All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.  
Article 7

Men and women of full age...are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with free and full consent of the intending spouses.
Article 16.1, 2

Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
Article 23.2

Discrimination and violence against women pervade every region of the world. But a call to action is now radiating from cities and rural areas, from developing and developed countries, and from women and men: Women's rights are human rights. And human rights are women's rights. Citizens' groups and global networks today organize increasingly effective campaigns to halt human rights abuses against women and girls.

Worldwide, one-quarter to one-half of women suffer domestic violence at some time during their lives. Violent attacks by partners or other family members is a leading cause of death among women aged from their mid-teens to their mid-40s. In the United States, three to four million women are battered annually.

Government authorities in some countries have still failed to eradicate dowry killings, the practice of burning women to death when their relatives consider their dowries to be insufficient. Female genital mutilation, a traditional practice in many of the world's countries despite its official condemnation by over 180 governments, can cause severe and chronic health problems. The procedure kills some young girls.

Sex industries traffic in ever-younger girls. Forced prostitution, often accompanied by violent abuse and disease, can be a death sentence. Millions of Asian girls and women have been forced into prostitution during the past decade, although this human rights abuse is by no means limited to that region of the world.

Rape, used as a weapon of war, spares neither young girls nor elderly women. Fleeing for their lives, refugee women and girls often face assaults, sometimes lethal, at the hands of government agents who are supposed to protect them.

Government agents in scores of countries also subject women to political persecution, torture, and assassination. Many of the women targeted are outspoken human rights activists. Others have tried to pursue careers deemed "unacceptable" for women or have attempted to protect family members threatened by state authorities.

Legal codes and law enforcement policies worldwide discriminate against women, denying them equal protection against violence as well as equal rights in marriage, in the termination of a marriage, in owning and inheriting property, and in pursuing an occupation of their choice.

Afghanistan's current Taliban regime provides an especially egregious example of discrimination against women, who are prohibited from working outside their homes and from receiving medical treatment at facilities serving men. Schools which educate girls have been closed. Thugs and government agents can attack with impunity any Afghan woman who defies dress or work codes.

Virtually everywhere, women's work is undervalued and under-rewarded. If they receive wages at all, women are paid 20 to 50 percent less than men and severely restricted in obtaining credit and other financial services.

Unequal access to education and skills training compounds women's unequal position in labor markets. Some two-thirds of all illiterate people in the world are women.

Women's unequal status within their families and unequal access to social welfare are also directly linked to the cycles of poverty, exploitation, and abuse they experience. According to the United Nations, 70 percent of the world's poorest people are women.

Although international human rights agreements guarantee everyone the right to participation in government, no country's women have equal access to national decision-making processes. Women constitute half of the world's adult population, but only about 10 percent of legislators worldwide are women. Democratic development and economic growth cannot advance without women's full, equal participation in all sectors of society.

Act Now:

Request and Read
Review the report, "Women's Rights Are Human Rights," or examine a Muslim woman’s struggle to maintain integrity in the face of limited social options.

Act Locally
Help secure U.S. ratification of the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women by asking your two U.S. Senators for their active support.

Act Nationally or Internationally
Circulate a petition calling on the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to stop subjecting Women to severe discrimination in virtually every aspect of their lives.

Grab a Partner
Help the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network to prevent assaults and assist survivors of domestic violence, which shatters the lives of women and girls.

Raise Your Voice
Insure that Irene Fernandez can continue to publicize the severe human rights abuses suffered by migrant women in Malaysian detention centers.

National Coordinating Committee for UDHR50.
Copyright © February 1998 by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. All rights reserved. This web page is adapted from "IN YOUR HANDS" - a Community Action Guide. This page may be reproduced, with citation of the source, for educational and outreach purposes only. No part of the content on this website may be sold for profit.
Revised: September 03, 1998.