UN Role in Promoting Womens Rights - Essay Example

UN Role in Promoting Women’s Rights Name Institution Date Introduction Human rights are rights underlying every human being irrespective of their nationality, sex, colour, language, place or residence, ethnic origin or any other status (Koehler, 2016). Every human being is protected through human rights in un-discriminatory manner and the rights are interrelated, indivisible as well as interdependent. Moreover, worldwide human rights are most at times expressed as well as guaranteed by the law in terms of treaties, general principles, international law as well as supplementary sources of international law (Mariño and Singh, 2016). Global human rights laws have put down responsibilities for the Governments to perform in a particular way or even to abstain from other acts. These are aimed at promoting and at the same time protect human rights and key freedoms of the people. The main role of United Nations (UN) is to ensure there is respect for human rights and thus describes itself as an establishment for individuals all over the globe (Slarke, 2006). The members states have assigned the Secretary-General as well as the UN system in assist them to attain the UN principles charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hence, UN system utilizes every resource that is available for at their disposal together with their moral authority, operational reach as well as their diplomatic creativity so as to achieve the set out standards (Slarke, 2006). Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to examine how the United Nations has tried to promote women’s rights. Role of UN in Upholding Women’s Rights Since the formation of the UN, upholding equality between both men and women has been among the main assurances of human rights (Scales-Trent, 2010). The Charter of the UN which was adopted in 1945 laid out its objective as “to reaffirm faith in key human rights in the dignity and worth of the human person in the equal rights of men and women”. The article 1 of the Charter points out that one of the key resolutions of UN is to ensure respect for human rights and freedoms irrespective of race, gender, religion or ethnicity (Scales-Trent, 2010). The world is experiencing numerous problems that tend to destroy its unity, pushing the procedure of creating a better society harder to achieve. Among the most devastating issues that are yet to be fully figured out are the women’s rights against discrimination. Kofi Anan described discriminating against women as discriminating against half the human population which shows the significance of the part played by women in contributing to human race. Women in social life suffer from numerous day-to-day life labels particularly in the Middle-East. Furthermore, women have also suffered a great effect from discrimination politically. In the political sphere women have been given less credibility than men due to the ideology that they probably are capable of becoming secretaries other than being the bosses. Therefore, the UN has come up with initiatives that may progressively eradicate these mentality placed on women within our society. The UN declared the development of modern $500 million-per-annum organization to encourage and fight for an equal share of women in international matters (WWHR, 2000). The UN own investigators disclosed that 15 years of “gender mainstreaming” attempts within the United Nations Secretariat have been far-reaching and a costly affair. In addition, the UN offered a report back in 2010 which assessed how gender mainstreaming was integrated in every UN work in order to ensure that the various demands as well as the situations of both women and men are recognized and borne in mind when policies as well as projects are formulated and enforced (WWHR, 2000). In addition, the UN formulated millennium development goals which aimed its attention to matters such as pregnancy care as well as childbirth. In the preceding 25 years, maternal mortality has been observed to fall internationally by 45 per cent (Laville, 2007). Although some of the developing nations are still responsible for about 99 percent of the deaths especially within the Sub-Saharan region. The Beijing declaration proposed by the UN 20 years ago has brought about the decrease in the rate of maternal mortality abruptly – down by 57 per cent in south-east Asia and about 64 per cent in southern Asia (UNHRA, 2004). Furthermore, the millennium targets set by the UN have made quite a difference in both women and girls by providing education to them as well as proper healthcare. Additionally, UN Women has also interacted with various UN agencies and is focusing on developing a framework of principles, intergovernmental agreements, strengthening national laws and also insisting for gender equality to be an inherent component of action as well as agreements on every matter, including climate change, peace and security fiscal and economic actions (Blanchet-Cohen and Fernandez, 2003). Furthermore, this initiative rounds high-effect campaign so as to contest attitudes and develop a tactical partnership with civil society institutions as well as grassroots institutions. They also direct, assist and convene women into getting political traction at local, national as well as international level. In addition, in Chile, United Nations Women offer over a dozen of small grants which amount to about $25,000 every year in different programmes in order to empower women within workplaces and thus minimize gender-based violence which is considered one of the biggest problems in Latin America (Beyrer, 2001). The United Nation general assembly will support a new set of goals to challenge international poverty, inequality as well as climate changes over the coming 15 years. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) will substitute the millennium development goals assumed in 2001 and are anticipated to comprise of strong dedication to women rights and gender equality. In 1967, the UN member states made a declaration aimed at ending discrimination against women. According to this declaration, any form of discrimination carried out against women was to be regarded as a crime against human dignity. It was passed that states were to get rid of laws, customs and practices which are considered discriminatory towards women (Karunamoorthi, 2014). In addition, they advocated for establishing proper legal protection to ensure women and men have equal rights. In the following year, legal obligation treaty on women rights was enacted. Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women was discussed in 1967 by the General Assembly. Additionally, the UN came up with three distinct bodies that fight for the rights of women in this society. These bodies are: The Human Rights Council, The Security Council and The Commission on the Status of Women (French, 2001). Firstly, The Human Rights Council is the main intergovernmental body of the UN which upholds and protects human rights. This body has frequently held various discussions on women’s rights as well as the incorporation of a gender based view since its introduction (UNSCR, 2000). Moreover, there are numerous results by the Council that calls on members states to uphold their duties on women rights. The resolutions are important since they keep women rights on global scene. Furthermore, the UN has promoted women’s rights by allowing the Human Rights Council to call on particular meetings to address women’s rights violation as well as emergencies (Devi, 2012). These particular meetings have offered platforms for analyzing violations of women’s rights. Human Rights Council has special program holders appointed by the Council so as to evaluate specific matters on women rights in given countries. These specific procedures are focused on women rights such as types of violence subjected to women, its sources and concerns. It includes Working Group on the matters of women discrimination in both law and practice (Pain, 2013). The Special Rapporteur was formulated by the UN as an independent specialist to analyze the causes and the consequences of violence against women. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur looks into and monitors any type of violence carried out against women and provides recommendations so as to promote solutions for its eradication. On the other hand, the Human Rights Council came up with a Working Group which focuses in the issues which includes discrimination against in order to encourage the eradication of laws and policies that are discriminatory towards women as well as their discriminatory effects on them (Vladimirova and Le Blanc, 2016). The United Nations Security Council has promoted women’s rights because it adopted a sequence of resolutions particularly regarding women, peace and security. Resolution 1325 was adopted in 2000 by the Council and enhanced women taking part in every feature of conflict prevention as well as resolution. It also provided a gender point of view in every United Nations peace and security efforts (Kabasakal Arat, 2013). Additionally, the resolution together with other Security Council resolutions and United Nations Secretary-General Report’s calls for every party to take particular measures to defend the rights of both women and girls form any form of violence in the circumstance of conflict while simultaneously identifying the importance of women in peace as mediator of change (Kabasakal Arat, 2013). Thirdly, the UN also promotes women’s rights through The Commission on the Status of Women. This commission was developed by the UN so as to encourage women’s rights in all domains (Baldissone, 2011). This commission is also assigned the role of overseeing any urgent problem that needs to be looked at in women’s rights. The commission has meeting every year to discuss and implement resolutions on a wide range of women’s rights-related matters. Furthermore, the commission also plays a chief role in encouraging the rights of women, enthusiastically contributing to landmark global legal as well as policy implements for instance, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Baldissone, 2011). The UN has come up with an independent private sector called Women’s Empowerment Principles which promotes women’s rights by empowering women to fully participate in economic life across every sector which is important in building stronger economies, attaining global agreed goals for sustainability and development (Jewell). This private sector is a fundamental partner in efforts in order to advance gender equality and women empowerment. Through use of women empowerment principles, it is possible to give women guidance on business as well as empower them in the workplace and community. The women empowerment principles were developed through a partnership between UN Women and UN Global Compact (Happold, 2007). They are planned to offer assistance to firms through reviewing the existent policies and practices and consequently come up with new ones which recognizes women’s empowerment. Additionally, the United Nations came up with the CEDAW Committee which consisted of 23 independent specialists on the rights of women originating from different States who submit reports particularizing their compliance with its provision every four years (Happold, 2007). This committee takes a keen look at the reports and may also discover statements of violation and investigate into circumstances of grave or systemic infringements of the rights of women. The UN has also developed a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which looks at women and girls rights in a better way. The UN has held conferences every three years together with activists, government officials and NGOs to focus on ways in which they can enforce the UN SDGs to best serve both women and girls (Berwick, Nolan and Whittington, 2008). For its part, the UN has worked on various fonts with an aim of improving understanding of the connection between declining health of women as well as that of girls and the historic rejection of their human rights of women and discrimination. Back in 2012, the UN Human Rights Office came up with a guidance in which human rights approach can be applied so as to minimize preventable maternal deaths as well as morbidity (Berwick, Nolan and Whittington, 2008). The direction offers concise advice on the particular measures needed so as to operationalize human rights in the circumstance of sexual and reproductive health rights for women. For example, if the budgets match the obligations of human rights, assessing enforcement in practice and ensuring strong accountability mechanism is carried out. Attending the conference was a chance to apportion how human rights ought to be embedded in discussions of women and girls’ health (Berwick, Nolan and Whittington, 2008). Conclusion To sum up, human rights are rights underlying every human being irrespective of their nationality, sex, colour, language, place or residence, ethnic origin or any other status with which every human being is enabled to. The UN plays a huge role in promoting human rights and therefore describes itself as an organization for every individual all over the world. Therefore, the UN has played a major part in promoting women’s rights through declaring the development of modern $500 million-per-annum organization to encourage and fight for an equal share of women in international matters. In addition, UN formulated MDGs which aimed its attention to matters such as pregnancy care as well as childbirth. Furthermore, UN Women interacted with other UN Agencies which focuses on developing a framework of principles on matters of gender equality to name a few. Also, the UN came up with distinct bodies, namely: The Human Rights Council, The Security Council and The Commission on the Status of Women which defends the rights of women and girls in our society. Furthermore, the UN came up with the Women’s Empowerment Principles which encourage women by empowering them to participate in the day-to-day economic life across most sectors. Also, this private sector is a major partner in efforts to promote gender equality and empower women. The efforts offer hands-on guidance to businesses and the private sector. References Baldissone, R. (2011). A Contribution to a Western Genealogy of the Rights of Men and, Incidentally, of Women. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 34(1): pp.89-114. 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