NGOs and First- and Second-Generation Rights for Women

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

NGOs have been a vehicle for promoting a new-world-order culture of human rights and democracy and addressing issues that go beyond national boundaries. Decentralization and privatization have furthered the gap between the shrinking of state's services and the expanding definitions of collective interests. Hence, local organizations have become the third sector (besides public and private) to provide services to the public body without necessarily representing the public interest.

The sociohistorical context of rights is changing, as is the definition of who deserves service and what rights to guarantee. However, women's human rights organizations, which operate under complex social, economic, and cultural restrictions in many countries, have used international conventions and definitions of human rights as a framework upon which to base their public awareness campaigns.

The United Nations has been the conduit for advancing women's rights and empowering their organizations. From the beginning, the UN Charter of 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 considered men and women equal in rights. Along with the declaration, two subsequent conventions constitute the international bill of rights: the civil pact and the social pact, both passed in 1966 and enforced in 1976. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the following first-generation rights: protection of the individual sphere (e.g., freedom, life, protection from slavery, free expression) and rights to political determination and procedures based on the rule of law. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights addresses the following second-generation rights: rights to food, education, and health; a decent standard of living; and social security.

Since the United Nations conference in Mexico City in 1975, 6,000 advocacy organizations partnered up with the United Nations to initiate the UN Decade for Women. Twenty years later, in 1995, 30,000 organizations joined the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing to set the global agenda on mainstreaming gender analysis into gender-neutral areas and making women's rights a global priority. To enhance the efficacy of the UN agreements, international expert committees formed to review states' progress reports on implementing these agreements and to recommend relevant legislative and political measures. These committees have relied on NGOs to provide important information and to report on their states' implementation of the conventions. Likewise, NGOs have used these committees to gain international support for their campaigns and to enhance public awareness about states' obligations under international law.

Generations of Women's Human Rights

The three generations of rights were inspired by the three principles of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—and differ in their degrees of importance and commitment. First-generation rights,[Page 609]or political and civil rights, have their origins in the protection of individual rights from the state's tyranny. Therefore, they are directly guaranteed and enforced by the state.

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