The United Nations regularly convenes global conferences centred on diverse issues and involving the perspectives of both governmental and non-governmental organizations. There have been four world conferences specifically focused on women: Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995). These conferences have proven significant because they encouraged governments to prioritize women's rights on their national agendas. They also serve to remind the United Nations, governments and individuals that the rights and issues that are important to women cannot be considered "private matters" but must be addressed and promoted at the national, regional and international levels.
This section of the WHRR database contains information about the four women's rights world conferences, as well as other conferences on diverse human rights topics which also had a women's rights focus. These additional conferences include the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPR, Cairo 1994), the World Conference on Human Rights (the Vienna Conference 1993), as well as the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR 2001). This section includes scholarly articles about the approach to women's rights at the conferences, as well as documents prepared for the conferences by United Nations entities, governments, and non-governmental organizations.