Women's Rights as Human Rights: Women as Agents of Social Change

Abstract

Discusses the fight for women's rights as part & parcel of the struggle for human rights, & chronicles the activist efforts of various grassroots women's organizations to place gender concerns on the international human rights agenda. Examples are offered of such grassroots women's groups from cultures around the world, & an in-depth case study is offered of Luz de las Nieves Ayress Moreno, a Chilean female political revolutionary in the 1970s. The significance of the 1985 UN Conference on Women held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, for the advancement of women's issues as broader human rights issues is described, highlighting the acceptance by most countries that participated of the priority of international human rights laws over national or customary laws regarding the treatment of women. K. Hyatt Stewart