1. Introduction
2. Historical disregard of human rights violations against women
3. The principal efforts and achievements directed to women’s human rights
4. Vienna’s World Conference and the women’s human rights
5. Forward from Vienna: obstacles and achievements concerning the human rights of women
6. Conclusions
7. Bibliography
“The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights”, Vienna Declaration[1].
This project aims to accentuate the necessity of a full and effective integration of women’s human rights into the human rights framework and to emphasize the international effort in law and in practice made in the last century to achieve a full recognition of the status of women and the development of strategies for women’s advancement.
1. Introduction
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines human rights as universal, inalienable, and indivisible. These defining characteristics are very important for the achievement of women's human rights.
Thus, as it shows Charlotte Bunch and Samantha Frost in their article Global Women’s Issues and Knowledge, the universality of human rights means that human rights apply to every single person by virtue of their humanity and also that human rights apply to everyone equally, because everyone is equal in simply being human. The universality theme may seem self-evident, but its principal of equality has a radical importance, because it facilitated women’s demand of the recognition of their humanity. That acknowledgement allowed the incorporation of women and gender perspectives into all of the ideas and institutions that are already charged with the promotion and protection of human rights.
Furthermore, the idea of human rights as inalienable means that it is impossible for anyone to abdicate her or his human rights, even if they wanted to, since every person is accorded those rights by virtue of being human. It also means that no person or group of persons can deprive another individual of her or his human rights and that human rights cannot be sold, ransomed, or forfeited for any reason. The idea of inalienability has also been important in negotiations regarding the relation between social, religious and cultural practices and the human rights. An important progress for the elimination of this practices has been registered in 1993 when at Vienna Declaration and Programs of Action and at the United Nations Declaration Against Violence Against Women, was affirmed that in cases of conflict between women’s human rights and cultural or religious practices, the human rights for women must prevail.
Concerning the indivisibility of human rights this one signifies that none of the rights that are considered to be fundamental human rights is more important than any of the others more specifically and that they are inter-related. The fact that human rights are indivisible is important for women, since their civil and political rights historically have been compromised by their economic status, by social and cultural limitations and by the violence exercised against them that often constitutes a very difficult obstacle to women's participation in public and political life. By invoking the indivisibility of women's human rights, women have rejected a human rights hierarchy, which places either political or civil rights or socio-economic rights as primary and also have demonstrated their inter-dependence. [2]
2. Historical disregard of human rights violations against women
The United Nations effort to “promote equality between men and women” and to “ensure the full integration of women in the total development effort” has been directed with increasing vigor to the concern of the larger global community for outlawing sex-based discrimination. This concern wants to create a more general norm of nondiscrimination which seeks to ban all generic differentiation among people. The particular norm against sex-based discrimination finds expression in many authoritative communications, at both international and national levels, and is defined in a way to condemn all the historic deprivations imposed upon women as group.[3]
In the article Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing of Sex-Based Discrimination published in The American Journal of International Law, the concerned deprivation refers to the discriminations based upon gender, which commonly accord women less favorable treatment than man. While the concept of maleness or femaleness differs among cultures, the existence and perpetuation of distinct sex roles, as dictated mostly by men, have particularly resulted in male-dominated societies in which women are regarded as the “subordinate sex”, “the second sex”, “the weaker sex”, or “the other”[4].
Despite international development in status in recent decades, women around the globe still face the discrimination, either deep or more subtle. The deprivations women suffer begin with the “second-rung” respect they receive in practically every human society. In this way perceived, a UN study regarding gender discrimination shows that women are brought up to make shift with a belief in their inferiority status.[5]
In what concerns the well-being, the Journal’s text reads that over the years the physical and mental health of women has been often impaired by “the burdens of involuntary childbearing”. Most of the women in the world are still denied freedom to control their own fertility because of either legal or religious prohibitions or the lack of relevant information, resources, and family planning services. This inability has deprived many women of benefits regarding “their health, education or employment and their roles in family and public life” and sometimes has also condemned them to “conditions of poverty, overwork and drudgery”.
