Women's Rights From An International Perspective: The Question Of Modern World
This article provides an analysis of women’s rights across the globe through the lens of international human rights framework. I. Introduction The initiative of understanding the human rights of women, especially within the framework of international perspectives, has been conceptualized to be of great significance since women have proved to be of great value and share equal intellectual… Read More »
This article provides an analysis of women’s rights across the globe through the lens of international human rights framework.
I. Introduction
The initiative of understanding the human rights of women, especially within the framework of international perspectives, has been conceptualized to be of great significance since women have proved to be of great value and share equal intellectual platforms like their male counterparts.
Human rights laws based on international perspectives help us understand the nature of how women in the 21st century live their lives. The plight of women within the international platforms has been considered to be the main setback to sustainable economic growth in the modern age.[1] The essentiality of classical international law, such as the law of nature and nations, has been considered to be the most relevant international perspective that attempts to engage women irrespective of diverse cultural beliefs and traditions.
The objective of fighting for women’s rights within the international community is to shape up skills and professional expertise of women for purposes of redefining the roles and the contributions of women in building a sustainable global economy. The paper presents comprehensive content regarding the understanding of the human rights of women through a conclusive consideration of international perspectives.
II. Understanding the Concept of Human Rights of Women through a Discourse of International Rights Law
The main reasoning for the establishment of the international human rights law is to fight for the inclusion of women within all categories of both national and international development. In this context, the civil unrest and all sorts of disadvantages faced by women have always been a primary concern of the international human rights law. Hence, women are expected to be equally competitive as men in the current century on the basis that they have similar professional experiences and have acquired knowledge in similar institutions, and there is no reasoning per se that women are intended to be subordinated.[2]
The fact that the understanding of the value and the relevance of women in contributing to developmental affairs varies from country to country outlines the reasoning as to why the respect and the appreciation of the international human rights intended to protect and build women have failed to be universal.
Fundamentally, women in third world countries still do not have an equal chance to compete with men on similar professional platforms, and this is seen in numerous political positions of leadership. However, the fact that a significant number of women have fought hard within the third world nations to voice their ideologies within the leadership community emerges as a ray of hope that the international leadership could be much better if women are included in matters that improve all aspects of development within nations.[3]
The need for the international community to encourage a culture that discourages violation of women in the present age needs to be accorded the requite attention, and this denotes the reasoning that all nations need to ratify the authority of international human rights as an arbiter of justice to the humanity irrespective of their biological differences.
The human rights of women are deeply embedded in the context of the United Nations (UN) values that call for the international community to determine and attain equality between men and women in the present society. The rights of women are discriminated in various categories depending on the cultures and traditions of different nations. Hence, a conclusive understanding of women’s rights in an international perspective calls for the consideration of women’s position in every culture and tradition to be given the first priority.
Also, the concern to design and develop strategies of ensuring that women’s rights are respected by every nation within the international community could become the most appropriate foundation for defining equity between and among all groups of people despite the state of their femaleness or maleness.[4] The inclusion of the international human rights law in the fight for the rights of women in the modern age qualifies to be the epitome of justice and equity for considering women to be of the same capacity as men.
Based on the professional insights shared by Sivasubramaniam and Hayhoe (2018), it is quite categorical to affirm that the nature of violation and discrimination against women varies from nation to nation. Other nations would discriminate against the right of women based on their age, ethnic background, and level of education.[5] Given the understanding of the ethnic background, it is important to note that other cultures could demean the sense of authority of women based on the skin color and the language they speak. On the same note, other traditions believe that women without an education do not have a voice in society rather than being submissive to their families.[6]
Other cultures could violate the rights of women based on their disability and socioeconomic status. In this regard, a disabled woman or a poor woman is considered to have no power or influence in the society based on the reasoning that they have nothing to offer of great value to the society.
The founding of the United Nations and its inception in 1945 advocated for the consideration of the fundamental rights of human, and Article 1 of the Charter affirmed that the need to treat the humanity, especially women, with the dignity they deserve since being accorded respect and included in the developmental affairs of a nation could make a nation stand a better chance to guarantee sustainable socio-economic growth.[7] Hence, the fight for women’s rights comes out as a promotion of the universal human rights where freedom to engage in any kind of business in full conformity to the rule of law prevails.
Understanding the international perspectives regarding the plight of women to be respected in any given nation is to embrace the philosophical standpoint of gender-neutral obligations where the rights of both women and men matter in a nation.
The relevance and the essentiality of the establishment of the international women’s rights begun with the advent of the Universal Declaration that called upon all nations to ratify to the objective of the Commission of Human Rights. In this regard, all nations that accede to the international treaties of civil and political rights stand a better chance to access numerous economic benefits, and this is entirely dependent on their decision to respect the value of women and their active participation in the developmental affairs of the state.[8]
The fight for women’s rights within the international community entails advocating for a fair consideration in times of fighting for liberty and equality before the law. The Bill of Rights calls upon nations to respect the existence of women in society as equal beings. It says that women are equally entitled to achieving quality education and are welcome in areas that require political participation.
