Women's Rights in International Law: A Prediction Concerning the Legal Impact of the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women

This note contains a detailed review of state responses to the Platform for Action (PFA) produced at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The author finds that consensus was reached on most of the provisions in the Platform. Certain proposals regarding reproductive and inheritance issues, however, were subject to a great deal of dispute during drafting and many countries ultimately registered reservations to them. The author finds that most of the damage done toconsensus on these controversial proposals was caused by the Islamic countries, justified by their religious and cultural beliefs. The author predicts that while thenumber of objecting states was small relative to the whole, on the basis of the way customary international law is developed, the opposition of this one highlyinterested group of states will likely stall the further development of theseproposals as legal norms for the foreseeable future.