Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 1: Why focus on women’s and girls’ human rights? KEY QUESTIONS • Don’t human rights protect everyone? Why is it important to recognize special or different rights for women and girls? • What are the main human rights issues and obstacles facing women and girls? 1.1. INTRODUCTION Human rights are widely understood as fundamental entitlements that are inherent to all persons simply because they are human beings. While the idea of human rights has been around for a long time, it did not find universal expression until the establishment of the United Nations at the end of the Second World War. The Charter of the United Nations affirms one of the core purposes of the organization to be “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion”.11 This goal was given clear expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, which recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”.12 In the years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a wide range of international human rights standards and norms have been developed. Mechanisms to promote and protect these human rights have also been established. In addition, the international community has sought to clarify the key characteristics of human rights, set out below. Inherent: Human rights flow from a person’s humanity. They are not given to a person by a government, or any other kind of authority, and they cannot be taken away. They apply equally to all people – women and men, girls and boys – because humanity itself is equal. Universal: Everyone, everywhere, has the same human rights, “without distinction of any kind such as race, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”.13 This idea of universality is important to women and girls because it demands that their interests and concerns be recognized and incorporated into how we understand human rights and into the work of all institutions that have a role to promote the enjoyment of those rights. Inalienable: Human rights may not be abandoned, given up or taken away. For example, a person cannot enslave herself or himself; anyone in that position will be a slave and anyone who is exercising control over that person, even with that person’s “consent”, will be violating that person’s rights. Similarly, a decision to observe religious or cultural practices that discriminate against women does not take away from a person’s right to not be discriminated against. 2 11 Article 1(3) 12 Preamble. 13 Article 2.