International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, women's rights violations were until recently ignored by both governments and United Nations (UN) human rights bodies. It took until the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, in 1993 for states to recognize women's rights as human rights. In the Vienna Declaration and the Program of Action adopted at the end of the conference, governments agreed on the following text: The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community. Gender-based violence and all forms of sexual harassment and exploitation, including those resulting from cultural prejudice and international trafficking, are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, and must be eliminated ( UN General Assembly 1993 : Article 18). Since then, a number of institutional changes have occurred: the UN General Assembly adopted a Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Violence against Women which condemns gender-based ... log in or subscribe to read full text