Presentation of the first part of a Women, Development and the United Nations, written by Devaki Jain

1. Women, Development and
the UN
by Devaki Jain
presenter: Marina Kudasova

2. Women, Development and the UN
Devaki Jain (1933)

3. Chronology
• Pre-UN stage
• Early stage (1945-1966)
• Development stage (1966-1975)
“My notion of democracy is that under it, the
weakest should have the same opportunity
as the strongest.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

4. Pre-UN stage
• The Hague Conventions on Private International
Law in 1902
• The Covenant of the League of Nations in 1924
• The Inter-American Commission of Women
1928
• The Pan-American Union’s Lima Declaration of
1938
• The Declaration of Philadelphia of the
International Labor Conference in 1944

5. Early Stage. Main facts
and features of the period:
• 1945- 4 women in the UN out of 160
participants of the conference
• Great impact on creation of the UN
foundational document, Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, etc.
• Strengthening feminist
movements, laws, agencies, and commissions
“The United Nations rose- like the proverbial
phoenix-out of ashes of World War II” (p.11)

6. Women’s Rights:
1. Political right
- 1945, imaginatitave step - advocating for giving
women full political suffrage
- 1952,UN campaign for women's suffrage on a
legal footing
2. Human rights violations against women and
children (1950)
"Customs"→ "barbaric"→ "violence against
women"→ "rights violations“
3. Advocating for the indivisible rights

7. Information Gathering:
• 1947, UN launched a worldwide information
gathering questionnaire " Questionnaire on
the Legal Status and Treatment of Women”
• 1949, survey concerning women education
and employment (32 countries participated)
• 1950, survey on women's right to vote (74
countries participated)
•

8. Main Concerns:
1. The question of "special place" vs. equality.
Commission on the Status of Women is
separated from the Commission on Human
Rights
2. The question of internationalization of the
issues of women's equality

9. Development Stage:
1. First Development Decade (1960-1970)
• 1962, Long-Term Program for the Advancement of
Women
• 1967, The Declaration on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW)
2. Second Development Decade (1970-1980)
• 1970, the UN initiated a Programme of Concerted
International Action for the Advancement of Women
• 1975, The first UN-sponsored world conference on
women in Mexico City
3. International Women Decade (1975-1985)

10. Discussion:
“ A new constituency in UN politics called
“women” was created, as was the entry of a
powerful endowed idea called “women” in
UN thought” (p.1).
Do you think that women was created as a
political project? Why there was a necessity
of creating and implementing it?

11. Discussion:
“What does “equality” mean? Does it mean giving
women exactly the same rights in the workplace and
as citizens? Does it mean writing laws that give
special consideration to women because they bear
children? How can an international convention
designed to give all the women of the world equality
be reconciled with differences in political and
economic spaces and opportunities? What kind of
ideology could be constrained that would encompass
the seemingly opposed concepts that women are
both different from and equal to men?”

12. Discussion:
Should Commission on the Status of Women
be separated from the Commission on
Human Rights? Does women needs a
“special place” in the UN and in the society in
general?

13. THANK YOU FOR
ATTENTION!