International Treaties from a Gender Approach
The inclusion of a gender dimension in international treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Sustainable Development Goals is fundamental to the implementation of inclusive policies and sends a strong message at the national and international levels that women's rights are human rights. This inclusion demonstrates a political commitment to advancing gender equality and ending discrimination. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, for example, demonstrated that there can be no effective response without a coordinated international response and the inclusion of a gender dimension to ensure that no one is left behind.
Ensuring women's participation and representation in the planning and decision-making of any crisis response, conducting gender impact assessments, implementing gender-responsive budgeting, promoting women's participation in diplomatic careers, operations and peace negotiations, and investing in sex-disaggregated data collection and research are essential measures contributing to a strong and inclusive gender dimension of international women's policy.
Gender Inclusion: A Priority in International Policy
In recent decades, women's rights have been enshrined in legislation at the national level and in international treaties. Tangible progress has been made in several areas and women's rights have been officially recognized as human rights. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action marked a turning point in the struggle for gender equality. The year 2021 is also the 21st anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which has become the normative framework for the women, peace and security agenda. Placing gender equality at the center of international politics is part of an inclusive vision of the international community that is compatible with and contributes to the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has gender equality as its global and specific objective. In order to show its interest in the issue of women's inclusion, the international community will put in place specific conventions in favor of women's rights:
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, adopted in 1979 and entered into force in 1981) is undoubtedly the most important international law convention on women's rights. It includes a general and absolute prohibition of discrimination as well as detailed provisions about what signatory states must do to prevent discrimination against women.
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), adopted by the UN General Assembly following the Vienna Human Rights Conference, also contains details on violence against women. It is not legally binding, but has a strong symbolic value.
- To this we can add the implementation by the UN Commission on Human Rights of actions that aim to provide detailed reports on the situation of women in the world:
- The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, appointed in 1994 by the UN Commission on Human Rights, publishes a detailed report every year on the situation in the world.
- The Platform for Action of the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 named specific objectives in a number of areas, including violence against women, poverty, education, girls' rights, etc. This document is not binding. This document has no binding force in international law, but nevertheless plays an important role as a reference system, among other things because it represents a political and moral commitment for the signatory states.
At the regional level, specific conventions protect women against violence:
- The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (also known as the "Convention of Belém do Pará"), adopted on September 6, 1994 by the Organization of American States and entered into force on May 3, 1995.
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (also known as the "Maputo Protocol") was adopted on July 11, 2003 by the African Union and entered into force on November 25, 2005. The document formulates, in a total of 31 articles, specific rights for the protection of women and girls in Africa taking into account socio-cultural conditions.
- The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention), adopted on May 11, 2011, is the first European treaty specifically addressing violence against women and domestic violence.
Online Resources
Text and context : evaluating peace agreements for their »gendre perspective »
https://wps.unwomen.org/pdf/research/Bell_EN.pdf
This document presents a reflection of the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on the importance of gender mainstreaming in peace issues.
Women’s rights are Human rights
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HR-PUB-14-2.pdf
This publication provides an introduction to women’s human rights, beginning with the main provisions in international human rights law and going on to explain particularly relevant concepts for fully understanding women’s human rights and the inclusion of women.