While international celebration continues for the liberation of women in Afghanistan, the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Everett last week was a tragic testament to the ongoing violence against women in our own community. This is no time to congratulate ourselves for successful human rights advances on the other side of the world. Here at home, three young men are facing serious legal trouble for allegedly bringing a young girl to their motel room, intoxicating her and subjecting her to violent, repeated sexual assaults that left her hospitalized.
Cases like this are far more common that we would like to believe. A 1996 victimization survey found that one out of six women in the U.S. will be a victim of rape during her lifetime, most likely when she is a child or adolescent. And rape is only the most visible example of the injustices faced by women in America. Domestic violence, inequitable pay and job status, lack of information about safe sex, greater susceptibility to sexually-transmitted diseases — these are the facts of growing up female in the United States, home to the most "privileged" group of women in the world.
What steps is this country willing to take to improve the status of its women and girls? The Bush Administration recommended the ratification of the Treaty for the Rights of Women earlier this year, but opponents have distorted the language of the treaty to suggest it will promote abortion and prostitution. These critics fail to note that the State Department added its own reservations to the treaty in 1994 to make it compatible with existing domestic laws, abortion-neutral and non-self executing. The treaty is supported by more than 160 organizations that include religious groups like the National Coalition of American Nuns. Even Sima Samar, minister of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan, has personally urged members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to approve the treaty.
Reactions to the treaty on the part of the committee and the Senate itself will allow us to see whether the United States is as committed as it claims to be to protecting the freedoms of women at home and abroad. Although we will not have to change any of our laws to comply with the treaty, the U.S. would be required to submit a report proving that we have worked hard to improve the status of women at home. This is a goal we should not lose sight of as we observe the changes taking place in other countries. Whether we think it is right, men who recently gang-raped a young woman in Pakistan as part of a tribal council punishment got the death sentence. What do rapists get in the U.S.?
Over the past 23 years, the Treaty for the Rights of Women has been fundamental in inspiring change in many countries all over the world, punishing violence against women, promoting girls’ education, and improving women’s health care and working conditions. All women have the right to be protected from infanticide, malnutrition, female genital mutilation, forced early marriage, sexual abuse, sex trafficking and rape.
Let’s just hope that it doesn’t take another local tragedy to illustrate the urgency of this task. Even in America, 23 years is proving to be a costly length of time to postpone women’s human rights.
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