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Katalin Fabian, assistant professor of government and law, and her EXCEL students will try to answer the question, “Why the U.S. should ratify the CEDAW?” at a brown bag lecture held at 12 p.m. April 7 in Hogg Hall.
Sponsored by Amnesty International, the discussion will focus on the importance of the United Nations’ Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and why the United States is one of the only developed nations in the world not to have ratified the treaty. The lecture pulls from Fabian’s research entitled, “Against Domestic Violence: The Interaction of Global Networks with Local Activism in Central Europe.”
CEDAW was established in 1979 and set up certain norms that countries should follow concerning women’s rights issues. Today, 182 nations have signed the agreement and use it to help in policymaking.
As part of the EXCEL Scholars program, Danielle Pollaci ’06, an international affairs major, and Richard Lear ’06, a French and government and law major, helped Fabian compile a database on domestic violence in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia.
These countries became part of the European Union in 2004. Fabian believes the changing laws and attitudes toward domestic violence in Central Europe can serve as a litmus test to measure the effects in the rest of the world.
Pollaci transcribed and interpreted interviews Fabian conducted of politicians in these countries whose jobs focus entirely or in part on domestic violence. Lear researched Central European implementation of CEDAW’s norms.
Fabian will be talking about the broader topic of how the convention came about and why some countries, specifically the United States, have reservations about signing the treaty. Fabian says American politicians argue against signing because the U.S. already has legislation in place to protect women and they do not want the country to be held responsible to other countries.