Discrimination against women in the wealth sector is particularly pronounced. Under the improper and rigidified division into men’s occupations and women’s occupations, women are often confined to a narrow range of “traditionally law-paying occupations or those ranked in low prestige” and not permitted to penetrate “a wide range of occupations at all levels”.
Over the last century, women were also confronted with the stern problematic of the prevalence of double standards in the formulation and application of the norms of rectitude (responsible conduct). It has been demonstrated that what was permissible for men was often made impermissible for women, with a particular gravity in the area of sexual morality. Furthermore, there are references with regard to the interdiction of women to participate in various religious rites and ceremonies, and to the denied access to the hierarchy of religious authority. As a consequence, the cumulative impact of this various deprivations, further handicaps women’s capability to participate effectively and responsibly in the social process.
In a global community that aims at the achievement of human dignity, the most rational general community policy requires the complete emancipation of women without countenancing the subordination of men.
The principal efforts and achievements directed to women’s human rights
The article Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing of Sex-Based Discrimination shows that the drive toward eradication of sex-based discrimination has been in the last century a vital component of the trend toward a more general norm of nondiscrimination and that the community’s concern for the protection of women, antedating the broader United Nations attack upon discrimination, was evident in certain significant areas at the turn of twentieth century.
Thus, in 1902, the Hague Conventions dealt with conflicts of national laws concerning marriage, divorce, and guardianship of minors. In addition, in 1904 and 1910, conventions were adopted to combat the traffic in women. The Covenant of the League of Nations represented an important development, calling for humane working conditions for all, irrespective of sex, and for the suppression of traffic in women. With regard to the protection of women in Latin America, an impressive regional effort has also been spread since 1928 by the Inter-American Commission of Women.
The new broad prescription against sex-based discrimination and also the contemporary actions have their origins in the United Nations Charter and in various auxiliary expressions and commitments. The United Nations Charter, after reaffirming in the Preamble “faith in fundamental rights of men and women”, pronounces that one of its purposes is to promote and encourage “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction” on account of sex or other grounds.[6]
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in setting forth “the civil and political rights and the economic, social and cultural rights to which every individual, irrespective of gender, is entitled,” has inspired most of the forward activities for the protection of women. The two International Covenants on Human Rights, incorporating and reinforcing the general norm of nondiscrimination enunciated in the Universal Declaration, strictly forbid discrimination on account of sex. Significantly, each of the two Covenants contains, in practically identical terms, a special article on the equality of sexes.
The general norm against gender discrimination is further illustrated and reinforced by a number of conventions oriented toward the protection of women against particular vulnerabilities or in regard to particular values. In this way, in 1951, the Equal Remuneration Convention was adopted by the International Labor Organization to effectively implement “the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value.”
Of particularly importance regarding both formal and effective power is the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1952, which has in view, in the implementation of “the principle of equality of rights for men and women contained in the Charter of the United Nations,” to “equalize the status of men and women in the enjoyment and exercise of political rights.”
In 1957, the Convention on the Nationality of Married Woman, adopted by the General Assembly, aims at the eradication of the “automatic effect on the nationality by the husband” and at the obtainment of “a satisfactory solution to the conflicts of law regarding the effect of marriage on the nationality of the wife”.
In the aim to eradicate another deprivation, the 1958 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention prohibits “any distinction, exclusion or preference” on account of sex, along with race and other grounds, which “has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.”[7]
In the same way, the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education prohibits “any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference”, on account of sex, among others, which “has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education”.
In 1962, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages was adopted by the General Assembly seeking to ensure, “equal rights” of women and men “as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution” by virtue of “the principle of free consent to marriage” and prohibition of child marriages.
The basic framework in which community’s expectations against gender discrimination are crystallizing is indicated in the 1967 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and in the Draft Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The deep concern on eradicating discrimination on account of gender contained in the Declaration and the Draft Convention is fortified by many parallel expressions emanating from various UN and related bodies.
