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One of the most endured and important documents of the 20th and early 21st century remains the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
It articulates the inherent dignity and equality of people, not in capacities, power, and so on, but, rather, in the rights of everyone. The basis for this creates “freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
In particular, some statements relate in the direct implication of theoretical considerations and practical manifestations of the equality of women with men and vice versa as a high ideal. Within the Preamble of the document, we find clear articulation.
It states, “Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…”
In other words, the Member States of the United Nations affirmed the fundamental rights of men and women. This continues in the document into Article 16 Sections 1 through 3. In Article 16(1), it says, “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.”
All women have the equal rights with men for marriage and the foundation of a family with equal rights, and considerations, prior to, during, and (sometimes, unfortunately,) the “dissolution” of a marriage.
Article 16(2) states, “Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.” Article 16(3) continues, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”
The free and full consent of the spouses. This eliminates any ethical quandaries about forced marriage or people prior to the age of consent – children or adolescents. That is to say, adult women can marry and hold the right to consent or not to a marriage. Girls cannot or should not marry because of living prior to the age of consent.
A woman must be an adult and be within reasonable conditions for a free and fully consented to choice in a marriage. With respect to Article 16(3), the family, and not the individual, amounts to the fundamental group of a society with the individual as important but not a group.
Which implies, the individual as fundamental with the adult as the key component who can freely and fully consent to marriage and then the formation of a family – with or without children as implied dependent on the particular couple – as the fundamental group unit. Two basic units: the individual and the family.
Those two get protection from the society and the State.
Finally, and one with particular emphasis on biological women, Article 25(2) says, “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”
Whether born in or out of the fundamental group unit of a society, motherhood and childhood are to be entitled to the special care and assistance with children having social protection as well. Ongoing movements want women in the home or back in the home – who try through various overt and covert means, girls married prior to adulthood and without consent, women to be enforced into marriages, and these fundamental equalities to be violated, these rights documents list the protections from the social and political control of women and children.
These remain fundamental to the 21st century and essential to implement for a freer, more just, and equal world.
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One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on. Based on the personal analysis in conjunction with a colleague (Sarah Mills) in other publications, I find the following documents with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1 and Article 2.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3 and Article 13.
- The Istanbul Convention in Article 38 and Article 39.
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women(1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
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Image Credits: Pixabay