February 23, 2010
SPECIAL REPORT: Ukraine and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Since their creation, the eight United Nations human rights treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), have evolved from organizations dedicated to monitoring governments' compliance with the spirit of the aspirational provisions contained in the treaties into ones that, with the help of international, non-governmental, and civil society organizations, attempt to enforce at the national level the human rights expressed in those treaties while sidestepping democratic processes. In short, the treaty bodies, their New York and Geneva-based staff housed in the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ("UNOHCHR"), and the United Nations national offices are attempting to globally govern social and cultural rights. As a case study, the Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public-interest law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, published a report in advance of Ukraine's review session on January 21, 2010 during CEDAW’s 45th Session. The report analyzes the list of issues submitted to Ukraine by CEDAW and assesses the degree to which CEDAW and international and non-governmental organizations are attempting to interfere with Ukraine's sovereign domestic policy-making abilities. In this regard, the report also examines the shadow report authored by a group of so-called independent Ukrainian women's rights organizations that severely criticizes Ukraine's efforts to advance women's rights domestically.
To read the Solidarity Center’s report on Ukraine, please click here.
A JOINT PROGRAM OF
