UN Human Rights Conference 1993:
Claiming our Place
The first major international event that occurred after the Women’s conference in Nairobi in 1985 that had relevance to women’s rights was the UN conference on Human Rights announced for 1993 to take place in Vienna. Since Nairobi, activism at national and local levels to improve women's rights—particularly in the "third world"— led us into an arena where "human rights" became an increasingly important aspect of the women's global agenda. We discovered that the value of using the human rights paradigm lay in the political and legal effectiveness that actions at the international level have on the understanding and exercise of rights in specific contexts at the local level.
The limitations of the existing human rights consensus, however, led us to the next step of opening up a serious debate on the gender dimensions of human rights content and practice. It was in this context that WLDI moved to contribute to the emerging human rights consensus that would include "women" in a more serious fashion. To do so, WLDI engaged several women's rights and human rights advocates and practitioners in an exploration of the most relevant issues. Drawn both from experience and focused research, they spanned the major geographical regions of the world and came from a base of commitment as well as knowledge. Building on their insights, WLDI organized several panels and workshops at the NGO Forum in Vienna and then published their insights in a book, Claiming Our Place: Working the System to Women’s Advantage. In many ways this experience laid the groundwork for future WLDI work on women's human rights issues and practice, as developed in our Step by Step program and our From Basic Needs to Basic Rights initiative.
The limitations of the existing human rights consensus, however, led us to the next step of opening up a serious debate on the gender dimensions of human rights content and practice. It was in this context that WLDI moved to contribute to the emerging human rights consensus that would include "women" in a more serious fashion. To do so, WLDI engaged several women's rights and human rights advocates and practitioners in an exploration of the most relevant issues. Drawn both from experience and focused research, they spanned the major geographical regions of the world and came from a base of commitment as well as knowledge. Building on their insights, WLDI organized several panels and workshops at the NGO Forum in Vienna and then published their insights in a book, Claiming Our Place: Working the System to Women’s Advantage. In many ways this experience laid the groundwork for future WLDI work on women's human rights issues and practice, as developed in our Step by Step program and our From Basic Needs to Basic Rights initiative.