Twelve recipients of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case and more than ninety experts on human rights law and women’s rights have signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Harper to withdraw the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. The PSEC Act was introduced as part of Budget 2009.

The proposed legislation empties the right to pay equity of any meaning, say legal scholars and women’s rights specialists from across Canada. By permitting the evaluation of pay for male and female dominated jobs to take into account that male-dominated jobs are valued more highly in the market, this legislation will re-inject sex discrimination into federal public sector pay practices rather than eliminating it. Pay equity laws were created because market forces consistently undervalued women’s work compared to men’s.

(Ottawa) A key United Nations human rights monitoring body has issued a report highly critical of Canada’s record on women’s human rights. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) reviewed Canada’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and issued its Concluding Observations in Geneva this week. The Committee asked Canada to report back in one year on steps taken to address inadequate social assistance rates across the country and the failure of law enforcement agencies to deal with the disappearance and murder of Aboriginal women and girls.

OTTAWA- (27 October, 2008)-Representatives from the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) a pan-Canadian alliance of 70 women’s equality seeking groups, watched as the UN CEDAW Committee in Geneva asked hard questions of the Canadian government regarding Canada’s failure to live up to the equality guarantees to women contained in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination (CEDAW) against Women ratified by Canada in 1981.

***Please see Canada’s opening statements for the CEDAW review held October 22, 2008. All of the NGOs of Canada had only seven minutes for opening statements. In the interest of time and getting key issues on the official record, FAFIA’s delegation opted to focus on main themes outlined in the report.

The FAFIA CEDAW civil society report can be found here

Canada’s performance in achieving women’s human rights is currently being reviewed by the United Nation’s Committee on the International Covenant on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

FAFIA, along with its member groups, has submitted a comprehensive national civil society report to the UN CEDAW Committee to advise this review.

Nearly 40 women’s equality seeking groups and individuals collaborated on this testimony of Canada’s adherence to CEDAW and its implementation of the CEDAW committee’s recommendations of 2003.

Canada’s much awaited Sixth and Seventh periodic CEDAW reports have been submitted to the CEDAW Committee and are available to the public.

CEDAW in 2007 - 2008: Preparing for the Upcoming Review of Canada at the United Nations

FAFIA and Oxfam Canada have partnered to host a strategic discussion this week (Friday, March 9th and Saturday, March 10th ) regarding the upcoming United Nations review of Canada under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expected in late 2007 or early 2008. During this meeting, we will begin a discussion about the framework for FAFIA’s shadow report to the UN Committee, with a particular emphasis on women’s poverty.

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women presents its Fourteenth Report on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in the Employment Insurance Committee.

warningHundreds of concerned individuals, community and women’s groups will be demonstrating in Ottawa today to call upon Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reverse a series of decisions that will harm women’s equality rights.