3 Review(s)

"The history of Human Rights goes much before the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. However, it was on this day that the draft envisioning the standards of the people from different legal, regional, and cultural backgrounds was set forth and inspired humanity to work towards achieving equality, freedom, and dignity for all irrespective of their race, colour, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, and gender. The same document also incorporated the principle of gender equality and embarked on a new era in women's rights. The history of mankind is a history of discrimination against women. If we will turn the pages of history we will find it filled with instances where women were denied basic rights like voting rights, the right to contest an election, the right to education, etc. The struggle to put them in an equal position with the other genders got strength with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being adopted and specific mention of gender equality. However, the discrimination of the centuries was difficult to be wiped out so easily. Even after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the governments and the human rights bodies were in dismissal mode and women's rights were put on a back burner. Later in the century, many regional instruments came up for the protection of women's rights, the most important one being the Convention on Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination Against Women, 1979. And finally, at the UN World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna states recognized women's rights as human rights. A lot said and done but still considering the status of women's rights around the globe one can easily say that there is a long way to go. The World Bank Report recently pointed out that 22.4 billion women globally do not have the same economic rights as men. The list of the countries having some sort of restrictions on jobs for women and the countries not guaranteeing equal pay to women are 86 and 95 respectively. The data taken specifically to developed countries also suggests that women are much more educated than men but earn much lesser. Talking of another issue of domestic violence nearly all the regions and legal systems witnessed a surge in cases in recent times, especially during the health pandemic. With such issues prevailing in developed countries, one can easily gauge the conditions of women's rights in developing and underdeveloped countries. With such a reality facing us, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality and empowering all women to be achieved by 2030 appears to be a distant dream. "