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Proposal Details

Proposal ID1008
ProposalPlatform Housekeeping: Chapter II, Section A, 1, Women146s Rights
PresenterPlatform Committee Sponsor: National Women's Caucus
Floor ManagerMargaret Flowers
PhaseCancelled
Discussion05/04/2020 - 05/31/2020
Voting06/01/2020 - 06/07/2020
Presens Quorum 0.6666
Consens Quorum 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

The National Committee approved Prop 870 on July 17, 2017 to allow the Platform Committee to submit housekeeping amendments for approval by the National Committee:
Proposed amendments for minor grammar corrections, typos, and dates that are no longer relevant in the GP-US Platform can be made at any time by the GP-US Platform Committee. This does not include style rewrites or other deletions of material, but is limited to those items above-mentioned only. If approved by the Platform Committee, such housekeeping amendments will be sent on to the National Committee when enough have accrued that the co-chairs of the Platform Committee deem it advisable, but no less than annually. Once the National Committee has signed off on them, the changes shall be made immediately and a request issued to the GP-US webmaster for an update to the published version(s) on the GP-US web site.

Proposal

Revise Chapter II Social Justice, Section A, Civil Rights and Equal Rights, Sub-section 1, Women’s Rights to read as follows

 
1. Women's Rights
 
Since the beginning of what we call civilization, when men's dominance over women was firmly established, until the present day, our history has been marred with the oppression of and brutality to women. The Green Party deplores this system of male domination, known as patriarchy, in all its forms, both subtle and overt — from oppression, inequality, and discrimination to all forms of violence against women,  transgender women and girls, including rape, trafficking, forced sex (paid or unpaid, which is also rape), and slavery, prostitution and violence against women within marriage and relationships and in all institutions. [MAKE THE FOLLOWING A NEW PARAGRAPH] The change the world is crying for cannot occur unless women's voices are heard. Democracy cannot work without equality for women, including transgender women in all instances, which provides equal participation and representation. It took an extraordinary and ongoing fight over 72 many years for women to win the right to vote. Although the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920, Native and Indigenous women were not able to vote in every state until 1962, and African-American women did not have full voting rights until 1965. However, tThe Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced in 1923, has still not been ratified by 2012, representing a continuous struggle of 87 years with no victory in sight. We believe that equality should be a given, and that all Greens must work toward that end. We are committed to increasing the participation of women in politics, government and leadership so they can change laws, make decisions, and create policy solutions that affect and will improve women's and other oppressed people’s lives, and we are building our party so that Greens can be elected to office to do this. In July 2002 tThe National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States was founded in July 2002 to ensure that carry out the Party's Party continues to build and elect Greens to office who will honor that commitment to women.
 
We also support, and call on others to support, the many existing and ongoing efforts for women:
 
Social Equality
 
 a. We support the equal application of the Constitution of the United States of America to all citizens, and therefore call for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). We urge accelerated ratification by three or more of the remaining 15 states that are required to pass ERA into law and into the Constitution. We urge renewed efforts and campaigns to ratify the ERA. We support the Equal Rights Amendment reintroduced in the U.S. Congress, and support using the precedent of a three-state strategy for ratification.
 
 b. We call for equal representation of women in Congress instead of the current 1723.7% in 20122019.
 
 c. The Green Party calls for the U.S. passage of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly and ratified by 173 countries. The U.S. is one of the very few countries, and the only industrialized nation, that have has not ratified it.
 
 d. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission should actively investigate and prosecute sexual harassment complaints. Women who file complaints must not be persecuted and should be protected under federal and state law. We must enshrine in law the basic principle that women have the same rights as men, and promote gender equality and fairness in the work force to ensure that women receive equal pay for jobs of equal worth.
 
 e. We support the inclusion of an equal number of women and men in peace talks and negotiations, not only because these efforts directly affect their lives and those of their husbandsspouses, partners, significant others, children and families, but also because when women are involved, the negotiations are more successful.
 
Reproductive Rights
 
Women's rights must be protected and expanded to guarantee each woman's right as a full participant in society, free from sexual harassment, job discrimination or interference in the intensely personal choice about whether to have a child.
 
Women's right to control their bodies is non-negotiable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available. The "morning-after" pill must be affordable and easily accessible without a prescription, together with a government-sponsored public relations campaign to educate women about this form of contraception. Clinics must be accessible and must offer advice on contraception and abortion, offer consultation about abortion and the performance of abortions, provide the means for contraception and abortions,the means for contraception; consultation about abortion and the performance of abortions, and; perform abortions, regardless of age or marital status.
 
We endorse women's right to use contraception and, when they choose, to have an abortion. This right cannot be limited to by the women's age or marital status. Contraception and abortion must be included in all health insurance policies in the U.S., and any state government must be able to legally offer these services free of charge to women at the poverty level. Public health agencies operating abroad should be allowed to offer family planning, contraception, and abortion in all countries that ask for those services. We oppose our government's habit of cutting family planning funds when those funds go to agencies in foreign countries that give outprovide contraceptive devices, offer advice on and abortion advice, and or that perform abortions.
 
