22222222UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE REPORTS THE NEED FOR THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2023
Contact: cwest@ercoalition.org
Washington, DC – The Human Rights Committee of the United Nations calls upon the U.S. Government to include explicit protection against sex and gender-based discrimination through an Equal Rights Amendment, following statements from the ERA Coalition, Equality Now, and other leading rights organizations last month in Geneva.
The committee’s concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the United States of America state that:
“The State Party should redouble its efforts to guarantee protection against sex and gender-based discrimination in its Constitution, including through initiatives such as the Equal Rights Amendment. The State party should also consider ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol.”
The ERA Coalition, along with Alliance for Universal Digital Rights (AUDRi), Equality Now, Unchained At Last, and The US End FGM/C Network, addressed the importance of constitutional sex equality as well as other critical issues that demand the world’s attention. Their recommendations made it into the concluding report, including:
- Implementing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment
- Prohibiting child marriage
- Ending Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and sex- and gender-based violence
The Committee highlighted that the Equal Rights Amendment is foundational to achieving sex and gender equality (page 5), as well as addressing all of the sex and gender-based issues brought up in the committee.
You can watch the full statement made to the committee by Bettina Hager, Chief of Policy and Partnerships at the ERA Coalition online.
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The ERA Coalition was founded in 2014 to bring concerted, organized action to the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA Coalition has a sister organization, the Fund for Women’s Equality, which promotes public education and outreach on the need for constitutional equality. As a “movement of movements” composed of nearly 300 organizations across the country, the Coalition provides education and advocacy on the issue of equality.
While the effort to amend the Constitution to include sex equality began a century ago, our renewed efforts are centered on women of color (Black, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Latina, and Native American), gender-nonconforming and transgender women and girls, and nonbinary people – those who are most impacted by systemic inequities.
www.eracoalition.org | www.fundforwomensequality.org