International women's issues and the United Nations

Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 7 The Commission on the Status of Women

The United Nations and Human Rights ◽

10.1093/law/9780198298373.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kabasakal Arat Zehra F

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

Women's Rights ◽

Women’S Rights ◽

Women's Issues ◽

The Status ◽

The United Nations ◽

Status Of Women ◽

Operational Structure

This chapter describes the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which was the first international organ ever created to promote women’s rights and equality. The status of women has been on the agenda of the United Nations since its inception and typically addressed as an issue of discrimination in relation to human rights. As the UN’s work on human rights has evolved and expanded, so have its apparatuses and activities on the advancement of women’s rights and status. The CSW played a key role in drafting declarations and treaties that promote women’s rights, organizing world conferences on women, the development of other UN agencies that address women’s issues, and monitoring and evaluating the attention given to women by other agencies. The chapter examines and discusses the CSW’s operational structure, changing agenda, major accomplishments, the difficulties encountered by the Commission, and the controversies surrounding both its work and the UN approach to women’s issues.

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The Final Push

International Women's Year ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195327687.003.0017 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jocelyn Olcott

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

Racial Discrimination ◽

Local Level ◽

Women's Issues ◽

The World ◽

The United Nations ◽

Women's Emancipation

This chapter focuses on efforts at the IWY intergovernmental conference to finalize the World Plan of Action that made recommendations for programs and policies from the local level to the United Nations. Conflicts arose over what to include in the enumeration of obstacles to women’s emancipation. Although “sexism” had been ruled out during an earlier meeting, the plan’s introduction listed issues such as apartheid, neocolonialism, and, most controversially, Zionism. The Declaration of Mexico, which served as a preamble to the World Plan of Action, would become the first official UN document to liken Zionism to apartheid and other forms of state-sponsored racial discrimination. These discussions renewed debates about where or whether a line existed that divided “women’s issues” from “politics.”

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