By REKHA BASU
REGISTER COLUMNIST
February 27, 2005

Without laws on our side, women have little ammunition to fight inequality, but even with them, discriminatory practices persist. Here in America, for example, rape and domestic violence are at epidemic levels despite laws forbidding them.

Since March brings International Women's Day, let's remember that women aren't allowed by law to drive in Saudi Arabia, or vote in Kuwait. And while American women can vote, American voters have never put a woman in the highest office, though a majority say they're ready to. We're surpassed by Turkey, Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Great Britain, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel and most recently Ukraine, all of which have.

Ten years after international delegates gathered in Beijing for the much-heralded United Nations conference on women, they'll convene again, at U.N. headquarters in New York, for the Beijing Plus-10 Conference, to see how far we've come.

Which, according to Equality Now, a non-profit women's rights organization in New York, is not very far.

The most blatant forms of state-sanctioned sex discrimination endure, condoned and even enforced by governments, it contends. For all the fanfare, debates and resolution adopted by 189 countries, women around the world are still lawfully persecuted and discriminated against. It ranges from "wife obedience" laws in countries like Sudan and Yemen to legal polygamy in Mali and Tanzania.

What's worse, thanks to the growth of religious fundamentalism that opposes women's rights, some countries want to renegotiate the Beijing resolution to weaken it, says Taina Bien-Aime, Equality Now's executive director.

As the world's only superpower, the United States has a unique burden of leadership. Buoyed by the American women's liberation movement, women around the world look to us to lead the way.

But will we?

Nodding to fundamentalism at home, the administration has sent mixed messages. It's halted funding to the United Nations Population Fund, claiming the agency supports forced abortions in parts of China - though it insists it doesn't, and a 2002 State Department report agreed. Even so, the White House has threatened to also withhold aid to other U.N. and private agencies with ties to UNFPA, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

It's also tried to persuade other governments to back away from the "Cairo Consensus," which was endorsed by 179 countries, including the United States, at a 1994 population conference, says Bien-Aime. That resolution established that promoting women's reproductive rights and services is essential to economic development.

In recent regional gatherings, while affirming its commitment to the empowerment and rights of women, U.S. delegates have stressed "promoting behavior change" - abstinence and fidelity - to fight AIDS, and rejected the notion of "sexual rights."

Compounding the mixed messages is the Senate's refusal to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, signed by President Carter in 1980. Without ratification, the United States can't take part in monitoring progress and encouraging other countries toward greater women's rights. Only 10 percent of U.N. member nations haven't ratified it. Even Afghanistan and Syria have. Iraq, too.

America needs to abide by a consistent set of principles when it comes to rights. Yet every time there's a change of parties in the White House, the rules on global women's rights get rewritten. That sends a confusing message to the rest of the world. Now that the Bush administration claims leading the world to democracy as a cornerstone of its agenda, it needs to be mindful that there can be no real democracy without equality.