INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENT ON
GENDER EQUALITY
1. International Commitment on Gender Equality
The movement to ensure the entitlement of women to their basic human rights and freedoms,
along with men, began in 1946 with the creation of the United Nations Commission on the Status
of Women.
Article 1 of the Convention defines “discrimination against women” as:
Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or
purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women,
irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any
other field."
2. The Beijing Platform for Action
The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action is “an agenda for women’s empowerment” signed by all
governments that is seen as a “necessary and fundamental pre-requisite for equality,
development and peace.” The Platform provides a blueprint for women’s empowerment that is
exceptionally clear, straightforward and actionable. The document includes gender analysis of
problems and opportunities in 12 critical areas of concern, and clear and specific standards for
actions to be implemented by governments, the UN system and civil society, including, where
appropriate, the private sector. Several of these areas of concern clarify the potential for each of
the outcomes in UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017 to contribute to women’s empowerment.
In addition, the Platform provides the first global commitment to gender mainstreaming as the
methodology by which women’s empowerment will be achieved. It states that in implementing
the suggested actions, “an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into
all policies and programs should be promoted so that before decisions are taken an analysis is
made of the effects on women and men, respectively.” For UNDP, the gender mainstreaming
task is a dual one.
It should support the empowerment of women to expand their capabilities, opportunities and
choices; claim their rights and move into full substantive equality with men. It should also
support national capacities to respond positively to women’s interests and concerns.
In 2015, the international community will come together to review 20 years of progress since
Beijing to assess how far Member States and other stakeholders have come in implementing the
commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
12 Areas of concern:
1. Women and Poverty
When women are poor, their rights are not protected and they face double
discrimination, on account of their gender and economic situation. Women, their
families, communities and economies suffer as a result.
2. Women and the economy
Whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or through unpaid
domestic or care work at home, women make enormous contributions to economies.
Gender discrimination means women often end up in insecure, low-wage jobs, and
constitute a small minority of those in senior positions.
3. Women and health
Women need to be healthy in order to realize their full potential. This includes proper
nutrition, sexual and reproductive rights, and mental health, as well as freedom from
violence.
4. Women in power and decision making
Once in leadership roles, women make a difference. But they are under-represented as
voters and in top positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, corporate
boardrooms or academia.
5. Education and training of women
Education is essential for women to reach gender equality and become leaders of
change. While women and girls today are far more educated than ever before, gaps
remain. Educated women benefit entire societies, contributing to flourishing
economies and the improved health, nutrition and education of their families.
Education and training are also tools to help change harmful gender stereotypes.
6. Women and the media
The media plays a significant role in perpetuating and challenging social norms that
condone discrimination or violence against women.
7. Women and the environment
Women are among the most affected by climate change. They are often the ones
gathering water, fishing or farming land affected by flooding.
8. Women and armed conflict
Wars and armed conflict destroy families and societies and leave women and girls
particularly vulnerable. Sexual violence is widespread and often used as a war tactic.
9. Violence against women
Violence hurts women and girls and hampers their ability to thrive in multiple ways.
Since the Beijing Conference, an historic two-thirds of countries have put laws on the
books to stop domestic violence. Yet gaps in laws, implementation of legal protection
and lack of access to essential services remain for women globally.
10. The girl Child
Specific forms of violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation
(FGM) and cutting, breast ironing and child marriage, affect girls in particular,
including child sexual abuse.
11. Insufficient mechanism for the advancement of women and all women at all
levels
Specialized institutions have played an important part in informing laws, policies and
programs and advancing gender equality.
12. Human rights of women
Women and girls are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of all of their human
rights.
UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women is the first international
human rights instrument to exclusively and explicitly address the issue of violence against
women. It affirms that the phenomenon violates, impairs or nullifies women's human rights and
their exercise of fundamental freedoms. The Declaration provides a definition of gender-based
abuse, calling it "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in,
physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. The
Declaration further states that gender-based violence takes many different forms and is
experienced in a range of crisis and non-crisis settings. It is deeply rooted in structural
relationships of inequality between women and men. During conflict, systematic gender- based
violence is often perpetrated and/or condoned by both state and non-state actors. It thrives on
impunity both in times of war and in times of peace.
Millennium Development Goal #3 - Promote gender equality and empower women
Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and
in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Indicators:
Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary, and tertiary education
Ratio of literate women to men, 15–24 years’ old
Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Millennium Development Goal #5 - Improve maternal health
Target: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
Indicators:
Maternal mortality ratio
Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
3. LEGAL MANDATES AND MECHANISM ON GAD
In preparation for the ten years review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for
Action undertaken by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2005, the
Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) organized an Expert Group Meeting in
Rome, Italy, in 2004 to discuss the work of national mechanisms established in most of
the countries since the First World Conference on Women in 1975.1
National mechanisms for the advancement of women were defined by the United
Nations (UN) as the body “recognized by the government as the institution dealing with
the promotion of the status of women”2. By the end of the UN Decade for Women (1976-
1985), some form of national machinery had been established in 127 Member States. By
2004, the number had increased to 165. The structure, role and function of national
machineries have, however, evolved over the decades.
4. THE CONVENTION AND THE ELLIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF
DESCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW)
On 18 December 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It entered into force as an
international treaty on 3 September 1981 after the twentieth country had ratified it. By the tenth
anniversary of the Convention in 1989, almost one hundred nations have agreed to be bound by
its provisions.
The Convention was the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations
Commission on the Status of Women, a body established in 1946 to monitor the situation of
women and to promote women's rights. The Commission's work has been instrumental in
bringing to light all the areas in which women are denied equality with men. These efforts for the
advancement of women have resulted in several declarations and conventions, of which the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is the central and
most comprehensive document.
