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Focused and wellorganized grassroots opposition has prevented legislation recommending ratification of CEDAW from making it to a vote on the Senate floor. Ultimately, the answer to the question of why the United States has not ratified CEDAW is that the stakes of doing so are high for both sides.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international legal instrument that requires countries to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in all areas and promotes women's and girls' equal rights.

The CEDAW Convention is built on three foundational principles: non-discrimination, state obligation and substantive equality. Non-discrimination is integral to the concept of equality.

The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life -- including the right to vote and to stand for election -- as well as education, health and employment.

The Convention gives positive affirmation to the principle of equality by requiring States parties to take "all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms ...

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women.

The framework of the obligations under the CEDAW Convention is constructed on three main principles: the obligation to respect (equality in laws and policies); the obligation to protect (non-discrimination– direct and indirect) and the obligation fulfil (to uphold equality and eliminate gender discrimination in the ...