Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
Women's Rights
- © United Nations
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. CEDAW examines periodic reports by the states' parties and elaborates international human rights law by issuing general comments and recommendations on its implementation. CEDAW submits reports on its activities to ECOSOC, the General Assembly and the Commission on the Status of Women.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of ECOSOC. It examines progress towards women's equality worldwide, and makes recommendations for promoting women's rights and drafts treaties.
The Commission has prepared the global conferences on women in Mexico City in 1975, in Copenhagen in 1980, in Nairobi in 1985, and in Beijing in 1995. After the Beijing conference, the Commission's mandate was expanded to integrate into its programme the follow-up and reviewing of the outcome document the United Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
In 1994, the Commission on Human Rights established a Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. This mechanism has now been assumed by the Human Rights Council.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) works to promote and integrate women's rights in all fields of human rights
and coordinates the UN programs, agencies and offices involved.
The United Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) supports projects promoting the political, social and economic empowerment of women within the developing regions of the world. See also DagDok, UNIFEM. N.B.! From 2011 UNIFEM has been incorporated into the newly established UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - UN Women, se below
INSTRAW - International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women promotes and undertakes research and training and to promote training programmes for the advancement of women. See also DagDok, INSTRAW. N.B.! From 2011 INSTRAW has been incorporated into the newly established UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - UN Women, se below.
In July 2010 the General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to set up the new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women. See also DagDok, UN Women.
The new body consolidates four existing UN bodies on women: UNIFEM - UN Development Fund for Women, DAW - The Division for the Advancement of Women, OSAGI - The Office fo the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women and INSTRAW - The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. The new entity will strengthen the role of the UN in advancing the situation for women and it will give a powerful voice for women within the UN system and at the global, regional and local level.
Other UN bodies, programmes and funds in the field of women's rights:
UN body | Full name | More information in DagDok |
Food and Agriculture Organization | ||
International Fund for Acricultural Development | ||
International Labour Organization | ||
United Nations Development Programme | ||
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization | ||
United Nations Population Fund | ||
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | ||
United Nations Children's Fund | ||
World Food Programme | ||
World Health Organization | ||
World Bank Group |
Documentation
The Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues at the UN official web site, section WomenWatch, provides information on legal instruments and other relevant standards on women's rights.
All conventions are published in the UN Treaty Series. Treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with the Secretariat of the United Nations. A complete collection of treaties is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Full text treaties can be retrieved from the United Nations Treaty Collection on-line.
A survey of Women's Rights in International Agreements is posted on the UNFPA official website.
The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945-1995 documents the UN's substantial work on women's issues. Included are more than 150 documents on women's rights.
Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Three: Economic and Social Questions, Chapter X: Women provides an overview of the United Nations work relevant to women's rights. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
For documentation on the Commission on the Status of Women, see DagDok: UN Structure, Main Bodies, ECOSOC, Functional Commissions Commission on the Status of Women.
The official documents from the UN Conferences on Women are included in the collections of the UN Libraries.
They carry the following symbols:
- A/CONF.66: World Conference on the International Women's Year (1975 : Mexico City)
- A/CONF.94: World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women (1980 : Copenhagen)
- A/CONF.116: World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace (1985 : Nairobi). Some documents are posted online at the UN official web site, section WomenWatch.
- A/CONF.177: United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women : Action for Equality, Development and Peace (1995 : Beijing). Full text documents can be retrieved from the UN official web site, section WomenWatch.
The General Assembly organized a special session to appraise and review the results of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Beijing +5. Women 2000: Gender, Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century - 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly, 5-9 June 2000.
Full text documentation can be accessed through the UN official web site, section WomenWatch.
The INSTRAW official web site provides an overview of its fields of research. See also DagDok: INSTRAW.
Databases and Indexes
A web portal to the United Nations work in the field of women's rights with links to UN main bodies and focal points and full text documents and reports is posted at the UN official web site, Issues on the UN Agenda, Women and Gender Issues, Documents.
WomenWatch is a central gateway to United Nations and women's rights. It contains databases, directories, links to UN web sites and resources, full text documents and reports.
IANGWE - Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality provides a portal to UN interagency collaboration on women's issues.
UN Women has collected relevant resources under section Web Portals and Online Resources.
The UN Library online catalogue UNBISnet contains reports, documents and articles related to UN activities with links to full texts for recent years. Subject search can be performed using relevant terms from the UNBIS THESAURUS.
United Nations Treaty Collection on-line contains all treaties and international agreements relevant to women's rights.