A Global Movement

“Women’s rights are human rights.”--Beijing Declaration, 1995

Minnesota activists are also leaders in the global movement for women’s human rights. Arvonne Fraser was an early champion on the international stage to promote women’s development and empowerment. She headed the U.S. delegations at the first three UN world conferences on women -- in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), and Nairobi (1985).

Fraser founded an international group of lawyers, judges, and activists known as “IWRAW” -- the International Women’s Rights Action Watch. She hired Minnesota lawyer Marsha Freeman in 1987 to build out this global network through annual meetings and the use of “shadow reports” about violations of women’s human rights to inform the UN experts at meetings in New York and Vienna.

The Advocates for Human Rights, established in 1983, initially focused on extra-judicial executions, asylum, and the violence in Central America. The organization began its work to promote women’s human rights in the 1990s, at the urging of women’s groups in Central and Eastern Europe.

In a pivotal undertaking, Elizabeth Bruch, Robin Phillips, and Anne Taylor, and women’s program director, Cheryl Thomas spent twelve days in Romania interviewing women’s groups, judges, lawyers, doctors, and other groups. Their 1995 report on domestic violence in Romania was a landmark, generating requests from women’s rights advocates across the region for similar reporting.

Beyond reporting, The Advocates used strategies developed in Minnesota–including the Duluth Model developed by Ellen Pence– to train local partners on effective interventions in cases of domestic violence.

Beijing Conference

The growing support for anti-domestic-violence policies, as well as technological advancements, led to advocacy on a global scale. In 1995, the UN held its Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, drawing enormous interest from women’s rights activists. More than 31,000 participants attended, including dozens of women’s advocates from Minnesota.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton became the public face of the U.S. government, delivering the most memorable speech at the World Conference in Beijing in which her proclamation of “Women’s rights are human rights,” launched her identity as a global public figure.

The 1995 Beijing Conference was the most important international event for women in history. The resulting Declaration and Platform for action obligated governments to advance gender equality in 12 areas of concern. The issue of violence against women had finally moved to the forefront of world attention.