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Equality of rights for women is a basic principle of the United
Nations. The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations sets as
one of the Organization's central goals the reaffirmation of "faith
in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human
person, in the equal rights of men and women". Article 1 proclaims
that one of the purposes of the United Nations is to achieve
international cooperation in promoting and encouraging respect for
human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to, inter alia, sex. By the terms of the
Charter, the first international instrument to refer specifically to
human rights and to the equal rights of men and women, all members
of the United Nations are legally bound to strive towards the full
realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The status
of human rights, including the goal of equality between women and
men, is thereby elevated: a matter of ethics becomes a contractual
obligation of all Governments and of the UN.
The International Bill of Human Rights strengthens and extends
this emphasis on the human rights of women. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the entitlement of everyone to
equality before the law and to the enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms without distinction of any kind and proceeds to
include sex among the grounds of such impermissible distinction. The
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of
1966, which translate the principles of the Declaration into legally
binding form, clearly state that the rights set forth are applicable
to all persons without distinction of any kind and, again, put forth
sex as such a ground of impermissible distinction. In addition, each
Covenant specifically binds acceding or ratifying States to
undertake to ensure that women and men have equal right to the
enjoyment of all the rights they establish.
The International Bill of Human Rights, combined with related
human rights treaties, thus lays down a comprehensive set of rights
to which all persons, including women, are entitled. However, the
fact of women's humanity proved insufficient to guarantee them the
enjoyment of their internationally agreed rights. Since its
establishment, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has
sought to define and elaborate the general guarantees of
non-discrimination in these instruments from a gender perspective.
The work of CSW has resulted in a number of important declarations
and conventions that protect and promote the human rights of
women.
Originally established in 1946 as a subcommission of the
Commission on Human Rights, but quickly granted the status of full
commission as a result of the pressure exerted by women's activists,
the mandate of the CSW included the preparation of recommendations
relating to urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the
field of women's rights with the object of implementing the
principle that men and women should have equal rights, and the
development of proposals to give effect to such recommendations.
Between 1949 and 1959, the Commission elaborated the Convention on
the Political Rights of Women, adopted by the General Assembly on 20
December 1952, the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women,
adopted by the Assembly on 29 January 1957, the Convention on
Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of
Marriages adopted on 7 November 1962, and the Recommendation on
Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of
Marriages adopted on 1 November 1965. Each of these treaties
protected and promoted the rights of women in areas in which the
Commission considered such rights to be particularly vulnerable. But
it was believed that, except in those areas, women's rights were
best protected and promoted by the general human rights
treaties.
Although these instruments reflected the growing sophistication
of the UN system with regard to the protection and promotion of
women's human rights, the approach they reflected was fragmentary,
as they failed to deal with discrimination against women in a
comprehensive way. In addition, there was concern that the general
human rights regime was not, in fact, working as well as it might to
protect and promote the rights of women. Thus, the General Assembly,
on 5 December 1963, adopted its resolution 1921 (XVIII), in which it
requested the Economic and Social Council to invite the CSW to
prepare a draft declaration that would combine in a single
instrument international standards articulating the equal rights of
men and women. This process was supported throughout by women
activists within and outside the UN system. Drafting of the
declaration, by a committee selected from within the CSW, began in
1965, with the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women ultimately being adopted by the GA on 7 November 1967.
Although the Declaration amounted only to a statement of moral and
political intent, without the contractual force of a treaty, its
drafting was none the less a difficult process. Article 6,
concerning equality in marriage and the family, and article 10,
relating to employment, proved to be particularly controversial, as
did the question of whether the Declaration should call for the
abolition of the customs and laws perpetuating discrimination or for
their modification or change.
The 1960s saw the emergence, in many parts of the world, of a new
consciousness of the patterns of discrimination against women and a
rise in the number of organizations committed to combating the
effect of such discrimination. The adverse impact of some
development policies on women also became apparent. In 1972, five
years after the adoption of the Declaration and four years after the
introduction of a voluntary reporting system on the implementation
of the Declaration by the Economic and Social Commission, the CSW
considered the possibility of preparing a binding treaty that would
give normative force to the provisions of the Declaration and
decided to request the Secretary-General to call upon UN Member
States to transmit their views on such a proposal. The following
year, a working group was appointed to consider the elaboration of
such a convention. In 1974, at its twenty-fifth session and in the
light of the report of this working group, the Commission decided,
in principle, to prepare a single, comprehensive and internationally
binding instrument to eliminate discrimination against women. This
instrument was to be prepared without prejudice to any future
recommendations that might be made by the United Nations or its
specialized agencies with respect to the preparation of legal
instruments to eliminate discrimination in specific fields.
The text of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women was prepared by working groups within
the Commission during 1976 and extensive deliberations by a working
group of the Third Committee of the General Assembly from 1977 to
1979. Drafting work within the Commission was encouraged by the
World Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Objectives of the
International Women's Year, adopted by the World Conference of the
International Women's Year held in Mexico City in 1975, which called
for a convention on the elimination of discrimination against women,
with effective procedures for its implementation. Work was also
encouraged by the General Assembly which had urged the Commission on
the Status of Women to finish its work by 1976, so that the
Convention would be completed in time for the 1980 Copenhagen
mid-decade review conference (World Conference on the United Nations
Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace). Although
suggestions were made to delay completion of the text for another
year, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women was adopted by the General Assembly in
1979 by votes of 130 to none, with 10 abstentions. In resolution
34/180, in which the General Assembly adopted the Convention, the
Assembly expressed the hope that the Convention would come into
force at an early date and requested the Secretary-General to
present the text of the Convention to the mid-decade World
Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women.
At the special ceremony that took place at the Copenhagen
Conference on 17 July 1980, 64 States signed the Convention and two
States submitted their instruments of ratification. On 3 September
1981, 30 days after the twentieth member State had ratified it, the
Convention entered into force - faster than any previous human
rights convention had done - thus bringing to a climax United
Nations efforts to codify comprehensively international legal
standards for women.
* extracted from Progress achieved in the implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women: Report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women
(A/CONF.177/7). |