Women's Human Rights

WOMANKIND seeks to empower women to know and claim their rights with the aim of increasing their well-being and their status in a sustainable way.

We seek to promote a ‘women’s rights-based approach’ to development that is guided by the principles and standards set out in the main international instruments on women’s rights and that underlines the importance of women’s full and meaningful involvement in development processes.

Throughout history, women have been discriminated against and have generally enjoyed fewer political, legal, social and economic rights and opportunities than men. Today, discrimination against women continues to be widespread and can be found in every country and region of the world. Some of the challenges women face today are new and not experienced by previous generations, such as HIV/AIDS and new trends in macro-economic policies that worsen women’s poverty. But many of them, such as the pervasive problem of violence against women and girl’s lack of access to education, are not.

Over the years, women’s organisations and individual activists - many of them linked to broader movements for social and political change - have fought hard to address these gaps and to have women’s rights recognised as human rights and to have their vision of a world in which women can enjoy the same freedom and status as men realised.

Amongst other things, their activism has:

triggered the United Nation’s efforts to codify women’s rights and to document the situation of women in different parts of the world
led to changes in the laws and policies of governments on everything from the environment to conflict resolution, not only on so-called ‘women’s issues’
raised public awareness of the causes and consequences of a range of discriminatory practices against women

Some landmarks in the recent history of women’s human rights, at the global level, include:

1946 – the UN Commission on the Status of Women established with mandate to set standards of women’s rights, encourage governments to bring their laws into line with international conventions and to encourage global awareness of women’s rights

1948 – adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which forms the basis for action for promoting equal rights and freedoms

1975 – first International Women’s Year, first global United Nations’ Women’s Conference held in Mexico City and beginning of the UN Decade for Women

1979 – adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the only international treaty on women’s human rights

1993 – adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women; women successfully promote the message that women’s rights are human rights at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna

1994 – women secure another major step forward for women’s and girl’s right to control their own lives and bodies at International Conference on Population & Development in Cairo

1995 – women mobilise again at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen to ensure that the problems they face are central to the global agenda; women achieve massive success both in terms of results and turn-out, at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, resulting in global action plan for women’s equality, empowerment and justice

2005 – women defend their gains at the ten year review of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and successfully defeat a proposal led by the U.S government for an anti-abortion amendment to the declaration

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These are remarkable achievements, and even more so given the lack of resources and access to power structures at the disposal of most ordinary women.

However, the gap between governments' commitments and the reality of women’s lives, particularly those of women in developing countries, has not reduced and, if anything has widened in some parts of the world. This is largely due to the backlash against women’s human rights that is taking place on every continent and in many different forms today, including:

religious or cultural fundamentalisms of different kinds
power of ultra-conservative forces within governments and their influence on foreign and domestic policies
backlashes in the media, judiciary, public opinion
an increase in violence, conflict and war

These are huge threats to the work of WOMANKIND and our partners. It is very important that we confront these challenges, both old and new, and continue to push for change at all levels. This means continuing to evaluate the way that we work so we use the most effective methods to advance women’s human rights and ensuring that the concerns, interests and aspirations of the women we work with are foremost in the solutions we advocate.

What do Women’s Human Rights mean to poor women?

While conventions and declarations may seem a million miles away from the communities in which we work, our partners are making these rights real for thousands of women. Rights frameworks give disadvantaged women the knowledge that international structures exist to protect them and also provide levers for working with governments, judges, police and communities to create allies in working towards gender equality.