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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN


STATEMENT BY THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS,
MR. JOSE AYALA-LASSO 
AT THE PLENARY OF THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN 

Beijing, 4-15 September 1995


It is a great honour and pleasure for me to have the opportunity to 
address the Fourth World Conference on Women. May I first of all thank 
the Chinese Government and people for their kind hospitality in 
organizing this very important Conference, which marks a new phase in 
the struggle for achievement of the equal rights of women. As the High 
Commissioner for Human Rights, I have been entrusted with special 
responsibility for United Nations activities in the field of human 
rights and for promoting and protecting the effective enjoyment by all 
of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the 
right to development, and the strengthening of the United Nations human 
rights system. 

Within the United Nations the struggle for women's equality began when 
Eleanor Roosevelt, at the first General Assembly, launched a historic 
appeal to all women and requested Governments to end all forms of 
discrimination against women and to amend their constitutions in order 
to grant women their full and equal rights. Almost fifty years later, 
the struggle is far from won. Ten years ago, the international community 
met in Nairobi and adopted the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies on the 
Advancement of Women. Subsequently, in 1993, in Vienna, the 
international community adopted by consensus the Vienna Declaration and 
Programme of Action which was a land-mark in the history of the human 
rights of women. We are gathered here today to move forward and cement 
the achievements of Nairobi and Vienna. 

In the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,- whose implementation 
is also an important aspect of my mandate - the international community 
reaffirmed that all human rights are universal, indivisible, 
interdependent and interrelated and that the human rights of women and 
the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of 
universal human rights. It proclaimed that the full and equal 
participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and 
cultural life at the national, regional and international levels, and 
the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex are 
priority objectives of the international community. The Declaration also 
underlines the importance of the integration and full participation of 
woman as both agents and beneficiaries in the development process. It is 
the responsibility of all of us gathered here today to move forward and 
to bring the principles agreed upon at Vienna closer to reality. As the 
Secretary-General of the Conference, Mrs. Gertrude Mongella, has noted, 
this Conference is not about further analysis but a deeper level of 
action to hasten the removal of the remaining obstacles to women's full 
and equal participation in all spheres of life, to protect women's 
rights and to integrate women's concerns into all aspects of sustainable 
development. 

The impact of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women will 
be positively influenced by the adherence of the final text to 
established international human rights standards. We must recognize the 
need to maintain consistency with the high quality of existing standards 
in the elaboration of the new international instruments. The Vienna 
Declaration and Programme of Action is a point of departure in that 
respect. I have submitted to this meeting, in the form of a document, my 
comments from the point of view of human rights on the Draft Platform 
for Action, with the specific concern to ensure that existing United 
Nations standards are respected. We must be constantly vigilant to 
uphold the principles and precepts of the Vienna Declaration and other 
relevant human rights instruments, and strive to advance them and bring 
them to fruition for women here in Beijing. Participants may wish to 
consider including a general clause in the Draft Platform for Action 
that nothing in the Draft Platform shall affect any- 3 provisions which 
are more conducive to the realization of the human rights of women and 
the girl child and which may be contained in either the law of the State 
concerned or in international law in force for that State. 

What are the principal achievements of Vienna which are of fundamental 
importance to the Conference ? To my mind, Part I, paragraph 5 of the 
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action which states n all human 
rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated" 
is of seminal importance to the human rights of women. Any language 
which could be interpreted to indicate that cultural, religious or other 
particularities should have priority consideration over human rights, 
would not respect the Judicious balance achieved in Vienna in 1993. 
Similarly, Vienna utilized the phrase “Enjoyment of all human rights” 
instead of the term “international human rights”. This practice should 
be continued since the term n international human rights" might be 
construed as limiting the human rights of women. 

Human rights involves a clear acceptance of the principles of equality 
and non-discrimination. References to the "dignity of women" in the 
draft text, cannot be a substitute for the concept of "the dignity and 
worth of the human person and the equal rights of men and women" 
enshrined in the Preamble of the Universal Declaration. I also believe 
that the language of the Vienna Declaration on the need to take 
effective measures against female infanticide, trafficking in women, 
child labour, sale of children and organs, child prostitution and child 
pornography should be inserted in the Draft Platform of Action in order 
to safeguard the rights of the girl child. Finally, the Vienna 
Declaration clearly placed violence against women in the context of 
human rights violations. 

The failure of the international community to protect and promote the 
human rights and fundamental freedoms of women has contributed to 
gender-based violence and violations of human rights, such as sex 
slavery, prostitution, pornography and trafficking in women and girls, 
and to other forms of sexual violence including rape and genital 
mutilation. The recent establishment of the Special Rapporteur of the 
Commission on Human Rights on Violence against Women represents a 
significant step forward in addressing these evils. The elimination of 
violence against women and girls is one of the most urgent tasks falling 
within the broad mandate entrusted to me. The issue of violence against 
women is a challenge to the traditional understanding of human rights, 
as well as practices of national and international legal systems. As 
recommended by the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the 
United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against women, 
concrete steps must be taken to eliminate violence against women both in 
the public and private spheres since, as the Draft Platform for Action 
clearly states, "violence against women both violates and impairs or 
nullifies the Enjoyment by women of their universal human rights and 
fundamental freedoms". 