All the effort made during the time regarding gender discrimination and women’s rights offered a preparatory terrain for the crystallization of the World Conferences, contemporary directed to the achievement of women’s human rights.
Thus, the First World Conference of the International Women’s Year, held in Mexico City in 1975 was addressed by the representatives of 125 States and by the representatives of the United Nations bodies, “national liberation movements, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations”. The Conference had as topic Equality, Development and Peace. The report on the conference shows that the three principal elements from the debate were inter-related and that questions concerning the achievement of equal opportunities for women and their integration in the total development effort as equal partners with men could not be discussed realistically in isolation from other basic social and economic issues such as “under-development, exploitation, oppression, racial discrimination, colonialism, neo-colonialism, fascism and war”.[8]
The World Plan of Action for the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, 1976-1985, and the Declaration on the Equality of Women and their Contribution to Development and Peace constituted an important premise for the second World Conference on Women from Copenhagen, 1980. The Conference reaffirmed the three principles of equality, development and peace but also redefined them in a more general manner as to include a vaster area of situations.
Forward new goals concerning women’s rights were established in 1985 at Nairobi when it took place the third World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace. Thus, at Nairobi Conference, the strategies for the Advancement of Women, during the Period from 1986 to the Year 2000 included concrete measures to pass over the obstacles to the “Decade’s goals and objectives for the advancement of women”. In addition, the strategies reaffirmed the international concern for the status of women and also put into effect a new framework for renewed commitment by the international community to the advancement of women and the elimination of gender-based discrimination. The general recommendation made at the World Conference expressed that the efforts for the achievement of a full integration of women in the development process should take in consideration the new objectives of the new international economic order and the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade.[9]
3. Vienna’s World Conference and the women’s human rights
The next period, more specifically in 1993 in Vienna, the World Conference on Human Rights marked an important moment concerning women’s international progress as it recognized, for the first time, the existence of women’s human rights and affirmed the necessity of the integration of women’s rights into the human rights global strategies.
The World Conference on Human Rights marked the success of the efforts made by women’s rights activists worldwide to end the historic disregard of human rights violations against women. In fact, the subject of women’s human rights was the area from the World Conference that have met the challenge of defining a forward-looking agenda twenty-five years after the last world conference on human rights. The conference significantly expanded the international human rights agenda to include gender-specific violations. The final conference document, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, identifies particular examples of gender-specific abuses as human rights violations and calls for integration of women’s human rights throughout United Nations activities. Furthermore, the conference crystallized a political consensus that various forms of violence against women should be examined within the context of human rights standards and in relation with gender discrimination.
The World Conference established a firm policy of integrating women’s human rights into the “mainstream” UN human rights program. Such integration will require revision of existing methodologies for monitoring and reporting and, in some cases, reexamination of the legal framework to be applied. The recommendations show that to further integration, human rights organizations that utilize UN procedures must include gender-specific information and analysis in their work on those rights that fall within their mandates, and women’s groups must submit information to UN human rights mechanism on a regular basis. Furthermore, the mandate for integration should be emphasized as the United Nations aims to implement the proposals for institutional reform and institution building debated in Vienna, including the proposals for a High Commissioner for Human Rights and a permanent international criminal court. It was also affirmed that a human rights approach must be integrated into the UN programs for the advancement of women and women in development. Thus, the Vienna Conference in 1993 mentioned and also urged the important role of women’s human rights for the future actions concerning the elimination of gender discrimination and the integration of women’s human rights into the framework of human rights.
