The Women’s Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights (WILD) used the United Nations Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to advocate for human rights at the local level. WILD seeks to improve the lives of women and girls through human rights education and advocacy, and works with local, national, and international governments to ensure that these bodies are informed about gender issues in the United States. It also collaborates with other cities in the United States to help them adopt laws instituting the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
WILD was founded in June 1996 as a response to the previous year’s United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing. After its inception, WILD began lobbying the city of San Francisco to become the first city in the United States to pass a law following the principles of CEDAW.
Because this Convention has not been ratified by the United States, it cannot be invoked on a national level. Seeking to make the international document binding on a local level, and use it to help combat issues such as discrimination and domestic violence within the city, WILD worked with government officials, public citizens, and members of advocacy groups focused on domestic violence, poverty, and health issues. Testimony on the relevance of CEDAW in the lives of local women was presented to government officials at a public hearing in the fall of 1997. In April 1998 the city passed the ordinance, requiring city departments to review budgets, employment policies, and the delivery of services within a context of gender and human rights, and allocating funds to help these departments put the ordinance into practice.
Because not all members of the community were familiar with the language of human rights, WILD worked to frame discussion of the ordinance in terms of discrimination, believing that people connect with this term and see its relevance in their everyday lives. WILD also held a public meeting in which community members were encouraged to publicly record their personal testimony in relation to the rights of women and girls, and their pledges to uphold the principles of the Convention. Through this meeting, WILD hoped to make community members feel important to the process of adopting the Convention, and personally committed to seeing the Convention’s principles upheld throughout the city.
WILD’s work extends beyond San Francisco, as the Institute works to improve the lives of women and girls throughout the United States, and campaigns for gender equality to be made a principle of government laws and policies. WILD staff members conduct conferences and workshops for educational, community, government, and civic groups, organize public hearings, and consult with national and international government organizations, including the United Nations. They are also advising organizations in several cities across the country about ways in which these cities may adopt the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as those of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
For more information on WILD's campaign to pass CEDAW, or to order our step-by-step guide on how to impact public policy using a human rights framework on a local level, please see the publications page of WILD's website, located at: http://www.wildforhumanrights.org/publications/index.html
Adopting international human rights conventions at the local level to improve women's rights
