World Politics Review: The U.S. Tries, and Fails, to Dilute a Global Agreement on Women’s Rights
“…This year’s [United Nations Commission on the Status of Women] meeting, which included a record number of attendees, was focused on social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure to advance gender equality. But innocuous as that agenda may sound, the forum was marred by contentious negotiations, particularly over the use of words like ‘gender,’ ‘family,’ and ‘reproductive rights’ in the commission’s final outcome document, says Rachel Vogelstein, director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. … But this year, she notes, ‘the United States expressed concern about reaffirming the Beijing Declaration.’ … [Vogelstein added,] ‘Although the United States did not prevail in its campaign to backtrack on prior international agreements at the commission, its leadership of a growing opposition to prior international agreements on women’s human rights is an ominous sign for the future'” (Waldman, 4/8).