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Nancy Bremeau, Commissioner, Santa Clara County & Founder, The CEDAW Challenge

The CEDAW Challenge [1] was launched in November 2021 by the CEDAW Challenge TEAM and Santa Clara County Board Supervisor, Susan Ellenberg. [2]  It was designed as a reboot of the original CEDAW Challenge issued by the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee which wasissued at the 2015 U.S. Conference of Mayors.  The purpose of the new CEDAW Challenge is to invite elected and appointed officials and members of affiliated organizations across the country to join in the effort of passing CEDAW Resolutions and Adopting Ordinances. The Challenge signatories include California State Controller, Malia Cohen [3], and California State Senator and Chair of the Women’s Legislative Caucus, Nancy Skinner [4] among many others. You can sign the challenge with your own affiliation (LWV, AAUW, ZONTA, UNA, SOROPTIMISTS, NWPC, NOW, NARAL etc), and help byforwarding the link to the Challenge to your own elected and appointed officials and ask them to sign the Challenge today!!  For questions, please contact the CEDAW Challenge Founder, and Cities for CEDAW National Advisory Board Member Nancy Bremeau [5] at nancy@bremeau.net.  Please click on the link to sign, see excerpt from the Challenge below.

The CEDAW Challenge

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Vice-President, Susan Ellenberg, together with the CEDAW Challenge TEAM, announced the CEDAW Challenge on November 29, 2021 at the California StateAssociation of Cities (CSAC) and December 1 at the Urban Counties of California (UCC).  (See video below). We call on our elected and appointed officials across the state and the nation to sign on with the intention of supporting CEDAW resolutions and adopting CEDAW ordinances within their local city and county jurisdictions; and in support of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty known as CEDAW by the United States of America.

This Challenge calls on all elected officials to support and endeavour to pass resolutions and/or adopt ordinances to bring the spirit of, and; codify the principles of CEDAW, (also known as the Women’s Bill of Rights) to ensure the rights of women and girls and all who identify as women, in their local jurisdictions. Within each County or City we call on the Commissions for Women (also known as Commissions on the Status of Women and Girls, Women’s Advisory Boards, etc), to work towards the adoption of CEDAW ordinances, and implementation of such ordinances, in conjunction with their local jurisdictions and elected officials. We recognize the importance of these commissions in protecting and advocating for the rights of women and girls and all who identify as women.

Adherence to the principles of CEDAW throughout local jurisdictions will promote equal access to and equity in all areas including, but not limited to: health care, employment, economic development, affordable housing, educational and leadership opportunities, public safety, and criminal justice for women, girls and all who identify as women; and will also address the continuing and critical problems of violence against women and girls and all who identify as women. There is a need to analyze the operations of local government policies, programs and services to identify discrimination in, but not limited to, employment practices, budget allocation and the provision of direct and indirect services and, if identified, to remedy that discrimination. In addition, this work will also serve to enhance and promote the principles of CEDAW throughout the private sector.

 Background

Local implementation – Throughout the United States, cities and counties have strengthened their commitment to women’s equality by passing resolutions and, specifically, adopting ordinances affirming the principles and spirit of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also known as the Women’s Bill of Rights, which integrates gender equity and human rights principles found in CEDAW into City and County operations: National Ratification – Countries that ratify CEDAW are mandated to condemn all forms of discrimination against women and girls and to ensure equality for women and girls in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural arenas. The United Nations General Assembly adopted CEDAW in 1979 and President Carter signed the treaty on behalf of the United States in 1980, but the United States Senate has not yet ratified CEDAW.  The United States remains one of only six countries that have not yet ratified CEDAW (Iran, Paulau, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga, and the United States of America).