Division for the Advancement of Women

This issue of Women2000 and Beyond examines the steps taken by the UN to address the position of women in situations of armed conflict since World War II. Following the introduction (Part I), Part II examines the nature of sexual violence during armed conflict and how the UN addressed - or failed to address - wartime sexual violence during its early years. Part III discusses the activity of the 1990s from the Persian Gulf War and the creation of the UN Compensation Commission through the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and their respective tribunals.

This section of the Division for the Advancement of Women website provides a table of the States who have signed or ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the "Women's Convention"). As of March 2005, 180 countries - over ninety percent of the members of the United Nations - are party to the Women's Convention.

This document notes that the Beijing+5 Outcome Document not only reaffirms the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PFA), it also strengthens it and addresses new challenges that have arisen in the past five years. The document briefly describes a number of ways in which the Outcome Document reinforces the PFA and builds upon it.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women issues recommendations which may be used as an aid to interpreting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The General Recommendations which refer to substantive rights of women deal with the following subjects: #3 - Article 5, public education campaigns