U.N. convention on women

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 18

U.N. convention on women

Sir,—lt is true that more than half of the 22 Public Service Association executive at a meeting on January 24 supported ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women. That is the reason why 68,000 P.S.A. members, including Harry Davey, support it. However, if 12 of the executive had voted at that meeting against ratification, then 68,000 P.S.A. members, including Harry Davey, would now oppose the convention. The whole situation is ridiculous. P.S.A. support for or against ratification does not represent the views of the membership, it represents the views of the executive. I suspect that many other organisations supporting ratification do so without the consent of their members.—Yours, etc., RAY SPRING. May 16, 1984. Sir,—This fine-sounding convention is misnamed. It is like the Trojan horse, and will in fact, take away the extra rights and privileges that New Zealand women

enjoy. If this treaty is ratified, our treaty partners would include the U.S.S.R., Poland, Hungary, China, Cuba, Bulgaria and Vietnam, each of whom could haul us before the International Court of Justice if they do not approve of what we are doing. It is important to realise that the convention is not arguing for equal opportunity for women, but for “maximum participation of women, in all fields.” Yet we have pitied the Russian women labouring on the roads, for their women have had “equal rights” laws for years. Let us beware of giving control over every facet of our lives to politicians and bureaucrats. — Yours, etc., GAVIN MARSHALL. May 30, 1984.

Sir,—The United Nations convention on women appears a debating point because there are so many computers that each has caused different approaches and conclusions. As part of progress some things have to make way where other things are required. For that reason it does not do for Susan Taylor to back up a wellspoken person or to demand a stop to distortion, as such activity adds to a congestion area. From 6000 years of history, the most effective results for the cause of women (and humanity), have been achieved when the Laws of Moses and the management of Jesus’s grace were properly related. — Yours, etc., TOM VOS. Reefton, May 31, 1984.