Women’s Rights and the United Nations

Until the turning point of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, few issues received as little political attention at the United Nations as the human rights of women. The original mandate of the Commission on Human Rights includes "the prevention of discrimination" on the basis of sex. Apart from Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), there are two main human rights treaty-monitoring bodies explicitly mandated to deal with the human rights of women. They are Human Rights Committee (CCPR), which supervises the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ; and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which supervises the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights . The Advisory Services, Technical Assistance and Information Branch of the Centre for Human Rights gradually has been incorporating women&s;s human rights issues into its publications and programs.