The Religious Consultation
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Press Association (UK), July 11, 2005 Irishwomen To
Make Plea on Human Rights A delegation of Irishwomen is heading to a United Nations meeting in New York this week intent on embarrassing the government into improving its record on women's rights. Noirin Clancy from the Women's Human Rights Alliance (WHRA) said the group will use its meeting at UN headquarters today to highlight to the international community Ireland's failure to improve the position of women. The women, representing a number of non-governmental organisations, are addressing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women's (Cedaw) 33rd session. The Irish government, including minister of state Frank Fahey, will attend a hearing of the Cedaw committee on Wednesday to answer questions on its commitment to women's rights. "By accepting Cedaw, Ireland committed itself to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms," Ms Clancy said ahead of this week's meetings. "We aim to highlight the failures of this government to keep to their obligations under Cedaw. They sign international legally binding agreements but yet they do not abide by them ... One of the ways we hope to make them keep the promises they have made, is by embarrassing them in the international arena." Cedaw was adopted by the UN general assembly in 1979 and Ireland signed up in 1985. The convention is much like an international bill of rights for women, a legally binding document, which defines what constitutes discrimination against women. The Irishwomen's delegation, which is made up of representatives from Women's Aid, Pavee Point, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Irish Family Planning Association, Banulacht, the National Women's Council of Ireland and the WHRA acknowledged the government had made some progress, but not enough. Ms Clancy said too little had been done to address the underfunding of the women's sector in Ireland, the inequalities in the provision of cancer screening services around the country, the under-representation of women in decision-making positions and the increase in violence against women. "This is about persistent discrimination that continues to exist between men and women in Ireland," she said. << Press Association -- 7/11/05 >>
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