Confronting Gender-Based Violence With International Instruments: Is a Solution to the Pandemic Within Reach?

This note discusses violence against women on a global scale. In order to determine the potential of international instruments to eliminate gender-based violence, the author compares the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The author argues that while these four instruments have advanced the fight against gender-based violence to a certain extent, "the continued male-dominated status of both international and individual State law effectively prevents the total elimination of violence against women". She concludes that traditional legal power structures must be reorganized for women to achieve equality with men. [Descriptors: Violence Against Women, International]