Women’s Rights

The Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (1979) was the culminating point of multilateral efforts to codify the international criteria, principles and standards (declaratory, resolutive or legal) aimed at achieving women’s full equality with men. It is a contractual, global international instrument whose scope, according to the author of this essay, is conditioned by the degree of social progress, education and information existing in each country. This essay analyzes the background of the 1979 Convention; it describes the rights protected by it; it studies the control and supervision mechanisms established by the convention to ensure compliance with its provisions, and stresses the need for legal recognition of woman’s equality to become a daily reality, particularly through a wide program to broadcast women’s rights and the provisions of the 1979 Convention.