Coalition Members at Hearing
(Women’s Issues Commission Chair CM Laurie Cumbo on right)

On April 24^th 2017, members of the NYC4CEDAW Coalition testified at the New York City Council’s Committee on Women’s Issues. At issue were four bills pertaining to Women’s Rights.

•Int 1500-2017  •  Int 1512-2017  •  Int 1520-2017  • Res 0542-2015

The general feeling amongst coalition members is a reserved agreement. While there is a strong feeling for the need to gather data about women in New York City and to empower a commission to assess the City Government’s performance in this area; there were reservations about:

Confusing issues of race with issues of gender;

1.  Creating a new commission rather than the already established Commission on Gender Equality; and
2.  Not grounding these rights in a strong framework, such as CEDAW.

Video of the testimony can be found here.
Coalition member’s submissions can be found here.

NYC4CEDAW is organizing a Day of Action to show Members of the City Council strong support for a New York City for CEDAW Act. We are looking for a large turnout for a march across the Brooklyn Bridge and speeches on the steps of City Hall. Date is TBD and will be released shortly!