The international human rights law requires every nation to embrace the importance of social and cultural rights of women in the current society. Women are expected to practice and share their cultures without any discrimination by the citizenry or the serving government. In previous decades and centuries, numerous governments have violated the rights of women to participate in the trade unions and the right to access quality healthcare services.[9]
Denying women the opportunity to participate in international discussions that involve trade demeans the sense of authority of women to compete with men on a similar professional platform. Also, denying women the opportunity to access affordable and quality healthcare service is considered an offense against human dignity and international women’s rights.
III. Rethinking the Essentiality of Sovereign State in Fighting for the Plight of Women’s Right Violation
The plan to eliminate laws and traditions that supported the discrimination against women’s roles and values in the society came into full force in 1979 when the convention to embrace women’s dignity was initiated by the General Assembly. In this context, all practices that devalued the significance of women’s participation in developmental forums were considered a serious act of injustice.
Women began to enjoy legal protection, and this explains the reasoning why a greater percentage of women’s participation in politics and developmental areas of the economy begun in the late 20th century.[10] Understanding sex-based discrimination demystifies the attempt to destroy private actors that violated the struggle to achieve substantive equality between and among men and women.
The convention of both civil and political rights of women within the international platform visualizes women’s discrimination in all categories of politics, economy, and the essence of multiculturalism. In this regard, the international law that protects women’s rights calls for the encouragement of women to freely participate in the voting exercise within a specific objective of identifying and selecting their favourite leaders.
In the previous decades, some traditions, especially in the third world countries, criticized the reasoning behind giving women the advantage to participate in the electioneering process. Such traditions considered women weak in making decisions on the best personalities that could prove most appropriate for the leadership community.
The need to understand the concern behind women trafficking also outlines the concept of fighting and protecting the rights of women within the international community. The consideration of the rural women as uncivilized both in the late 19th century and early 20th century was considered an act of violating the rights of women on the basis that women were inferior to men.
Article 1 of the Convention on Human Rights considers the discrimination of women as excluding/restricting them from enjoying all aspects of life that include full employment opportunities irrespective of their marital status and intellectual capability. The objective of denying women an equal opportunity such as the right to practice and exercise law as visualized in the Convention of Human Rights is considered an intentional approach of excluding women from all aspects of developmental affairs that could shape their lifestyle and improve their confidence to equally become as competitive as men in the society.[11]
A conclusive conceptualization of women’s rights within the international framework demystifies the fact that the society is prevented from recognizing women’s dominance with regards to the contribution of personalities that could improve the global economy and the political landscape that could embrace women’s dignity.
The evaluation of the essentiality of fighting for human rights of women within the international frameworks shares valid insights about the need to allow women to exercise human rights and gain fundamental freedom to liberty by engaging in activities just like their male counterparts. On the same note, the goal of state parties to eliminate the culture that supports the violation of human rights also proves quite essential with regards to the understanding of the concern of the human rights of women[12].
The legislation process and the protection of women’s rights from discrimination by any person and a private entity are considered one of the founding principles and eliminating all aspects of violating women’s rights. Also, the Convention process requires any government or state within the international community to adopt both temporary and special modalities of ensuring equality between men and women for purposes of building a unity of purpose and a common good for humanity irrespective of the education level and age of women.
The consideration of the authority of regional instruments such as the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights come out as one of the main platforms for fighting for the plight of women in the previous century and in the current century. For instance, Article 2 of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights that was adopted in 1981 affirms the need to protect the right of African women in international declarations and conventions. In this context, every individual, especially on the basis of sex has an equal chance to have the right to freedom and liberty.[13]
Today, all cases regarding discrimination and the violation of the rights of women can be addressed by the European Court of Human Rights. Hence, the objective regarding the full enactment of The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is to provide a platform for addressing the causes of violence against women and all other categories of human rights violations.
IV. Understanding International and Regional Perspectives of Human Rights of Women
The concern of fighting for the respect of women’s rights and participation in all aspects of human development calls for the consideration of collaboration and cooperation by all nations in every corner of the globe. For instance, the institutionalization of the cooperation of the American and Asian Association with the African countries comes out as one of the ideal platforms that could successfully mitigate the challenges that women go through all over the world.[14]
The sense of cooperation between and among great nations of the world not only champions the awareness of women’s rights in the society but also pays attention to the strategies that need to be implemented in a bid to ensure that women achieve quality education and are allowed to compete for political positions with equal potential like men.
The conceptualization of the global commitment in an attempt to safeguard the strength of women in the present age. It outlines the reasoning of why fighting for the international rights of women has proved to be of great significance. In this regard, holding global conferences in an attempt to suppress international ideologies that tend to support the practice of discrimination against women has come out as one of the significant steps nations across the globe have made in a bid to protect women’s rights. For instance, in 1975, International Women’s Year was held in Mexico. It supported the standpoint of the United Nations to build women in all capacities.[15]
Global conferences not only focus on ensuring peace but also encourage the culture where human dignity based on sex is respected by nations that ratify the guidelines of the United Nations. Consequently, in 1980, a global conference was held in Copenhagen with a fundamental objective of disputing all forms of discrimination against women as an offense to human dignity.
