1998: A Wonderful Year for Women’s Human Rights? The United Nations, Governments and the Human Rights of Women

This paper looks at some of the reasons why the human rights of women were neglected in the United Nations and important developments that occurred between 1993 and 1995. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), this paper also looks at some steps that governments and the UN should be taking to implement outstanding commitments and to ensure the full integration of women’s human rights. Amnesty International is recommending that the 1998 session of the Commission on the Status of Women give full attention to implementation, particularly at the national level, of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. At its next session, the Commission on Human Rights should act to ensure that all the country and thematic mechanisms integrate fully a gender perspective in their work. Other recommendations concern UN reform; the role of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; ratification of human rights treaties; women as human rights experts; the treaty bodies; gender perspectives in the proposed international criminal court; and the use of gender inclusive language. The extracts from Amnesty International’s publications included in this report represent a fraction of the cases of women and girls that the organization has taken up. They will, Amnesty International trusts, remind readers of the grim reality of violations of the human rights of women. Amnesty International: Universal Declaration of Human Rights.