A delegation of UN human rights experts said in December that the United States is falling behind other nations in protecting the human rights of women. They noted that the U.S., along with just six other countries, has not yet ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. While acknowledging the “complexity of federalism” in the U.S., the experts cautioned that a diversity of state laws and policies “cannot be regarded as a justification for failure to secure [women’s] rights, which are universal, indivisible and inalienable.”
The experts also expressed concern about the high rates of violence against women in the U.S., as well as the poor conditions suffered by women in prisons and migrant detention centers. Despite the political and economic supremacy of the U.S, the experts found that maternal health outcomes have worsened over the past twenty years and that the country ranks seventy-two in the world in terms of female political representation.
The UN Human Rights Council established the working group on discrimination against women in law and practice in 2010. The 2015 UN delegation to the U.S. included the following experts: Eleonora Zielinska, Alda Facio and Frances Raday. Their full report is expected in June 2016.
Compiled from: Women in US lagging behind in human rights, UN experts report after ‘myth-shattering’ visit, U.N. News Centre (December 11, 2015).