From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgSat Sep 23 09:38:16 1995
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 11:38:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org>
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: WCW: Beijing Declaration part 15
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Strategic objective I.1. Promote and protect the
human rights of women, through the full implementation
of all human rights instruments, especially the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women
Actions to be taken
230. By Governments:
(a) Work actively towards ratification or accession to
and implement international and regional human rights
treaties;
(b) Ratify and accede to and ensure implementation of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women so that universal
ratification of the Convention can be achieved by the
year 2000;
(c)&(d) Limit the extent of any reservations to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women; formulate any such
reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible;
ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the
object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise
incompatible with international treaty law and regularly
review them with a view to withdrawing them; and withdraw
reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women or which are otherwise
incompatible with international treaty law;
(e) Consider drawing up national action plans
identifying steps to improve the promotion and
protection of human rights, including the human rights
of women, as recommended by the World Conference on
Human Rights;
(f) Create or strengthen independent national
institutions for the protection and promotion of these
rights, including the human rights of women, as
recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights;
(g) Develop a comprehensive human rights education
programme to raise awareness among women of their human
rights and among others of the human rights of women;
(h) If they are States parties, implement the
Convention by reviewing all national laws, policies,
practices and procedures to ensure that theymeet the
obligations set out in the Convention; all States
should undertake a review of all national laws,
policies, practices and procedures to ensure that they
meet international human rights obligations in this
matter;
(i) Include gender aspects in reporting under all other
human rights conventions and instruments, including ILO
conventions, to ensure analysis and review of the human
rights of women;
(j) Report on schedule to the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women regarding
the implementation of the Convention, following fully
the guidelines established by the Committee and
involving non-governmental organizations, where
appropriate, or taking into account their contributions
in the preparation of the report;
(k) Enable the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women fully to discharge its
mandate by allowing for adequate meeting time through
broad ratification of the revision adopted by the
States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 22 May
1995 relative to article 20, paragraph 1, and by
promoting efficient working methods;
(l) Support the process initiated by the Commission on
the Status of Women with the view to elaborating a
draft of an optional protocol to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women that could enter into force as soon as possible
on a right of petition procedure, considering the
Secretary-General's report on the optional protocol,
including those views related to its feasibility;
(m) Take urgent measures to achieve universal
ratification of or accession to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child before the end of 1995 and ensure
full implementation of the Convention to ensure equal
rights for girls and boys, and urge those that have not
already done so to become a party in order to realize
universal implementation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child by the year 2000;
(n) Address the acute problems of children, inter alia,
by supporting efforts in the context of the United
Nations system aimed at adopting efficient
international measures for the prevention and
eradication of female infanticide, harmful child
labour, the sale of children and their organs, child
prostitution, child pornography and other forms of
sexual abuse and consider contributing to the drafting
of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child;
(o) Strengthen the implementation of all relevant human
rights instruments in order to combat and eliminate,
including through international cooperation, organized
and other forms of trafficking in women and children,
including for the purposes of sexual exploitation,
pornography, prostitution and sex tourism, and provide
legal and social services to the victims. This should
include provisions forinternational cooperation to
prosecute and punish those responsible for organized
exploitation of women and children;
(p) Taking into account the need to ensure full respect
for the human rights of indigenous women, consider a
declaration on the rights of indigenous people for
adoption by the General Assembly within the
International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
and encourage the participation of indigenous women in
the working group elaborating the draft declaration, in
accordance with the provisions for the participation of
organizations of indigenous people.
