. If ratified, the treaty would give these organizations a license to sue, reeducate, and resocialize their fellow citizens. Gender quotas, comparable-worth pay policies, state-subsidized daycare, and other initiatives that have failed again and again to win democratic support would instantly be transformed into universal human rights. And the women's groups would have new allies: UN officials and international NGOs would join them in cultivating American pastures under the legal and moral authority of the Women's Treaty.
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CEDAW contains many worthy and indeed noble declarations, but its key provisions are 1970s feminism preserved in diplomatic amber. Releasing those aged provisions in 21st-century America would be strange at best, and at worst they could seriously compromise the privacy, well-being, and basic freedoms of Americans. At the November hearing, Senator Durbin called on his colleagues to "ratify this treaty without further delay." For the past 31 years, our legislators have wisely delayed ratification. Today's Senate should continue to follow that example.'