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The UN has had a longstanding commitment to safeguarding the rights of women since the international human rights regime began to emerge in the post-World War II period. Women represent more than half of the world’s population and have been systematically repressed for much of ancient as well as modern history.
Women are disempowered in many parts of the world, both in the family, economic, and political spheres, and thus face structural challenges to improving their conditions their lots. In many cases, women cannot overcome these obstacles without some form of international assistance. In addition, they face issues unique to their sex, such as those involved in reproduction, which demand special group-specific protections.
Women face a number of problems that are related to human rights. They have been subject to violence in the home in many parts of the world, including Pakistan, South Africa, Peru and Russia; have been victims of rape “as a weapon of war” in countries as diverse as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo and Afghanistan; have been bought, sold, and trafficked across borders in Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand, among other places; have been prevented from effectively participating in the workforce in Guatemala and Mexico; and have suffered from “government-sponsored discrimination that renders them unequal before the law” in Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.1
A number of international conventions have been established to deal with women’s rights. These include the
- Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949, 1951), http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/33.htm
- the Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value (1951, 1953), http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_ilo100.htm
- the Convention on the Political Rights of Women (1952, 1954), http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/22.htm
- the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1962, 1964), http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/63.htm
- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/e1cedaw.htm
- the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993), http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/A.RES.48.104.En
- and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (2000), http://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdf.
Two human rights issues involving women will be discussed below: reproductive rights and human trafficking.
For more on women’s issues, see the Issue in Depth on “Women and Globalization.”
For a discussion of violence against women, see the News Analyses: “Violence Against Women – Global War on a Global Issue” and “A Global Challenge: Protecting Women against Violence.”
1 “Women’s Rights”
* Picture: International Women’s Day in Liberia