231. By relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United
Nations system, all human rights bodies in the United
Nations system, as well as the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, while promoting greater
efficiency and effectiveness through better coordination of
the various bodies, mechanisms and procedures, taking into
account the need to avoid unnecessary duplication and
overlapping of their mandates and tasks:
(a) Give full, equal and sustained attention to the
human rights of women in the exercise of their
respective mandates to promote universal respect for
and protection of all human rights - civil, cultural,
economic, political and social - including the right to
development;
(b) Ensure the implementation of the recommendations of
the World Conference on Human Rights for the full
integration and mainstreaming of the human rights of
women;
(c) Develop a comprehensive policy programme for
mainstreaming the human rights of women throughout the
United Nations system, including activities with regard
to advisory services, technical assistance, reporting
methodology, gender impact assessments, coordination,
public information and human rights education, and play
an active role in the implementation of the programme;
(d) Ensure the integration and full participation of
women as both agents and beneficiaries in the
development process and reiterate the objectives
established for global action for women towards
sustainable and equitable development set forth in the
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development;
(e) Include information on gender-based human rights
violations in their activities and integrate the
findings into all of their programmes and activities;
(f) Ensure that there is collaboration and coordination
of the work of all human rights bodies and mechanisms
to ensure that the human rights of women are respected;
(g) Strengthen cooperation and coordination between the
Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on
Human Rights, the Commission for Social Development,
the Commission on Sustainable Development,
theCommission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,
the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring
bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, and UNIFEM, INSTRAW,
UNDP, UNICEF and other organizations of the United
Nations system, acting within their mandates, in the
promotion of the human rights of women, and improve
cooperation between the Division for the Advancement of
Women and the Centre for Human Rights;
(h) Establish effective cooperation between the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other
relevant bodies, within their respective mandates,
taking into account the close link between massive
violations of human rights, especially in the form of
genocide, ethnic cleansing, systematic rape of women in
war situations and refugee flows and other
displacements, and the fact that refugee, displaced and
returnee women may be subject to particular human
rights abuse;
(i) Encourage incorporation of a gender perspective in
national programmes of action and in human rights and
national institutions, within the context of human
rights advisory services programmes;
(j) Provide training in the human rights of women for
all United Nations personnel and officials, especially
those in human rights and humanitarian relief
activities, and promote their understanding of the
human rights of women so that they recognize and deal
with violations of the human rights of women and can
fully take into account the gender aspect of their
work.
Strategic objective I.2. Ensure equality and
non-discrimination under the law and in practice
Actions to be taken
232. By Governments:
(a) Give priority to promoting and protecting the full
and equal enjoyment by women and men of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction of
any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinions, national or social
origins, property, birth or other status;
(b) Provide constitutional guarantees and/or enact
appropriate legislation to prohibit discrimination on
the basis of sex for all women and girls of all ages
and assure women of all ages equal rights and their
full enjoyment;
(c) Embody the principle of the equality of men and
women in their legislation and ensure, through law and
other appropriate means, the practical realization of
this principle;
(d) Review national laws, including customary laws and
legal practices in the areas of family, civil, penal,
labour and commercial law in order to ensure the
implementation of the principles and procedures of all
relevant international human rights instruments by
means of national legislation, and revoke any remaining
laws that discriminate on the basis of sex and remove
gender bias in the administration of justice;
(e) Strengthen and encourage the development of
programmes to protect the human rights of women in the
national institutions on human rights that carry out
programmes, such as human rights commissions or
ombudspersons, according them appropriate status,
resources and access to the Government to assist
individuals, in particular women, and ensure that these
institutions pay adequate attention to problems
involving the violation of the human rights of women;
(f) Take action to ensure that the human rights of
women, including the rights referred to in paragraphs
96 and 97 in section IV.C are fully respected and
protected;
(g) Take urgent action to combat and eliminate violence
against women, which is a human rights violation,
resulting from harmful traditional or customary
practices, cultural prejudices and extremism;
(g) bis. Prohibit female genital mutilation wherever
it exists and give vigorous support to efforts among
non-governmental and community organizations and
religious institutions to eliminate such practices;
