Fighting for women – in and out of the workplace

On the final day of their national conference, UNISON delegates passed motions on a number of major issues affecting women’s rights, in and out of the workplace. In the first, the union is now seeking the implementation of CEDAW (the United Nations convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women) into domestic legislation. The convention is exclusively devoted to gender equality. One of the core human rights treaties of the UN, it requires any country that ratifies it to undertake legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfil women’s human rights. Proposing the motion, Sharon Foster of the NEC (pictured above)  told delegates that CEDAW “is a tool that is helping millions of women around the world… in their everyday lives.” However, while the Thatcher government ratified CEDAW in 1986, the UN concluded in its last review, in 2019, that the UK was still not compliant. “This is virtuous signalling on a grand scale,” Ms Foster said, adding that the government’s claims that women’s rights are taken care of in the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act, are “blatantly not true.” And as Westminster ignores CEDAW, work is currently underway to draft the CEDAW convention into both Scottish and Welsh law. Ms Foster said that, “Implementing fully would make a huge difference”, not least in the fight against rising domestic violence in the UK, combatting the loss of protections as a result of leaving the EU, and in ending gender-b...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: News 2022 National Delegate Conference empowering women low-paid women Source Type: news