We encourage women and menpeople to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It is the inalienable right and duty of every woman to learn about her body and to be aware of the phases of her menstrual cycle, and it is the duty for every man to be aware of the functions and health of his and his partner's bodies. This information is necessary for self-determination, to make informed decisions, and to prevent unintended consequences. Unplanned conception takes control away from individuals and makes them subject to external controls. The "morning-after" pill and option of a safe and legal abortion need to remain available.
 
Economic Equality
 
NSince, nationally, women earn only 7779% of men's wages for equal work, and American Indian and Alaska Native, Black and Hispanic women earn only 74% of what white men earn, despite outnumbering men in the workforce and despite the U.S. 1963 Equal Pay Act. , Wwe support intensified effort to see this unfair gap closed, including support for the Paycheck Fairness Act and similar legislation, and greater effort at enforcement.
 
Single mothers are the largest and most severely impoverished group in the United States, which explains why 212% of the children in our country live below the poverty line. Welfare “reform” has forced mothers to abandon their children while they travel to work at minimum wage jobs. With the extreme pay inequity, single mothers cannot afford child care,  or adequately nurture their children, and move out of povertyremain impoverished.
 
The Green Party supports real reforms to end poverty and return dignity and opportunity to all mothers. We call for implementing innovative programs that work with the particular and special needs of motherhood. We also support other programs such as a universal basic income (known also as a guaranteed income or Citizen Dividend, as described in True Cost Pricing and Tax Fairness, IV. E.) that will provide for those who nurture the next generation — work that is of incalculable importance to our society.
 
Violence and Oppression
 
Language is often used as a weapon by those with power, and women have traditionally borne the brunt of inflicted injuries. Freedom of speech is vital to democracy. However, we believe that this freedom should not be used to perpetuate oppression and abuse.
 
Violence against women is increasing nationwide. We must address the root cause of all violence even as we specifically address violence to women, including transgender women. We support stronger legislation, programs and enforcement. We also call for new dialog and re-thinking that can lead to better language, ideas and solutions. We urge that the term "domestic violence" be replaced by the term "violence," because "domestic violence" is not perceived as real violence, which leads to it not being treated legally and practically for the violence that it is. [MAKE THE FOLLOWING A NEW PARAGRAPH] We urge that the term "sex work" not be used in relation to prostitutionsex for pay. With the increasing conflation of trafficking (the violent and illegal trafficking in women and girls for forced sex) with prostitutionsex for pay, it is impossible to know which is which, and what violence the term "sex work" is masking. No source in existence knows which forms of prostitution sex for pay comprise forced sex and which comprise free will or sex for pay by choice prostitution. Forced sex is rape, and it is a crime. An increasing number of experts think the percentage of choice prostitution sex for pay is very small, leaving the larger number of women exposed to serious and often fatal violence. Much of what is commonly called prostitution sex for pay is actually sex trafficking by definition. The Green Party calls for a safer world for women, and girls, and transgender people.
 
The Green Party has zero tolerance for the illegal international trafficking in humans. Of the millions of humans trafficked worldwide, the large majority are women and children who are bought and sold as slaves. They are kept captive and in debt-bondage that can never be paid off. Most are sold over and over again for forced sex prostitutionfor pay. Forced sex is rape and a serious crime. Some are forced to labor in agriculture, sweat shops, hotels, restaurants, domestic service and other forms of servitude. According to Human Rights Watch, in all cases coercive tactics — including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, or debt bondage — are used to control women. Estimates of human trafficking in the U.S. vary greatly from 18,000 to 50,000 to over 100,000 with a worldwide estimate of 12.525 million, mostly 71% of whom are women and female and 28% are children.
 
Indigenous women and children are especially vulnerable. In a recent year, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls in the U.S., and a recent study identified 506 missing/murdered indigenous women and girls in urban areas.
 
The Green Party calls for new U.S. legislation relating to prostitution sex for pay modeled on the Swedish law passed in 1999, now adopted by other countries and being considered by more, that has drastically reduced human trafficking and prostitution sex for pay in Sweden. That law criminalizes the purchase of services from prostitutespeople having sex for pay, pimps and brothel keepers instead of criminalizing the people having sex for payprostitutes. The Green Party urges the U.S. to open dialogs and visit with Sweden as a step toward introducing legislation in the U.S. Congress to address the exploitation, violence and harm to women through prostitutionsex for pay.
 
The Green Party supports all efforts to eradicate this extreme abuse of human rights, including, but not limited to, enforcement of existing laws and passage of tough new ones, punishing traffickers, aiding victims, increasing public awareness, reforming immigration laws, supporting existing programs and creating new ones.
 
