Editing Women's rights (section)

=== United Nations and World Conferences ===

In 1946 the United Nations established a [[United Nations Commission on the Status of Women|Commission on the Status of Women]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/|title=Review & Appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action. The Outcome document of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly, March 2005|website=www.un.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/CSW60YRS/CSWbriefhistory.pdf|title=Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women}}</ref> Originally as the Section on the Status of Women, Human Rights Division, Department of Social Affairs, and now part of the [[United Nations Economic and Social Council|Economic and Social Council]] (ECOSOC). Since 1975 the UN has held a series of world conferences on women's issues, starting with the World Conference of the International Women's Year in Mexico City. These conferences created an international forum for women's rights, but also illustrated divisions between women of different cultures and the difficulties of attempting to apply principles universally.<ref name=Catagay>Catagay, N., Grown, C. and Santiago, A. 1986. "The Nairobi Women's Conference: Toward a Global Feminism?" Feminist Studies, 12, 2:401–12.</ref> Four World Conferences have been held, the first in [[Mexico City]] ([[International Women's Year]], 1975), the second in [[Copenhagen]] (1980) and the third in [[Nairobi]] (1985).

At the [[Fourth World Conference on Women]] in Beijing (1995), ''[[Beijing Platform for Action|The Platform for Action]]'' was signed. This included a commitment to achieve "[[gender equality]] and the empowerment of women".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/index.html|title=Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995|website=www.un.org}}</ref><ref>United Nations [https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm#intro ''Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women'': Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406123853/http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm#intro |date=6 April 2011 }}</ref> The same commitment was reaffirmed by all U.N. member nations at the [[Millennium Summit]] in 2000 and was reflected in the [[Millennium Development Goals]] to be achieved by 2015.

In 2010, [[UN Women]] was founded through the merging of the [[Division for the Advancement of Women]], the [[International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women]], the Office of the Special Adviser or Gender Issues Advancement of Women and the [[United Nations Development Fund for Women]] by [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly]] Resolution 63/311.