The integration of the human rights of women into the mainstream of the 
United Nations system-wide activities is a major issue for the present 
Conference. Principal human rights treaties, such as the two Human 
Rights Covenants and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, prohibit 
discrimination on the basis of gender and call for equality. The 
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against 
Women - which is the main international human rights instrument relating 
to women - provides most specifically how these principles should be 
reflected in national laws and policies. It is of the greatest 
importance that these instruments should be ratified world-wide and that 
their provisions be effectively implemented. Allow me to take this 
opportunity to reiterate therefore the appeal to all States already made 
in the Vienna Declaration and Programme Of Action calling for universal 
ratification of the major- 5 international human rights instruments - in 
particular of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination against Women by the year 2000 and the Convention on the 
rights of the Child before the end of the current year. 

May I also recall that one instrument that contains specific provisions 
for the protection of a particularly vulnerable group of women - I am 
referring to the International Convention on the Protection of the 
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families - which was 
adopted by the General Assembly in 1990, has not yet entered into force. 
I would like to urge States to adhere to this Convention. 

Human rights treaty bodies have an important role to play in monitoring 
the equal status and human rights of women. They are a unique mechanism 
of international control of compliance at the national level. States 
report to those bodies in line with their treaty obligations and they do 
so on a regular basis, in a non-political fashion. The important role of 
the treaty system was strongly reaffirmed in the Vienna Declaration and 
Programme of Action. 

Since the Vienna Conference, the treaty bodies have increasingly focused 
on gender issues in their deliberations with States' representatives and 
in their ensuing recommendations, with a view to promoting and 
protecting the human rights of women more fully. Problems such as 
violence against women or the situation of the girl child have been 
given particularly careful attention. 

The question of how best to incorporate fully the gender perspectives 
into the work of the treaty monitoring bodies and to strengthen 
coordination of the work of all treaty bodies including the Committee on 
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in respect of the equal 
status and human rights of women as well as for the effective 
integration into the overall human rights regime of those rights will be 
at the center of the next meeting of chairpersons, which is scheduled to 
begin on 18 September - immediately following this Conference. 

Since the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 
increased efforts have been deployed to integrate the equal status and 
human rights of women in the mainstream of United Nations human rights 
activities. The Commission on Human Rights has given priority in its 
annual agenda to issues of main concern to the human rights of women and 
girl children and I have systematically called for more concerted 
efforts from human rights bodies and mechanisms for the promotion and 
protection of women's human rights. Measures have also been undertaken 
within the Centre for Human Rights to integrate the status of women and 
human rights of women into its overall activities, taking also into 
account the recommendations of the Commission on the Status of Women as 
well as recommendations of international conferences held respectively 
in Rio, Vienna, Cairo and Copenhagen, which gave a prominent place to 
issues of gender equality in the framework of human rights. 

Thus, action has been taken by the Centre to carry out a systematic 
evaluation and assessment of all activities, including reports and 
studies prepared for consideration by human rights bodies and 
mechanisms, with a view to mainstreaming gender-perspectives. All human 
rights bodies and entities have now agreed to place women's human rights 
on the list of issues they take up when monitoring compliance by States 
with their treaty obligations and to formulate concrete recommendations 
to eliminate gender-based violations of human rights. And, the Centre 
for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Fund for Women have 
recently organized an expert group meeting on the development of 
guidelines for the integration of gender perspectives into United 
Nations human rights activities and programmes. The Centre also intends 
to place increased emphasis on training programmes and technical 
assistance for the promotion and protection of the human rights of women 
and is developing a cooperative network with United Nations agencies, 
Member States and NGOs with a view to publishing data and information on 
violence against women and violations of women's rights. Lastly, the 
Centre is planning to organize during the United Nations Decade on Human 
Rights Education, educational programmes and campaigns around the theme 
that the violation of women's rights is a violation of human rights. 

Allow me to say a few words about the situation of indigenous women. 
Indigenous women are vital transmitters of culture, knowledge and 
spiritual values to future generations. In many communities, indigenous 
women play a role both in a direct economic sense and as a binding 
force. I am pleased also to note that the Draft Platform for Action of 
the Fourth World Conference on Women made extensive reference to 
indigenous women. 

The rights of indigenous women, like other indigenous people, are now 
addressed in the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of 
indigenous peoples adopted by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of 
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. 

In my capacity as High Commissioner, I express my commitment to 
indigenous women. In light of the proclamation of the International 
Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1994-2004), it is my intention 
to encourage Governments and the United Nations system to develop 
programmes specifically addressing the concerns of indigenous women. 

Integrating women into the development process is another important goal 
which involves radical change in existing social, economic, and 
political patterns and practices. In particular, women must be given 
greater access to education- 8 and health care and must be ensured 
greater participation in economic and political life. 

Finally, I would like to underline the importance of national and 
regional non-governmental organizations in the achievement of greater 
equality and progress. In my open letter to the NGO community, addressed 
to the Secretary-General of the NGO Forum on Women, I pledged as High 
Commissioner to work unceasingly for the advancement of the human rights 
of women. The gathering, in extraordinary and unprecedented numbers, of 
women's NGOs in Huairou is clearly a critically important contribution 
to the world wide movement for human rights, including human centred and 
sustainable development. The monitoring role of national institutions is 
particularly important to ensure that commitments to overcome legal 
discrimination and to adopt specific policy-making measures to 
restructure social and institutional norms incorporated ideally in a 
national plan of action - are translated into real achievements. 

Concluding remarks

I would like to express my personal commitment, and I pledge, to work 
towards the goals of Vienna and Beijing for the promotion and protection 
of all human rights of women. You can be assured that I will personally 
review all your recommendations and do all that is in my power to 
translate them into reality for every woman in the globe. I will also 
try to intensify our activities to more fully integrate gender 
perspectives throughout the United Nations human rights system.