4. Forward from Vienna: obstacles and achievements concerning the human rights of women
Hereby, the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, culminated with the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that represented “the most thorough document ever produced by a United Nations conference on the subject of women’s rights”, as it incorporates the accomplishments of prior conferences and treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and the Vienna Declaration. The Beijing Declaration reaffirms the commitment to “ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms” and also “to build on consensus and progress made at previous United Nations conferences and summits with the objective of achieving equality, development and peace.[10]
In June 2000 in New-York took place the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations that adopted a Political Declaration and Outcome Document entitled Further Actions and Initiatives to Implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action. The report shows that in his closing statement, the President of the General Assembly noticed that “in several areas the Outcome Document moved the global agenda on gender equality forward”. Both national governments and the international community reaffirmed their commitment to the Platform for Action and a common development agenda based on the principle of gender equality. The outcome document showed the necessity of a combined focus on women’s conditions with an approach based on equal rights and partnership, promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for the effective achievement of women’s advancement. Furthermore, the outcome document called on the integration of a gender perspective into the policies, programs and budgetary processes. In addition, the special session recognized the importance of “gender mainstreaming in all areas and at all levels” and the interdependence between gender mainstreaming and the activities targeting women.
There was also a strong commitment concerning 199 actions from 12 critical areas to be implemented both at national and international level, by the Governments, the United Nations system, international and regional organizations. Although, new areas of focus and action were emphasized by the special session, the Political Declaration and Outcome Document affirmed that the Beijing Platform for Action represented the reference point for governmental commitment to women’s advancement and gender equality.
The last action of the United Nation concerning the review of the improvement of women’s human rights took place in New-York from 28 February to 11 March 2005. The Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly was organized in the context of the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission referred to the review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents from the special session from the year 2000 and emphasized “current challenges and forward-looking strategies for the advancement and empowerment of women and girls”. For the 49th session of the Commission, the United Nations Secretariat prepared a report that included the responses to a questionnaire applied to the State Members of the United Nations, the national action plans for the implementation of the Platform of Action, reports submitted under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and also information from the Commission on the Status of Women since 1995 concerning the 12 critical areas of the Platform for Action.[11]
5. Conclusions
The conclusion to this project wants to emphasize that although there are obstacles to the full realization of women’s human rights, many achievements have been made during the last century, from the recognition of the existence of a gender-based discrimination to a full implementation of women’s human rights. Unfortunately, there are still countries that had not ratified the CEDAW Convention and others that maintained reservation and there also exist new and old discriminatory laws that persist in some societies. Despite this, it is important to see the effort made by the international community to achieve the elimination of discriminatory provisions in national laws governing marriage and family relations, violence against women, women's property and ownership rights, women's political rights, and women's labour rights, to mainstream a gender perspective across all activities and policies of the UN system to apply the human rights framework to women.
6. Bibliography
1. Bunch, Charlotte, Frost Samantha, Women’s Human Rights: An Introduction, in Routlege International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women’s issues and Knowledge, Routlege, 2000
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/whr.html
2. McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, 1975
http://www.jstor.org/
3. United Nations, Report of the World Conference of the International Women’s Year, New-York, 1976
4. United Nations, Report of the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, New-York, 1980
5. United Nations, Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, New-York, 1986
6. Sullivan, Donna J., Women’s Human Rights and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, in The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 88, No.1 Jan, 1994
7. Beijing Declaration, Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995
8. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
9. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/daw/index.html
10
[1] Sullivan, Donna J., Women’s Human Rights and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, in The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 88, No.1 Jan, 1994
[2] Bunch, Charlotte, Frost Samantha, Women’s Human Rights: An Introduction, in Routlege International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women’s issues and Knowledge, Routlege, 2000
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/whr.html
[3] McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, 1975
[4] McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, 1975
[5] McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, apud United Nations, 1975: Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, p. 500
[6] McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, 1975, p. 510
[7] McDougal, Myres S., Lasswell, Harold D., Chen, Lung-chu, Human Rights for Women and World Public Order: The Outlawing Sex-based Discrimination, in American Journal of International Law, Vol.69, No.3 July, 1975, p. 515
[8] United Nations, Report of the World Conference of the International Women’s Year, New-York, 1976, p. 131
[9] United Nations, Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, New-York, 1986
[10] Beijing Declaration, Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995
[11] http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/english/background.htm
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