December: Moroccan King Accepts UN Convention Against Gender Discrimination
In honor of Human Rights Day (December 10), King Mohammed VI of Morocco spoke out for human rights, including women's rights, and announced that Morocco accepts the United Nation's 1979 treaty banning gender discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Morocco had signed the treaty with reservations in 1993. (The United States has not ratified the treaty, though President Jimmy Carter signed it in 1980 and its ratification was supported during the 2008 campaign by both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.)December: First Muslim Woman to Serve on Olympic Executive Board
Nawal El Moutawakel, Olympic medalist and Morocco's Minister of Youth and Sports since early 2008, attended her first meeting as a member of the International Olympic Committee Executive Board, the first woman from a Muslim country to serve on that body. She served on the IOC since 1998.
December: Regulations to Allow Health Care Providers to Refuse Treatment
The Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations in December that would provide health care providers, including contractors, with protection if they chose for moral or religious reasons not to provide certain services -- like abortion or birth control. Women's rights organizations warned that this would in practice overturn many of the legal protections of women's access to reproductive health care services.December 31, 2008: New York's Chief Judge Retires
December 31, 2008, marks the retirement of Judith S. Kaye as chief judge on the New York State Court of Appeals. She was the first woman to serve on New York's highest court, appointed by Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1983, and she was the first woman to head that court, a position she has held since 1993. She was also the longest-serving chief judge in the court's history.December: Cabinet Announcements Prepare Way for New Female Governors in NM, AZ
With December announcements that President-Elect Barack Obama will nominate New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Diane Denis (New Mexico's Lieutenant Governor) and Jan Brewer (Arizona's Secretary of State) are presumed to succeed as governors early in the new year.
