A Historical Analysis of International Documents Relating to the Status of Women and Their Relationship to the Future Foreign Policy of the United States

• Publication year: 1979

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEWVolume 2, No.2SPRING 1979

A Historical Analysis Of International Documents Relating To The Status Of Women And Their Relationship To The Future Foreign Policy Of The United States

John Warren Kindt(fn*)

International Women's Year . . . [gave] the international community a unique opportunity to promote genuine equality between women and men, not only in law but in everyday life; to ensure the full involvement of women in the development effort, and in the sharing of its benefits; and to greatly increase the contribution of women to the achievement of the fundamental aims and objectives of the United Nations-namely, the maintenance of Peace, and the improvement of the conditions of life for all.

Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (fn**)

I. Introduction

In 1972 the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women determined it would be timely to proclaim 1975 as International Women's Year (IWY).(fn1) The Commission subsequently adopted a resolution to that effect and submitted it to the U.N. General Assembly for approval. The General Assembly quickly approved the resolution(fn2) and adopted the theme of "equality, development, and peace."(fn3) The Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the U.N. Economic and Social Affairs Department was given the responsibility of implementing IWY(fn4) and on September 1, 1972, the first woman to be appointed a U.N. Assistant Secretary-General, Mrs. Helvi L. Sipila, was placed in charge of the Centre.(fn5) Subsequently, the United States and nine of the developing countries cosponsored a U.N. resolution advocating the establishment of a world conference for IWY.(fn6) This conference, the U.N. World Conference of the International Women's Year, was held in Mexico City from June 19 to July 2, 1975.(fn7)

It was predicted that this conference would significantly further international human rights for women,(fn8) but in retrospect the conference fell far short of accomplishing any such goal.(fn9) In part, the political overtones that permeated the conference caused this failure.(fn10) Lack of a cohesive strategy on the part of the major countries, especially the United States, allowed the conference to focus on political issues other than women's rights.(fn11) The United States delegation also evidenced symptoms of being unprepared and unwilling to assume a leadership role.(fn12) Until the advent of the Carter administration, these symptoms appeared to pervade United States foreign policy in the area of women's rights. Consequently, this article's purpose is to make suggestions regarding the incorporation of women's rights into the international policy of the United States-particularly in light of President Carter's emphasis on human rights issues.(fn13)

In his inaugural address on January 22, 1977, President Carter stated:Because we are free, we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere. Our moral sense dictates a clear-cut preference for those societies which share with us an abiding respect for individual human rights.(fn14)

The beginning of President Carter's administration heralded a major change in the direction of United States foreign policy. Because world stability was the primary foreign policy goal of both the Ford and Nixon administrations, they emphasized realistic, but essentially amoral, negotiation and compromise.(fn15) The Carter administration, however, sought to reassert the position of the United States as an international moral leader by reordering its foreign policy priorities.(fn16) Unfortunately, since his inauguration, President Carter has focused on Soviet dissidents and apartheid issues to the exclusion of women's rights.

Historically, the United States has had few specific international commitments to further women's rights.(fn17) In-depth analysis, however, shows that even though the United States is only weakly bound, by specific treaties or conventions, to international women's rights per se, it is more strongly bound to specific human rights. These human rights commitments expressly and impliedly incorporate women's rights. Because women's rights are an integral part of human rights issues, furtherance of the human rights cause should necessarily include women's rights. This article will first examine the history of the United States' commitment to human rights as it relates specifically to women's rights. Then it will analyze the specific human rights treaties to which the United States is bound, even though most of them are only tangentially related. Finally, it will discuss United States foreign policy with regard to women's rights from the perspective of these first two areas. Thus, a secure and cohesive recommendation regarding future United States foreign policy in the area of women's rights should emerge.

The United States needs a definitive and active foreign policy with regard to women's rights because:Discrimination based on sex is the most widely known kind of discrimination. It is found in all developed and developing societies, either openly or covertly, and it is manifested in diverse forms. The time is long overdue for women to eliminate discrimination based on sex. No rhetoric, however attractive it may be, should postpone the achievement of equal rights and responsibilities for women.(fn18) United States foreign policy cannot afford to hesitate in the area of women's rights. The following analysis of international treaties and documents will demonstrate that the United States has ample treaty precedent to take the women's rights initiative in the international arena.

II. United Nations Documents

A. General Documents

1. The U.N. Charter and Related Documents

The United States is a party to two of the three main documents dealing with international human rights and concomitant women's rights. In order of their dates of becoming effective for the United States, they are: a. The Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice [hereinafter U.N. Charter],(fn19) b. The Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [hereinafter UNESCO Constitution],(fn20) and c. The Constitution of the International Labour Organization Instrument of Amendment, 1946 [hereinafter ILO Constitution].(fn21) In the area of international law, these three documents are the most important with regard to women's rights because all other women's rights documents are based on them.(fn22)

In today's world the U.N. Charter is the basis of most generally accepted international legal principles.(fn23) The Preamble to the U.N. Charter begins as follows:WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. . . ..(fn24) The first clause is familiar to millions, but it often overshadows the second clause, which deals with human rights. It is apparent, however, that the delegates who drafted the U.N. Charter felt that the cause of human rights and, more specifically, women's rights was worthy of being second in priority. This priority is reaffirmed in article 1, paragraph 3, of the U.N. Charter, which states that one purpose of the U.N. is:

To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion . . . ,(fn25)

Article 7 of the U.N. Charter establishes the subsidiary organs of the U.N., such as the General Assembly and the Security Council,(fn26) and article 8 states that "[t]he United Nations shall place no restriction on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs."(fn27) Article 13, which deals with the establishment of the General Assembly, states that "[t]he General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations"(fn28) for the purpose of "promoting international cooperation in the economic, social, cultural educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race sex, language, or religion."(fn29)Under article 55 the U.N. is also directed to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion."(fn30)

Although most experts in the area of international women's rights recognize the importance of the U.N. Charter,(fn31) many important writers appear to have missed the significance of the UNESCO Constitution and the ILO Constitution.(fn32) Like the U.N. Charter, the UNESCO Constitution gives priority to human rights. Article I, paragraph 1, of the UNESCO Constitution states:1. The purpose of the Organization is . . .to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.(fn33) Article I reinforces this priority in...