Women’s and Children’s Rights Make Gains at U.N. Conference

Women’s and children’s rights advocates appear to have won major victories at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, but as the 12-day meeting entered its final phase Thursday, progress in several other key areas remained doubtful.

The conference, attended by more than 170 nations and nearly 1,000 non-governmental groups, is scheduled to end today with the formal endorsement of a final declaration.

Portions already agreed upon include unusually strong wording in support of rights for women everywhere. The document calls for ending sexual harassment, exploitation and gender-based violence.

Human rights advocates also applauded agreed-upon wording calling for the protection of children. That section sets a target date of 1995 for the universal ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

However, activists described other parts of the final draft as questionable, worrisome and disappointing.

For example, efforts to strengthen the United Nations’ role as an effective enforcer of human rights and an investigator of violations seemed likely to fall well short of goals expressed by many Western countries and non-governmental groups.

By late Thursday evening, a proposal to appoint a U.N. high commissioner for human rights had not reached the formal discussion stage, while a commitment to provide the existing U.N. Center for Human Rights in Geneva with more money was dismissed by one U.N. official as “wishy-washy.”