(i) Provide gender-sensitive human rights education and
training to public officials, including, inter alia,
police and military personnel, corrections officers,
health and medical personnel, and social workers,
including people who deal with migration and refugee
issues, and teachers at all levels of the educational
system, and make available such education and training
also to the judiciary and members of parliament in
order to enable them to better exercise their public
responsibilities;
(j) Promote the equal right of women to be members of
trade unions and other professional and social
organizations;
(k) Establish effective mechanisms for investigating
violations of the human rights of women perpetrated by
any public official and take the necessary punitive
legal measures in accordance with national laws;
(l) Review and amend criminal laws and procedures, as
necessary, to eliminate any discrimination against
women in order to ensure that criminal law and
procedures guarantee women effective protection
against, and prosecution of, crimes directed at or
disproportionately affecting women, regardless of the
relationship between the perpetrator and the victim,
and ensure that women defendants, victimsand/or
witnesses are not revictimized or discriminated against
in the investigation and prosecution of crimes;
(m) Ensure that women have the same right as men to be
judges, advocates or other officers of the court, as
well as police officers and prison and detention
officers, among other things;
(n) Strengthen existing or establish readily available
and free or affordable alternative administrative
mechanisms and legal aid programmes to assist
disadvantaged women seeking redress for violations of
their rights;
(o) Ensure that all women and non-governmental
organizations and their members in the field of
protection and promotion of all human rights -civil,
cultural, economic, political and social rights,
including the right to development - enjoy fully all
human rights and freedoms in accordance with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all other
human rights instruments and the protection of national
laws;
(p) Strengthen and encourage the implementation of the
recommendations contained in the Standard Rules on the
Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with
Disabilities, paying special attention to ensure
non-discrimination and equal enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls with
disabilities, including their access to information and
services in the field of violence against women, as
well as their active participation in and economic
contribution to all aspects of society;
(q) Encourage the development of gender-sensitive human
rights programmes.
Strategic objective I.3. Achieve legal literacy
Actions to be taken
233. By Governments and non-governmental organizations, the
United Nations and other international organizations, as
appropriate:
(a) Translate, whenever possible, into local and
indigenous languages and into alternative formats
appropriate for persons with disabilities and persons
at lower levels of literacy, publicize and disseminate
laws and information relating to the equal status and
human rights of all women, including the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the
Declaration on the Right to Development and the
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women, as well as the outcomes of relevant United
Nations conferences andsummits and national reports to
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women;
(b) Publicize and disseminate such information in
easily understandable formats and alternative formats
appropriate for persons with disabilities, and persons
at low levels of literacy;
(c) Disseminate information on national legislation and
its impact on women, including easily accessible
guidelines on how to use a justice system to exercise
one's rights;
(d) Include information about international and
regional instruments and standards in their public
information and human rights education activities and
in adult education and training programmes,
particularly for groups such as the military, the
police and other law enforcement personnel, the
judiciary, and legal and health professionals to ensure
that human rights are effectively protected;
(e) Make widely available and fully publicize
information on the existence of national, regional and
international mechanisms for seeking redress when the
human rights of women are violated;
(f) Encourage, coordinate and cooperate with local and
regional women's groups, relevant non-governmental
organizations, educators and the media, to implement
programmes in human rights education to make women
aware of their human rights;
(g) Promote education on the human and legal rights of
women in school curricula at all levels of education
and undertake public campaigns, including in the most
widely used languages of the country, on the equality
of women and men in public and private life, including
their rights within the family and relevant human
rights instruments under national and international
law;
(h) Promote education in all countries in human rights
and international humanitarian law for members of the
national security and armed forces, including those
assigned to United Nations peace-keeping operations, on
a routine and continuing basis, reminding them and
sensitizing them to the fact that they should respect
the rights of women at all times, both on and off duty,
giving special attention to the rules on the protection
of women and children and to the protection of human
rights in situations of armed conflict;
(i) Take appropriate measures to ensure that refugee
and displaced women, migrant women and women migrant
workers are made aware of their human rights and of the
recourse mechanisms available to them.