Warning: Mother's Role at Risk

Dear Mother’s Minute Reader,

This week, I am changing the format of my column to alert you to the recent approval of CEDAW by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The U.S. has persistently avoided ratification of this international United Nations agreement. However, this proposed treaty will come before the U.S. Senate after the August legislative recess. While purporting to protect women's rights, please be warned of the serious danger CEDAW poses to the rights of men and women as they fulfill their roles as fathers and mothers.

Article 5 of the CEDAW treaty states:

"State parties are obligated to take...measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women with a view to achieving the elimination of ...customary and all other practices which are based on...stereotyped roles for men and women."

This wording sounds a shrill alarm to those who favor;

Traditional marriages between a man and a woman
Attempts of any organization or individual to strengthen families by reaching, teaching or honoring mothers and/or fathers in their gender-specific roles
The celebration of Mother’s and Father’s Days
Ratification of CEDAW holds broad implications, not only within the confines of the "land of the free," but throughout the world. A distressing hint of what the CEDAW Committee has in mind is its recent reprimand of a country for the "traditional stereotyping of women in 'the noble role of mother.'"

The sovereign rights of the States would be superceded by CEDAW. Strong warnings are being sounded by

Independent Women's Forum; http://www.iwf.org/news/020725.shtml;
National Institute of Womanhood; www.uniw.org/CEDAWpoints.htm;
Family Research Council; http://www.frc.org/gov/ac02e04.cfm.
If you find this information disturbing, please consider carefully what action you can take as a member of grassroots America to add your voice of concern. Our opportunity to express objection to this sweeping treaty that openly attacks the roles of mothers and fathers in assuring a stable, happy and successful society, is fleeting. The time is now. Phone numbers to reach your U.S. senators are in the book.

Thank you,

Renee Hawkley

*Information for this message was taken from a letter by Marcia Ford, National President, American Mothers, Inc.