CEDAW stands for Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is a United Nations Treaty that was created on December 18, 1979. It was signed by President Carter in 1980 and went into effect on September 3, 1981. As of 2015, CEDAW has been ratified by 187 of 194 UN member states. The United States has not ratified it.

CEDAW has a concrete and three-dimensional view of equality. It does not consider equality in formal and legal terms only, but takes it a step further by ensuring that laws and policies are in effect to maintain equality between women and men, that all necessary arrangements are put in place that will allow women to experience equality in their lives. Finally, CEDAW holds States accountable not only for their own actions, but also for eliminating discrimination by private individuals and organizations.

Articles of CEDAW
Article 1: definition of discrimination against women
Articles 2-5: the full range of measures the State must take to eliminate discrimination and achieve gender equality
Article 6: trafficking and the exploitation of prostitution
Article 7: public and political life
Article 8: international affairs
Article 9: nationality
Article 10: education
Article 11: employment
Article 12: health care
Article 13: economic and social life
Article 14: rural women
Article 15: equality before the law
Article 16: equality in marriage and family life
Articles 17-22: the CEDAW Committee and the reporting process
Articles 23-30: ratification, reservations and other procedural matters

Cities for CEDAW is a national grassroots campaign to implement CEDAW in US Cities. The campaign was launched in March 2014 by Committee on Status of Women, New York, Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN) and The San Francisco Department on the Status of Women (DOSW) to secure 100 cities with resolutions or ordinances in place by 2016.

The Cities for CEDAW Program has 3 components:

Gender Analysis - Analysis of workforce, services and city budget
Oversight Body - Community and government leaders must oversee implementation and provide accountability
Funding - Municipalities should allocate $.10--$.25 per woman resident to implement program and policy reforms

Gender Analysis - Analysis of workforce, services and city budget
Several Cities in the US namely San Francisco, Los Angeles, Louisville have ordinances in place. For more details click on the following resources:
www.citiesforCEDAW.org
http://sfgov.org/dosw/cities-cedaw
http://www.zonta.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Leadership/Cities%20for%20CEDAWm%20Bobbee%20Cardillo,%20ZI%20advocacy%20committee.pdf
http://www.wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/cedaw-factsheet.pdf

-Information contributed by Rupsi Burman

Rupsi Burman, is of Indian origin, currently resides in the USA and is an IT professional with over a couple of decades of experience in banking, logistics, utilities, international trade and government. Since childhood she’s been involved in philanthropic work and is a bold stand for love and peace. In July 2013 she started her own non-profit organization Hope in Life Foundation (www.hopeinlifefoundation.org) to immerse herself in humanitarian work. Her non-profit empowers women, men and children through training and education.

Her organization does projects with women inside prisons, children in elementary schools and colleges, homeless people, trafficked victims.

As Chair of Orange County Task Force – Cities for CEDAW Program she works with elected officials of various cities to bring CEDAW to cities and County of Orange. CEDAW is the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the General Assembly in 1979. Under her leadership, CEDAW Resolution was passed by City of Laguna Woods in April 2016. Her non-profit organization is a Council of Organization (COO) of United Nations Association-United States of America (UNA-USA) Orange County chapter – http://www.una-oc.org/. Hope in Life Foundation is also a Cooperation Circle (CC) of United Religions Initiative www.urimulti.org and works collaboratively with other interfaith organizations to deliver and maintain peace and harmony in the community. In 2015, her team did a workshop at Parliament of World’s Religions at Salt Lake City, Utah on, ”Peace Within families – The Human Approach”. She is a member of Oprah Winfrey’s Belief Team (http://www.oprah.com/belief/Oprah-Winfrey-Presents-Landmark-Television-Event-Belief). She serves on the Advisory Board of Council of Interfaith and Indigenous Women; One Global Family Foundation (http://oneglobalfamilyfoundation.org/); Southern California Committee for a Parliament of World’s Religions (http://sccpwr.org/) and S.A.R.A.H (http://www.sarah4hope.org/). She is a member of American Association of University Women http://longbeach-ca.aauw.net/ as well as of American Women for International Understanding (www.awiu.org). In 2014 she started a non-profit in Calcutta, India https://shurukolkatadotorg.wordpress.com/ as an extension of her work in the United States. The Calcutta organization has collaboratively delivered three workshops over eighteen months.