Women's Rights, Human Rights

Under democracy and dictatorship, in times of war and times of peace, women's human rights are violated daily and often systematically. Women may be denied the right to vote or hold office. They may be subjected to rape and sexual abuse by soldiers, police, employers, family members. They may not be free to choose when or whom to marry, or how many children to have and when to have them. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Yet women's freedom, dignity and quality are persistently compromised by law and by custom in ways that men's are not. The mere extension of existing human rights protection to women is insufficient: women's rights must be understood as human rights. This text includes contributions by activists, journalists, lawyers and scholars from 21 countries. The essays map the directions the movement for women's human rights is taking - and will take in the coming decades - and the concomitant transformation of prevailing notions.