On its sixtieth anniversary, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights is still a distant dream for most of the world's girls and women. Nowhere are violations of women's human rights greater than in the health sector.

On its sixtieth anniversary, the Universal Declaration on Human

Rights is still a distant dream for most of the world’s girls and

women. One in every three women in the world experiences violence in

her lifetime just because she is a woman. In Africa, three million

girls are at risk of female genital mutilation, and ten million girls

worldwide face early and forced marriage each year.

While gender gaps in education have recently been closing, 70% of

children not in school are girls, and sex discrimination pervades most

other sectors. For example, only 16% of parliamentarians worldwide are

women.

Nowhere are violations of women’s human rights greater than in the

health sector. Half a million women die and 10-15 million are

permanently disabled each year from entirely preventable causes related

to pregnancy and childbirth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk

of dying in childbirth is more than 300 times higher than in rich

countries. The health impacts of poverty and injustice are not distant

challenges: the United States ranks 41st in the world in maternal

mortality, behind Latvia, Portugal, and Poland. In Sub-Saharan Africa,

over 60 percent of adults, and 75 percent of young people, living with

HIV/AIDS are female.

Eleanor Roosevelt, architect of the Universal Declaration on Human

Rights, understood that such daily violations of the rights to life,

dignity, and equality are the core human rights challenge. In 1958 she

said,

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"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places,

close to home… the neighborhood… the school… the factory, farm,

or office… Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little

meaning anywhere."

But countries and the international system have only paid lip

service to Eleanor Roosevelt’s wisdom. Over a dozen United Nations

agreements have elaborated in detail the human rights of women and

actions required to protect them. In 1979 the Convention on the

Elimination of the Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a legally

binding treaty, took effect and has been ratified by all but eight of

the world’s governments, including, unfortunately, the United States.

In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights again recognized the

human rights of women and of the girl child and said that they are

"priority objectives of the international community." Two years later,

at the Fourth World Conference on Women, First Lady Hillary Rodham

Clinton nonetheless felt compelled to point out once more that "Women’s

rights are human rights."

So what is the way forward?

Based on decades of international work, we know that there will be

no global peace or security until we secure every woman’s right to a

just and healthy life. Only healthy women whose human rights are

protected can be fully productive workers and effective participants in

their country’s political processes. Only when women are healthy and

empowered can they raise and educate healthy children. These are

imperative in their own right, and also the building blocks of stable

societies and growing economies.

How do we get there?

President-elect Barack Obama has the unique opportunity, and the

profound responsibility, to reestablish U.S. credibility and global

leadership on human rights for all. The first step is to help

strengthen the United Nations as a vehicle to hold governments

accountable for human rights protection and for meeting unfulfilled

commitments to girls and women. Second, the United States can once

again lead the world in making access to comprehensive reproductive

health services a reality for women and young people here in the United

States and globally.

Only when women are able to exercise control over their bodies are

they able to fully realize other human right such as access to education

and employment, political participation and legal equality. Third, the

new President should prioritize asking the Senate to ratify CEDAW.

Finally, the United States, at home and abroad, can enable new

generations to live the principles of the Universal Declaration on

Human Rights. A key vehicle is comprehensive sexuality education, which

teaches young people how to establish equality in relationships;

respect the right to consent in both sex and marriage; and end sexual

coercion and violence against women.

The next Administration will have the opportunity and the power to

make these changes and to create a different kind of world for millions

of girls and women, boys and men. It will take courage and vision to

act boldly. The reward — in lives saved and in our restored reputation

as a global leader for social justice — will be incalculable.