SB 2017-138: Wonder Woman Act (Passed)

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

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Sponsor: Siren

I hereby open the floor for debate.

[Anna Komnene]

Yay. Okay so when I ran my wonder woman campaign (and to my surprise, actually won!), I wanted to do a women's rights bill and call it this in honor of that campaign. For a while, I wasn't really sure, but when I remembered about CEDAW, I knew this is what I wanted. Every girl or woman in the world has some Wonder Woman in her, just waiting to flourish. Sometimes it just needs a little help.

CEDAW is one of the UN's landmark treaties and I'm pretty sure it's the treaty with the most ratifications out of any of them. It recognizes that women have suffered a unique form of discrimination throughout history, a form of discrimination that cuts across race, nationality, and creed. As such, the treaty creates a broader definition of discrimination than other treaties that seeks to address the problems faced by women around the world:

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The last line is really important. While CEDAW does concern itself with a lot of political and legal remedies, it also acknowledges that a lot of women's issues are also steeply baked into culture. In order to achieve full equality, we need to be willing to delve into those cultural issues and engage with people.

With 189 ratifications, it's quite bizarre to say the least that Atlasia remains one of the only seven holdouts, among such stalwart human rights titans like Somalia and Sudan. You might think that looking at how many signatories CEDAW has and then looking at the world and seeing the state of women in many of those countries that getting involved is kind of pointless, but I disagree. Atlasia ratifying CEDAW would have enormous symbolic and practical value. As one of the most influential countries in the world and one of the countries with the most resources at its disposal, the decisions we make as a country can have a lot of impact. Atlasia's involvement in CEDAW would surely boost its effectiveness and encourage more countries to take CEDAW seriously. Also, part of the point of the convention is to make progress, so just because we aren't where we want to be yet, doesn't mean we can't get there eventually.

I think ratification could have a big symbolic impact on how women feel at home too. Atlasian girls would see our country finally say to the world that yes we view women as full members of society, equal in every way. We understand the discriminations that women have faced throughout history, we reject and condemn those practices, and we resolve ourselves to support the empowerment of women in every realm of society. We want girls to dream big, to reach for the stars, and to be whatever they want to be.

As a side note: Like the disabilities convention that we worked on a few months ago, CEDAW also has an optional protocol that Atlasia has yet to sign. The optional protocol was created later on to strengthen CEDAW's enforcement mechanisms, provide a stronger recourse to victims, and to attempt to hold member states accountable for failing to adhere to women's equality. If there's interest, we could do this one the same way we did the disabilities convention where the President can sign the optional protocol if she wants and then we could incorporate that into our ratification.

Here are links to the full text of the convention and the optional protocol:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Optional Protocol

Whew. That was quite the ramble.

[ZuWo]

I watched "Wonder Woman", and I enjoyed it.

The act itself is fairly non-controversial as well so I will support it.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

I support this bill. It is shameful that Atlasia, with the likes of Sudan, Somalia, and Iran, hasn't ratified a resolution they signed over 35 years ago. I also believe that the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed Congress 45 years ago but still hasn't been ratified by the regions, should be reintroduced.

[PPT Spiral]

Can't say that I disagree with my friend Senator Siren, so I'm proud to support its passage.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I wholeheartedly support this.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Sorry about that.  A final vote is not open.

[Anna Komnene]

Thanks to President Fhtagn for signing the optional protocol. I'll introduce an amendment now to add that part in. Also I'm adding a minor amendment to the first part because I made a typo on the date Atlasia signed the treaty.

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[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

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Sponsor Feedback: Origination
Status: Adopted

[fhtagn]

Thank you to Senator Siren for bringing the optional protocol to my attention. I'm glad to have assisted in some way on this, and glad to see that this has the support of the Senate so far!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

This bill obviously has my complete support.  Now that President fhtagn has signed us onto the convention, I think I'll open a final vote tomorrow unless anyone has any objection or amendment.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

The question is now on the table.  Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

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[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Aye.

[Anna Komnene]

Aye.

[ZuWo]

Aye

[Wikipedia delenda est]

Aye

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

This has enough votes to pass.  Senators have 24 hours to change their vote.

[PPT Spiral]

Aye

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Aye

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

With six votes in favor, this resolution unanimously passes the Atlasian Senate.

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People's Regional Senate
Passed 6-0 in the Atlasian Senate assembled
Be it resolved, X President pro tempore
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