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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN


Statement by Centre for Women's Global Leadership
to the Fourth World Conference on Women

Beijing, China, 13 September 1995


Women’s Human Rights Statement

1-For the past five years women from around the globe have been
campaigning for the recognition of women's rights as human rights and
for the integration of a gender perspective into all areas of human
rights practice and theory. The need to incorporate a gender perspective
stems from the fact that in all situations some perspective of
interpreting reality is present and historically, the perspective which
has dominated has been the male perspective. This is why human rights
theory and practice has not adequately taken women's views and
experiences into account, rendering the everyday violations of women’s
human rights invisible.

2-This male bias has contributed to a narrow definition of such basic
human rights as peace and development. Incorporating a gender
perspective into human rights theory and practice would therefore not
only ensure that women’s human rights violations will no longer remain
invisible, but also that the way we understand issues such as health,
bodily integrity, economic justice will include the needs, experiences
and desires of the entire human race.

3-The success of this movement was reflected in the Vienna Declaration
and Programme of Action which stated unequivocally that "The human
rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and
indivisible part of universal human rights.” It can also be seen in the
recognition by key bodies within the UN system of the need to
incorporate the gender dimension into all their activities and
deliberations. It has culminated in the acceptance of the idea of
women's rights as human rights at this Conference.

4-In fact, this entire Conference is a conference about the human rights
of women. Whether addressing poverty, sexist educational systems,
inadequate health care, gender based violence, or male bias in the
definition of what constitutes peace, all the issues of the platform are
about the inequality of human rights in the economic, political and
cultural spheres and women’s lack of equal access to the fundamental
conditions that make the exercise of political and civil rights viable.
The issue of insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the
advancement of women, is a question of justice and justice is at the
heart of human rights.

5-Women’s human rights activists have been involved in both the NGO
Forum and preparations for this Conference at the local, national,
regional and global levels for over two years. This has included not
only many meetings but also the collection of over one million
signatures to a petition calling upon the UN to promote and protect the
human rights of women and to implement the promises of the Vienna
Declaration.

6-During the NGO Forum in Huairou, we held tribunals and hearings,
panels and workshops delineating the various forms of violations that
women suffer as well as how to redress them. These activities covered a
wide range of areas important for women’s human rights including
violence against women in war and conflict, militarism and the arms
industry, violence against women in the family, violations of bodily
integrity and women’s health rights, economic discrimination and
exploitation, including the negative impact of structural adjustment
policies, political persecution, issues pertaining to migrant, refugee
and displaced women, as well as to indigenous peoples, the rights of
marginalized women, lesbians, disabled women, older women, and others.
In addition women exchanged strategies and methods for documenting
violations of women's human rights as well as for training and education
around these issues.

7-All human rights violations demand accountability from States and the
UN as well as other parties. The challenge then, to this Conference, is
not simply to recognize that women's rights are human rights but to
demonstrate how it will concretely realize their promotion and
protection. Therefore today we ask of the delegates to the Conference,
in every area of the platform, what will you do to make the words become
a reality?

8-What will you do after you leave Beijing to eliminate poverty for
women and ensure their fundamental right to food and housing? What will
you do to guarantee that every girl child becomes literate and that all
boys and girls receive a nonsexist education? What will you do to
implement the UN Decade on Human rights Education (1995-2005) and
guarantee that it not fall back on sexist concepts and methods of
understanding human rights?. What will you do to assure women the right
to control their physical, mental and social well being?

9-In every region there was agreement that one of the fundamental
obstacles to women’s enjoyment of their human rights in many areas is
violence against women. While a few States have taken some steps to
address this global problem, a great deal more must be done to
demonstrate seriousness about ending this widespread violation of human
rights. Therefore we specifically call upon all governments, UN agencies
and international organizations to join the campaign to eradicate
violence against women by making concrete plans, in consultation with
NGO's, at both the national and international level. We urge you not to
lose this opportunity to make this a Conference of commitments to the
realization of the human rights of women. I thank you on behalf of the
following endorsing organizations:

African-American Women in Defense of Ourselves (USA)
Afronet Trust (UK)
Amnesty International
Anjaree Group (Thailand)
Anti-Slavery International
Asia Pacific Forum for Women Law and Development
Asociacion Mexicana Contra la Violencia a las Mujeres
Austrian Coalition for Women's Human Rights/Arbeitsgruppe
Frauenrechte Menschenrechte
Caritas: a fund of the Tides Foundation (USA)
Center Against Violence Against Women/Austrian Women's Shelters
Network (Austria)
Center for Constitutional Rights (USA)
Center for Women's Global Leadership
DEHMUJER/En La Defensa de los Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres
8th Day Center for Justice (USA)
Family Violence- Prevention Fund (USA)
FEDEPE - Federacion Espaniola Mujeres Directivas y
Professionales
FEMPRESS
Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (Netherlands)
Foundation for the Solidarity and Development of Women (Nepal)
Foundation for Women (Thailand)
Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights,
Harvard School of Public Health (USA)
Fundacion Directa (Spain)
Fundacion Esperanza (Colombia)
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
Harvard Immigration and Refugee Program (USA)
Harvard Institute for International Development/MIT Women in

Development (USA)
Human Rights Advocates (USA)
Human Rights in China (USA)
Human Rights Task Force on Cambodia
Human Rights Watch
Immigrant Women of Saskatchewan (Canada)
Institut.e Latinamericano de Servicios Legales Alternativos/ILSA
(Colombia)
International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic
Development (Canada)
International Fellowship of Reconciliation
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
International Human Rights Law Group
International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic/City University b
New York (USA)
International Women's Rights Action Watch
International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
International Women's Rights Action Watch Costa Rica
Law Centre/University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
Ligue Togolaise des Droits de la Femme (Togo)
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (USA)
National Action Committee on the Status of Women (Canada)
National Lawyers Guild (USA)
Nationwide Women's Program of the American Friends Service
Committee (USA)
Netherlands Humanist Committee on Human Rights/Vrouwenberaad
Outwikkelingssamenwerking
ONG La Colombe (Togo)
Promotion et Appui aux Initiatives Feminines/PAIF (Zaire)
Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation (Turkey)
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (USA)
Shaler Adams Foundation (USA)
Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Centre (Pakistan)
Sudan Women Concern (UK)
Terre des Femmes/Menschenrechte fur die Frau (Germany)
Vancouver Status of Women (Canada)
WiLDAF/Women in Law and Development Africa
Women Justice Program (Nigeria)
Women and Media Collective (Sri Lanka)
Women Refugees Project/Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services
(USA)
Women's International Law Program and Center for Human Rights and
Humanitarian Law/American University (USA)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Women's Rights Center (Poland)
World Federalist Association
World Federalist Movement
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association/Zimrights Women's Committee