III

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. RES. 306

Expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to Mother’s Day that the

United States Senate should reject the United Nations Convention on

the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as it demeans motherhood and undermines the traditional family.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 11, 2000

Mr. HELMS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the

Committee on Foreign Relations

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to Mother’s

Day that the United States Senate should reject the

United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as it demeans

motherhood and undermines the traditional family.

Whereas motherhood is a God-given right of women to bear

and rear children;

Whereas, since 1914, the United States has officially observed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day to display public expression of love and reverence for all American mothers;

Whereas Mother’s Day is recognized by the United States

and many other countries in affirmation of the invaluable
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•SRES 306 IS

role mothers play in providing a family upbringing for

children;

Whereas the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination

Against Women integrates a derogatory sentiment toward

motherhood as manifested in the Convention’s January 3,

2000 Committee Report on Belarus specifically condemning symbols such as Mother’s Day;

Whereas the Senate affirms its commitment that the United

States should work with other nations to enhance the

protection of the fundamental right of motherhood, including the condemnation of coercive population control

programs where expectant mothers are forced to undergo

abortions or sterilizations;

Whereas the Convention’s agenda to promote abortion worldwide invades the laws of countries that hold a religious

or moral belief that abortion is the destruction of innocent human life and that it subjects expectant mothers

to physical and emotional trauma;

Whereas the Convention seeks to supplant the primary care

and nurturing provided by stay-at-home mothers with institutionalized daycare facilities as advocated in the Convention’s August 12, 1997 Committee Report on Slovenia, which stated that children cared for at home are

deprived of ‘‘educational and social opportunities offered

in formal daycare institutions’’; and

Whereas more than a hundred United States-based family,

religious, and educational organizations representing

countless millions of Americans strongly oppose United

States ratification of the Convention on the Elimination

of Discrimination Against Women: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—
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•SRES 306 IS

1 (1) the tenets of the Convention on the Elimi2 nation of Discrimination Against Women are incom3 patible with the tradition and policy of the United

4 States to uphold motherhood and to regard mother5 hood with the highest degree of honor and respect;

6 (2) the Convention would create negative per7 ceptions toward motherhood; and

8 (3) the Senate should not give its advice and

9 consent to ratification of the fundamentally flawed

10 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination

11 Against Women.

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