Why a Human Rights Framework for Women?

​

The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. 

​

This was followed by the establishment of the European Convention of Human Rights in 1953. The ECHR outlines the safeguards that signed up member States must make available to citizens. 

 

The United Kingdom ratified the Convention in 1951 and the Scotland Act 1998 built human rights protection into Scotland’s legislative processes after devolution. This means that any legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament must be compatible with the Human Rights Act. The Scottish Government is currently considering a Human Rights Bill to strengthen Human Rights for its citizens. 

 

In 1979 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, (CEDAW). 

 

In communities however the picture is very different. Women report being unaware of their human rights. They experience violations of their human rights on a regular basis and have little or no knowledge, support or means to address these. 

 

Some of these violations are experienced by all members of particular communities, such as poverty in areas of high deprivation. Other violations are experienced predominantly by women, e.g. women will be more affected by cuts to health and social care as they make up the majority of unpaid carers. 

 

This Human Rights Framework will not only inform women of their rights, but will support GWVSN and other organisations to identify and take action on issues that are being raised by women in the community. In pursuing “gender-transformative change”, we hope to achieve change for women as a community. Although this will benefit individual women the framework will also seek to “reframe the discourse of empowerment – and the burden of change- from a focus on women’s individual agency to collective responsibility and political engagement and action. (Hillenbrand, E. et al (2015) Measuring gender-transformative change; a review of literature and promising practices.)