According to Merry and Levitt (2017), the concern of intimate terror that is deeply rooted in the understanding of domestic violence is considered one of the issues surrounding the perception of the international rights of women. A greater percentage of the women’s population in third world countries has been reported in numerous researches and in the context of international human rights law to suffer in silence through the brutal psychological brainwash they go through because of traditions.
Hence, the need to show dignity and respect the sentimental value of human life comes out as one of the solid reasoning as to why the international community focuses on the initiative of protecting all women irrespective of their cultures and diverse traditions. The fact that the world relies on the professional expertise of both women and men in equal potential denotes the concern of why women’s rights have to be respected by all nations.
The essentiality regarding the initiative of rethinking the sovereign state about the significance of women’s participation in the making of the international laws that protect their interests comes out as a valid standpoint for according women’s absolute value. Hence, the nature of the relationship between international rights of women and the understanding of international rights law makes sense when the intellectual authority of women in the present age is valued to be of equal importance in making a law that protects the fundamental rights of irrespective of their gender status.[16]
Besides, the same way men could become associate justices is the same way women stand a better chance to draft laws that show dignity to humanity. Hence, a conclusive conceptualization of the international rights of women requires comprehensive knowledge gathering and development for purposes of eliminating feminist ideologies and perspectives within the international community.
As observed by Peters and Wolper (2018), a holistic approach to containing issues of women rights violation dwells on the concern of implementing affirmative enforcement of women’s rights that requires justification of international law and legal procedures. In this context, the definition of all characteristics of action that depicts a violation or discrimination of women’s rights needs to feature within the jurisdiction of international law.[17]
For instance, enrolling women within the professional platform and expertise gives them dignity and respect. Besides, a woman with a supreme intellectual capability could make a nation defend its sustainable economic goals within the global competitive economy. Hence, the initiative to respect the value of women and their contributions to the developmental affairs of any state is a step to eliminate all forms of discrimination and unfair treatment against women.
V. Conclusion
The nature of international perspectives regarding the understanding of the international women’s rights, as presented in the paper, dwells on a conclusive understanding of the essentiality and relevance of international human rights law. In this context, the institutionalization of the international human rights law fights all the politics of ethnicity and a violation of human rights based on gender.
The initiative of fighting for women’s rights in the present age attempts to focus on how women live their lives. Hence, the violation and discrimination of women’s rights are entirely defined by the culture that demeans the capacity and authority of women to take up leadership positions and contribute to the promotion of all aspects of development within the global economy.
The fact that the value and the dignity of women in the third world countries are not respected outlines the reasoning behind the establishment of the United Nations and the inception of Human rights Conventions. Ultimately, a conclusive understanding of global commitment by holding conferences such as International Women’s Year (held in Mexico) will help in suppressing women’s rights violations.
[1] Rebecca J. Cook, Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives (1994), JSTOR. Author asserts that human rights discourse is a powerful tool within international law to condemn those state acts that infringe core and basic nations of civility and citizenship.
[2] Magdalena Forowicz, Towards Convergence in International Human Rights Law 193, 212 (2017).
[3] Jeremy David Jeremy Jimenez, Julia Lerch & Patricia Bromley, Education for global citizenship and sustainable development in social science textbooks (52(4) ed. 2017), European Journal of Education.
[4] Mahnaz Afkhami, Yakın Ertürk & Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women: International Perspectives (2018).
[5] Malini Sivasubramaniam & Ruth Hayhoe, Religion and Education: comparative and international perspectives (Oxford Studies in Comparative Education) (2017). The authors affirm that the nature of violating and discriminating against women varies from nation to nation.
[6] Lorena Sosa, Intersectionality in the Human Rights Legal Framework on Violence against Women: At the Centre or the Margins? (2017).
[7] Sally Engle Merry & Peggy Levitt, The vernacularization of women’s human rights (2017).
[8] Mona Lena Krook, Violence against Women in Politics 1st Edition (2020).
[9] Debra L DeLaet, Lost in legation: the gap between rhetoric and reality in international human rights law governing women’s rights (8(3) ed. 2018), Global Discourse.
[10] J. S. Peters, Women’s Rights, Human Rights International Feminist Perspectives (2018).
[11] Magdalena Forowicz, Towards Convergence in International Human Rights Law 193, 212 (2017).
[12] Jeremy David Jeremy Jimenez, Julia Lerch & Patricia Bromley, Education for global citizenship and sustainable development in social science textbooks (52(4) ed. 2017), European Journal of Education.
[13] Mahnaz Afkhami, Yakın Ertürk & Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Feminist Advocacy, Family Law and Violence Against Women: International Perspectives (2018).
[14] Lorena Sosa, Intersectionality in the Human Rights Legal Framework on Violence against Women: At the Centre or the Margins? (2017).
[15] [15] Mona Lena Krook, Violence against Women in Politics 1st Edition (2020).
[16] Debra L DeLaet, Lost in legation: the gap between rhetoric and reality in international human rights law governing women’s rights (8(3) ed. 2018), Global Discourse.
[17] Peggy Levitt & Sally Merry, The Vernacularization of Women’s Human Rights (2017), Cambridge University Press.
