United Nations Conventions

Since the founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, efforts to promote gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights have been at the foundation of several key conventions agreed upon and ratified by UN member states. While they are often referred to as “soft laws,” conventions are international treaties of sorts; they are negotiated norms, setting global standards for state behaviors, and when protocols are attached, rules for monitoring and compliance may apply.

In regard to women's global status and human rights, most UN member states have voluntarily agreed to the following international conventions that eliminate various discriminations against women and protect their bodily integrity: Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949); Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value (1951); Convention on the Political Rights of Women (1952); Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957); Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (1958); Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960); Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1962); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979); Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1994). Although UN member states sign international conventions voluntarily and often attach reservations and interpretations that strictly limit the conventions’ effectiveness in order to preserve state sovereignty and prerogatives, conventions are treaties with contractual force and are major standard-setting documents. Over the years that the UN has existed, member states have increasingly recognized and supported an international women's rights agenda through progressively broader and more inclusive conventions that often have begun as less-comprehensive “declarations” that, nonetheless, also have some moral power.

The United Nations strives to eliminate discrimination against women and to protect their bodily integrity.

The advocacy and inspiration for the initial declarations and the succeeding conventions have more often than not emanated from women's international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working through the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). As a functioning commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the CSW, currently [Page 1495]made up of delegates elected from 45 UN member states, was established in 1946 to prepare reports and recommend actions regarding women's political, economic, social, and educational rights and to address problems of discrimination against women.

While the influence of the CSW within the UN global governance system has varied over the years, women's NGOs, especially those accredited with “consultative status,” have maintained steady pressure on the CSW and other UN agencies and member governments to address women's needs and concerns. The conventions listed above record some tangible results of their activism.