We support the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report as an important document to begin to combat this abuse. We support and urge enforcement of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (HR 3244) signed into law on October 28, 2000. This Act authorizes funding for the prevention of trade in human beings and for protecting victims. It gives the State Department a historic opportunity to create an office with the exclusive responsibility of ending traffic in humans and protecting the victims of this worldwide trade. We urge committed political support to achieve the cooperation of all different levels of government.
 
The Green Party urges a more thorough dialog and understanding of violence against women, and girls and transgender people, including from the various risks from prostitution sex for pay and trafficking, such as injuries and sexually transmitted diseases, that causes health issues and injury damage that seriously degrades their lives, even to the point of death or premature death including from HIV, syphilis and many other diseases, as well as causing severe economic hardships. We call for solutions to this enormous problem that can result in awareness and the introduction of Approval of this proposal will amend the 2018 GPUS Platform,
legislation in the U.S. Congress to address it.

Resources

Approval of this proposal will amend the 2018 GPUS Platform,

Contact:
Platform Committee Co-chairs: platcom@gp.org
Bruce Hinkforth
Tim Willard

References

CURRENT TEXT
 
1. Women's Rights
 
Since the beginning of what we call civilization, when men's dominance over women was firmly established, until the present day, our history has been marred with oppression of and brutality to women. The Green Party deplores this system of male domination, known as patriarchy, in all its forms, both subtle and overt — from oppression, inequality, and discrimination to all forms of violence against women and girls including rape, trafficking, forced sex which is also rape, slavery, prostitution and violence against women within marriage and relationships and in all institutions. The change the world is crying for cannot occur unless women's voices are heard. Democracy cannot work without equality for women, which provides equal participation and representation. It took an extraordinary and ongoing fight over 72 years for women to win the right to vote. However, the Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced in 1923, has still not been ratified by 2012, representing a continuous struggle of 87 years with no victory in sight. We believe that equality should be a given, and that all Greens must work toward that end. We are committed to increasing participation of women in politics, government and leadership so they can change laws, make decisions, and create policy solutions that affect and will improve women's lives, and we are building our party so that Greens can be elected to office to do this. In July 2002 the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party of the United States was founded to carry out the Party's commitment to women.
 
We also support, and call on others to support, the many existing and ongoing efforts for women:
 
Social Equality
 
a. We support the equal application of the Constitution of the United States of America to all citizens, and therefore call for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). We urge accelerated ratification by three or more of the remaining 15 states that are required to pass ERA into law and into the Constitution. We urge renewed efforts and campaigns to ratify the ERA. We support the Equal Rights Amendment reintroduced in the U.S. Congress, and support using the precedent of a three-state strategy for ratification.
 
b. We call for equal representation of women in Congress instead of the current 17% in 2012.
 
c. The Green Party calls for U.S. passage of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly and ratified by 173 countries. The U.S. is one of the very few countries, and the only industrialized nation, that have not ratified it.
 
d. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission should actively investigate and prosecute sexual harassment complaints. Women who file complaints must not be persecuted and should be protected under federal and state law. We must enshrine in law the basic principle that women have the same rights as men, and promote gender equality and fairness in the work force to ensure that women receive equal pay for jobs of equal worth.
 
e. We support the inclusion of an equal number of women and men in peace talks and negotiations, not only because these efforts directly affect their lives and those of their husbands, children and families, but also because when women are involved, the negotiations are more successful.
 
Reproductive Rights
 
Women's rights must be protected and expanded to guarantee each woman's right as a full participant in society, free from sexual harassment, job discrimination or interference in the intensely personal choice about whether to have a child.
 
Women's right to control their bodies is non-negotiable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available. The "morning-after" pill must be affordable and easily accessible without a prescription, together with a government-sponsored public relations campaign to educate women about this form of contraception. Clinics must be accessible and must offer advice on contraception and the means for contraception; consultation about abortion and the performance of abortions, and; abortion regardless of age or marital status.
 
We endorse women's right to use contraception and, when they choose, to have an abortion. This right cannot be limited to women's age or marital status. Contraception and abortion must be included in all health insurance policies in the U.S., and any state government must be able to legally offer these services free of charge to women at the poverty level. Public health agencies operating abroad should be allowed to offer family planning, contraception, and abortion in all countries that ask for those services. We oppose our government's habit of cutting family planning funds when those funds go to agencies in foreign countries that give out contraceptive devices, offer advice on abortion, and perform abortions.
 
We encourage women and men to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It is the inalienable right and duty of every woman to learn about her body and to be aware of the phases of her menstrual cycle, and it is the duty for every man to be aware of the functions and health of his and his partner's bodies. This information is necessary for self-determination, to make informed decisions, and to prevent unintended consequences. Unplanned conception takes control away from individuals and makes them subject to external controls. The "morning-after" pill and option of a safe and legal abortion need to remain available.
 
