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.
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Working the Human Rights System to Women's Advantage
​Claiming Our Place offered some ideas about using the system. It challenged us to refine our understanding of the funda­mentals of human rights as well as the emerging issues that touch on rights and gender. Claiming Our Place also challenged us to improve our knowledge of and capacities to access the structures of the system in defense and promotion of women's rights. 

Part One: Gender Issues in Human Rights examines the bases and limitations of the human rights frame­work. It explores issues such as the treatment of vio­lence against women and women's economic rights in the major human rights instruments. It also explores the critical issues of state accountability and the principle of universality. By no means exhaustive, this section offers a brief introduction to some of the key issues confront­ing women's rights advocates vis a vis human rights.

Part Two: International Strategies deals with the sys­tem itself and strategies to access it. The section focuses on human rights law and procedures at the interna­tional and regional levels. It explores the relevant UN human rights bodies, the mechanisms available and the potential use of each one. The articles on the "regional systems," including the European, the Inter-American, and the African examine these underutilized mecha­nisms and also their potential as an element of a women's rights strategy.

Part Three: NGO Strategies probes the various roles, characteristics, and approaches taken by national, re­gional and international human rights NGOs. As women enter the more formal human rights arena, there is a fresh opportunity for developing new forms of in­teraction at national and international levels and new, creative ways of meshing the women's and the human rights agendas. The three papers in this section examine these dimensions.

Contents
Florence Butegwa, Uganda Limitations of the Human Rights Framework
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Sri Lanka The Principle of Universality and Cultural Identity
Asma Abdel Halim, Sudan Violence Against Women
Athaliah Molokomme, Botswana Women's Economic Rights
Rebecca Cook, Canada State Accountability Under CEDAW
Andrew Byrnes Hong Kong Strategies Using International Human Rights Law and Procedures
Christine Chinkin  UK The European Human Rights System
Marcela Rodriguez Argentina The Inter-American Human Rights System
Akua Kuenyehia, Ghana The African Human Rights System
Neelan Tiruchelvam  Sri Lanka Does Asia Need a Regional Human Rights System?
Hina Jilani  Pakistan Diversity in Character and Role of Human Rights NGO's
Laura Guzman Stein, Costa Rica  Advocating for Women's Rights in the Latin American Region
Dorothy O. Thomas  USA NGO Strategies: Human Rights Watch as a Case Study​

Conceptual and Structural Challenges
While the Declaration of Vienna and the Program of Action explicitly mentioned women and gave recognition to violence against women and other types of abuse as violations of human rights, the UN Conference did not effect a significant expansion of the human rights conceptual framework or mandate the structural changes required for implementing its recommenda­tions. Thus, while some recognition of women's rights was gained in Vienna, it is important to recognize this as but the first step. Some of the challenges that remain are:

• Removing the public/private dichotomy and making states ac­countable for violations of women's rights. The traditional human rights emphasis on state responsibility and civil and political rights remains intact. The Vienna docu­ments did not essentially alter the current human rights perspective which fails to adequately acknowledge the typical abuses experienced by women—abuses that are often in the so-called "private" sphere.
• Preserving the universality of human rights. Although the Vienna Declaration states that religion and culture may not be used to justify violations of women's human rights, the importance it accords "national and regional particularities and historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds" leaves too much space for interpretations not favorable to women's interests.
• Expanding the definition of economic and social rights. The Program of Action does make mention of economic rights and recommends that women have access to ade­quate health care and other essential services. However, the Program of Action does little to move beyond the previous and inadequate framework surrounding eco­nomic rights. There is still no mechanism for holding multilateral financing agencies, such as the World Bank and the IMF accountable for the effects of structural ad­justment on the citizenry, particularly women.
• Improving UN human rights monitoring. The Conference made several recommendations for improving monitor­ing and implementation procedures, specifically: estab­lishing an optional protocol under the Women's convention, naming a special Rapporteur under the UN Human Rights Commission, training UN personnel to recognize women's rights violations, etc. However, these recommendations are not mandated and require action by still other bodies to be effected.

Moving Beyond Recommendations to Implementation
Although the rhetoric of the Declaration of Vienna and the Program of Action supports the integration of women's human rights into the mainstream of UN human rights bodies and im­proved coordination among existing gender-specific mecha­nisms, implementation processes and mechanisms are still to be articulated. The mainstream mechanisms have not yet become "gender effective" and existing gender-specific mechanisms (CEDAW, CSW) are still too "ghettoized" to be effective within the UN system. Only when accountable mechanisms (both gender-specific and mainstream) are in place and utilized in de­fense and promotion of women's rights will the gender vacuum in the UN be overcome.
In order to effect such a change, women's rights advocates have an important role to play. They must be catalysts in the day to day work of making human rights norms and mecha­nisms relevant and real in the lives of women. They cannot view the task of building the new consensus as an academic ex­ercise or one left to the university or the "human rights profes­sionals" alone. Practicing women advocates are essential to the process for two reasons: 1) they bring the real life experiences of women to bear on the task; and 2) their own practice benefits as they expand the range of remedies available to them.

Developing Strategies and Skills to Bridge the Rhetoric/Action Gap
In order to make changes in the human rights consensus truly effective in the lives of women, what remains to be done is to bridge the gap between rhetoric and action, between theory and practice. Globally, women are at a stage in which they have begun to identify limitations in women's rights advocacy work—their own as well as that of the mainstream human rights agencies. The experience of the past ten years has ex­posed the need for coherent new approaches and for a spectrum of new skills requisite for an effective advocacy strategy. There is a need to work out practical steps for translating human rights theory into operative principles that will legitimize women's rights at a practical level. Women's use of the human rights framework and mechanisms is relatively recent—as is at­tention to gender at the level of international NGO human rights activism. Improved communication between human rights and women's rights groups nationally and internation­ally is needed to produce a synergistic process of combining the expertise of women's rights activists in identifying violations, with the skills of human rights monitors in documenting abuses under international human rights law.
Women have always recognized the need to consolidate their ongoing strategies, such as, enhancing women's legal ca­pacity, dealing comprehensively and creatively with violence against women, or establishing emergency assistance for serious violations. Thus, while bridging the gap between theory and practice is an ongoing necessity, the UN conference exposed a fresh layer of needs to contend with, making the task even more urgent.
The contemporary challenge that lies before the women's rights movement—making the human rights framework an ac­cessible vehicle in function of women's rights—requires action on both conceptual and structural levels. Effectiveness in either of these areas in turn requires complementary "strategic action" skills. Building intellectual consensus and coherent strategies around a gendered concept of human rights translates into three interactive areas of action:

• influencing human rights theory and practice based on women's experience of violations;
• sharpening the critical analytical and action skills needed for effective promotion and defense of women's rights; and
• articulating and implementing effective strategies at lo­cal, national, and international levels in defense and promotion of women's rights.

To learn more about this book or download it, click here:  
​Claiming Our Place

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