Although the women of the south and north found themselves in direct conflict at the first two World Women's Conference and the parallelly staged NGO forums in Mexico City in 1975 and Copenhagen in 1985, a clear advance took place at the forum in Nairobi in 1985 which was linked to an upward revaluation of the women's movements from the south. The feminists from the "south" are unified under the umbrella organisation Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era.

The different development levels the countries have provide totally different points of focus for the women in the western industrial nations in the fight against the discrimination of women in developing countries and dictatorships. Feminists in the western industrial nations initially start with political and civil rights. Women's rights activists from the developing countries in contrast place the point of emphasis on the right of (economic) equality and solidarity rights. Whereas western women are mainly concerned with the compatibility of mother and career, the elimination of roles ascribed by socialisation or limited career chances, women in almost all other countries are still fighting for basic education opportunities, participation in public affairs and the protection of body and soul. This differences in interests often leads to isolation from one another.

Today women's rights activists are attempting to deal effectively with the multiplicity of feminist approaches fed by cultural traditions and the different socio-economic and political conditions in the individual countries. Over and above this they provide a great deal of support for common goals in international networks. Global economic crises and environmental destruction are major themes, which may give the international women's movement new impetus due its relationship to the human rights paradigm.

An important field of tasks for today's women's movement is the establishment of women's rights as a fixed component of universally valid human rights in applicable public international law. Women's rights should be placed above religious and cultural traditions in individual countries. In addition international opportunities for sanctions against states which fail to observe women's rights need to be enforced. The first step towards this is the "Agreement on the Elimination all Forms of Discrimination against Women", in which anti-discrimination clauses were compiled for the first time and a programme of points for abolishing the discrimination of women. At the World Human Rights Conference in Vienna violence against women was named as a violation of human rights for the first time. 

The following appears in the final minutes of the Fourth United Nations World Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995. "Women's rights are human rights"! In the Peking declaration, all women's movements worldwide can call on the fact that they can demand concrete action from their governments in nearly all areas of society.

Besides this several possibilities for sanctions can be created. In 1999 the "Facultative Protocol" on "The Agreement on Eliminating Every Form of Discrimination Against Women" was signed which allows individual action can be taken. This means that a woman who is discriminated against in her country can demand equal opportunities from the women's committee of the UN,. The International Criminal Tribunal in the Haag also represents an important advance in the matter of women's rights. It is the first court to prosecute against rape on women in war as a human right's violation and a crime against mankind.

During the implementation of these contracts and action programmes the difficulties and obstacles that women's rights activists have to reckon with today became clear however. The passing of the action platform of Beijing was partially devalued a short time later due to clear criticism. Around 50 Islamic states and a series of mainly Catholically-oriented countries in South America and the Vatican, Lebanon, and Malta reported strong reservations concerning the passage on the "right of sexual self-determination", and these states also refused the demand that governments should "reconsider" their laws on the punishability of illegal abortions. Today religiously motivated conservative and fundamentalist powers are the most major opponent of universal women's rights. In the Islamic "States of God" (Iran, Sudan etc.) women are devoid of their rights in particular and in other countries auch as Algeria, Turkey and Egypt the influence of fundamentalists has risen over the last few decades. However Christian fundamentalists also have a powerful lobby, particularly in the USA, where several doctors who perform abortions have been threatened by radical "life savers" and even shot over the last few years. The central task therefore is a unified approach of women's and human right's activists worldwide against fundamentalism and violence.

[Author: Dorette Wesemann, Edited by: Ragnar Müller]

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