Read and sign the Declaration here. We are at over 20,000 individual signatures globally, from over 140 different countries, in collaboration with over 385 organizations, and we are adding more each day.
Over 20,000 signatures globally
From over 140 different countries
In collaboration with over 385 organizations
What is The Declaration?
The Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights is the founding document of Women’s Declaration International (WDI). It makes WDI distinct from other radical feminist organizations and guides all of our actions and decisions.
The Declaration re-affirms women’s sex-based rights as outlined in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18th, 1979. It was further developed in the CEDAW Committee General Recommendations, and adopted, inter alia, in the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993 (UNDEVW).
CEDAW is a tool that has helped, and continues to help, women worldwide to successfully fight sex-based discrimination. Here is why:
- CEDAW requires signing countries to enact policies that reject sex-based stereotypes, as well as prejudices and customs based on the idea that either sex is better or worse than the other.
- CEDAW affirms “gender” means the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes a society considers appropriate for either sex.
- CEDAW affirms gender is socially constructed, learned, and performed, not innate or essential.
However, the UN recently changed references to “sex” with “gender” in its documents, strategies, and actions. The concept of ‘gender identity’ has been incorporated into many influential international human rights documents. This undermines women’s sex-based rights and CEDAW’s mission.
Articles of The Declaration
Below are summarized versions of the nine articles of The Declaration. You can also read, download, and find copies of the entire Declaration translated into 19 different languages at the Women’s Declaration International website:
1. Women’s Rights Are Based On Their Sex
Sex is the physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males from females. Women and girls’ rights should be based on sex, not “gender identity”.
2. Motherhood Is An Exclusively Female Status
Maternal rights and services are based on women’s unique, sex-based capacity to gestate and give birth to children. These rights and services, and the word “mother” itself should stay reserved for persons of the female sex.
3. Physical And Reproductive Integrity
Women have the right to control their fertility. The reproductive rights of women and girls, and their access to reproductive services, should be upheld. Forced pregnancies, surrogate motherhood, and medical research aimed at enabling men to gestate and give birth to children are to be eliminated.
4. Freedom Of Opinion And Expression
Women have the right to hold opinions without interference. This should include the right to hold and express opinions about ‘gender identity’ without being subject to harassment, prosecution or punishment.
5. Peaceful Assembly And Association
Women have a right to peaceful assembly and a freedom of association. This should include the right to assemble and associate based on their sex. Lesbians should have a right to assemble and associate on the basis of their sexual orientation. Women’s assemblies and associations should not have to include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.
6. Political Participation
There are opportunities and protections that were specifically created to help women achieve equal status with men, such as participation quotas. These opportunities and protections should apply only to persons of the female sex and shall not include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.
7. Participation In Sports And Physical Education
Women and girls are objectively physically different from men and boys in ways other than reproductive capacity. For women and girls to have equitable opportunities in sports, certain sports activities must remain single-sex.
8. Elimination Of Violence Against Women
To fight violence against women and girls, single-sex victim support services, including rape crisis centres and domestic violence shelters, should remain single-sex. In order to create effective policies to eliminate sex-based violence, we need accurate data and statistics about who the victims and perpetrators are, including their sex.
9. Protection Of The Rights Of The Child
Children should receive accurate information about human biology and reproduction, and not gender stereotyping through their education. Children should not be subjected to the use of drugs and surgery for ‘gender reassignment.’
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