Economic Equality
 
Since, nationally, women earn only 77% of men's wages for equal work, despite outnumbering men in the workforce and despite the U.S. 1963 Equal Pay Act, we support intensified effort to see this unfair gap closed, including support for the Paycheck Fairness Act and similar legislation, and greater effort at enforcement.
 
Single mothers are the largest and most severely impoverished group in the United States, which explains why 22% of the children in our country live below the poverty line. Welfare reform has forced mothers to abandon their children while they travel to work at minimum wage jobs. With the extreme pay inequity, single mothers cannot afford child care, nurture their children, and move out of poverty.
 
The Green Party supports real reforms to end poverty and return dignity and opportunity to all mothers. We call for implementing innovative programs that work with the particular and special needs of motherhood. We also support other programs such as a universal basic income (known also as a guaranteed income or Citizen Dividend, as described in True Cost Pricing and Tax Fairness, IV. E.) that will provide for those who nurture the next generation — work that is of incalculable importance to our society.
 
Violence and Oppression
 
Language is often used as a weapon by those with power, and women have traditionally borne the brunt of inflicted injuries. Freedom of speech is vital to democracy. However, we believe that this freedom should not be used to perpetuate oppression and abuse.
 
Violence against women is increasing nationwide. We must address the root cause of all violence even as we specifically address violence to women. We support stronger legislation, programs and enforcement. We also call for new dialog and re-thinking that can lead to better language, ideas and solutions. We urge that the term "domestic violence" be replaced by the term "violence," because "domestic violence" is not perceived as real violence, which leads to it not being treated legally and practically for the violence that it is. We urge that the term "sex work" not be used in relation to prostitution. With the increasing conflation of trafficking (the violent and illegal trafficking in women and girls for forced sex) with prostitution, it is impossible to know which is which, and what violence the term "sex work" is masking. No source in existence knows which forms of prostitution comprise forced sex and which comprise free will or choice prostitution. Forced sex is rape, and it is a crime. An increasing number of experts think the percentage of choice prostitution is very small, leaving the larger number of women exposed to serious and often fatal violence. Much of what is commonly called prostitution is actually sex trafficking by definition. The Green Party calls for a safer world for women and girls.
 
The Green Party has zero tolerance for the illegal international trafficking in humans. Of the millions of humans trafficked worldwide, the large majority are women and children who are bought and sold as slaves. They are kept captive and in debt-bondage that can never be paid off. Most are sold over and over again for forced sex prostitution. Forced sex is rape and a serious crime. Some are forced to labor in agriculture, sweat shops, hotels, restaurants, domestic service and other forms of servitude. According to Human Rights Watch, in all cases coercive tactics — including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, or debt bondage — are used to control women. Estimates of human trafficking in the U.S. vary greatly from 18,000 to 50,000 to over 100,000 with a worldwide estimate of 12.5 million, mostly women and children.
 
The Green Party calls for new U.S. legislation relating to prostitution modeled on the Swedish law passed in 1999, now adopted by other countries and being considered by more, that has drastically reduced human trafficking and prostitution in Sweden. That law criminalizes the purchase of services from prostitutes, pimps and brothel keepers instead of criminalizing the prostitutes. The Green Party urges the U.S. to open dialogs and visit with Sweden as a step toward introducing legislation in the U.S. Congress to address the exploitation, violence and harm to women through prostitution.
 
The Green Party supports all efforts to eradicate this extreme abuse of human rights, including but not limited to enforcement of existing laws and passage of tough new ones, punishing traffickers, aiding victims, increasing public awareness, reforming immigration laws, supporting existing programs and creating new ones.
 
We support the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report as an important document to begin to combat this abuse. We support and urge enforcement of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (HR 3244) signed into law on October 28, 2000. This Act authorizes funding for the prevention of trade in human beings and for protecting victims. It gives the State Department a historic opportunity to create an office with the exclusive responsibility of ending traffic in humans and protecting the victims of this worldwide trade. We urge committed political support to achieve the cooperation of all different levels of government.
 
The Green Party urges a more thorough dialog and understanding of violence against women and girls, including from prostitution and trafficking, that causes health and injury damage that seriously degrades their lives, even to death or premature death including from HIV, syphilis and many other diseases, as well as causing severe economic hardships. We call for solutions to this enormous problem that can result in awareness and the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Congress to address it.

[https://www.history.com/news/native-american-voting-rights-citizenship]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965]
[https://www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf]
[https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-Trafficking-in-Persons-Report.pdf]
[https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/12/report-majority-of-trafficking-victims-are-women-and-girls-one-third-children/]
[http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html]
[https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap]
[https://www.thoughtco.com/why-wont-u-s-ratify-cedaw-3533824]
[https://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-2019]
 


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