Onsite at the UN
Eyewitness Impressions of CEDAW
CEDAW Committee Grills Algerian Delegation
By Cecil and Linda Ash
January 1, 2005
My name is Linda
Ash. My husband Cecil and I arrived the first week of January in New York
City to work at the United Nations. We are actually volunteers representing
United Families International, with which we have been associated for the
past three years as members of the Mesa, Arizona chapter. We have five wonderful
children, and the youngest, who is 19, recently moved out, leaving my husband
and I alone in a house that hasn't heard such silence in more than 28 years
when our first child was born.
Cecil recently sold his business and we decided to do something we never had supposed possible for two small-town folks: we volunteered to represent United Families International for several months in the big city of New York.
Make no mistake, we are novices at this, but our mentors have been very supportive and patient as we try to learn the UN procedures. On our first day at the UN, we spent literally hours standing in lines, showing letters of recommendation, filling out paper work and having our pictures taken, before we were finally able to pass through the doors of the UN without anyone stopping us to ask what we were doing.
By then, the CEDAW committee meeting was already in session. That committee is the UN body charged with implementing a document the UN adopted in 1979 called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. With a high-sounding name like that, who would suspect that CEDAW may actually be dangerous for women and the family?
When we entered the conference room, we found a place to sit where we didn't think we would interrupt the meeting. Immediately my husband felt out of place as one of the only two men in the entire conference hall. Women representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were being called on to speak to the committee assigned to insure that all countries who had signed CEDAW were in compliance. This committee, we learned, is composed of 23 women from all over the world, plus four additional women they had elected to lead the committee and their meetings.
The NGOs were covering subjects as diverse as abortion laws and women prisoners' rights in jail. As the meeting continued, we began to understand that these NGOs were lobbying the committee for more action in behalf of women's rights. After the NGOs had their say, everyone in the room except committee members was asked to leave so the committee could deliberate in private.
The next open meeting began the following morning at 10 a.m. The same committee and many of the same NGOs were in attendance. A delegation from Algeria was also present and was asked to come forward and sit facing the committee. For the next 45 minutes the ambassador of Algeria read to the committee all the things that his country had done over the past four years to be in compliance with CEDAW. The statistics of women in governmental positions, women on the police force, women attending primary, secondary and higher forms of education. The list went on and on and on.
But when he finished and the chairman expressed her appreciation for his report, the floor was opened to the committee for questions of the ambassador and his delegation. They were grilled in a way that seemed politely ruthless. “Why aren't more women in the work force?” “Is there suppression that is holding them back?” “What rights do women have when it comes to divorce?” “Why is polygamy not outlawed in your country?” The ambassador and his delegation answered questions for four hours. If the answers didn't suit the committee, the questions seemed to become more direct and accusing.
At one point, the ambassador told the committee that the Muslim religion strongly encourages the man to support his wife and family. Their religion suggests that women stay in the home. Some members of the committee seemed irate at such an idea. But the ambassador defended his position and I wanted to stand up and cheer for him.
By 5:15 p.m., when the meeting ended, members of the Algerian delegation were visibly worn out. I was, too. I am certain that the members of this committee believe they are doing a great service for women's rights, but as I sat and listened to the committee member from Korea talk about abortions in her own country (where they select only the female fetus to abort), I thought, “Where are the rights of these unborn baby girls?”
And as the committee insists that for women to reach their fullest potential they have to be working outside the home, I have to wonder where these women have received their information and their reasoning.
When I hear the committee put CEDAW's agenda ahead of religious beliefs, I get uncomfortable.
My husband and I are seeing and hearing things that are so foreign to us. I'm becoming quickly aware of how much the institution of the family is truly under attack here at the United Nations.
The next day would be a closed session for committee members when another country's ambassador and delegation would be called on to defend themselves. I was already feeling nervous for them.
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