September 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women Declaration: Women and girls are included in the Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms. In this sense, all aspects of society should work for equality, peace and development. Women must be involved in all spheres of life if equality and peace are to be reached. Women are human too! Violence against women must end. men and women must be partners in life, which will help not only them as individuals, but their families and society in general. Women must control their own bodies and make their own choices about birth and families. Women will bring about peace if they are more involved in society. They need to be involved in the decision-making if their position is to be improved. NGOs believing in women’s rights/freedoms are important in promoting these rights, as are the international community and governments committed to making changes in society. Men need to help women in reaching equality. The basic causes of poverty must be examined and identified if women are to be economically independent. Women must be educated and healthy if global society is to succeed. International law must be promoted and preserved if women are to be protected around the world. Those women with further barriers to equality, like race, colour, religion, and culture, need special attention. Women are as much a resource as those resources we use everyday. Sustainable development requires women to be totally and equally involved in all sectors of decision-making and policy creation. Sustainable development needs the complete participation of women if it is to succeed. As well, international co-operation will ensure widespread equality for women. Action Platform: The main objective set out by the Conference participants was to empower women while respecting their human rights and the human rights of others. Nation-states, while respecting national culture and tradition, must promote and protect human rights and freedoms. Each nation-state should be responsible for making this work, along with international co-operation to ensure widespread equality and peace. War is also a major cause of violations of women’s rights (such as ethnic cleansing policies), and armament expenditures have set back advancement of all of society, and women in particular. Recession and instability lead to poverty, and women suffer the most from this. Programs created to solve poverty problems need to secure further the rights and freedoms of women. As well, foreign debt programs have reduced social expenditures, and thus the responsibility for basic social spending has shifted from governments to women. Recession leads to bad work for women; women take risky jobs in hard times. Thus, women need to be rewarded for work done at home, in the community and in the workplace. Extremism in any form can jeopardise the road to equality. Democracy and stability in government are needed to ensure that women are not victims of extremist politics or practice. Non-governmental organisations are also important to the advancement of women's rights and empowerment. As well, many nations feel out of biological necessity (and not social construction) women's roles in reproductive and productive labour need to be increased. Women are underepresented in all elected legislative bodies (only 10% are women) in the world. Women care for children, the sick and the elderly more than men do, yet women lack pay equality for such efforts.
Women with further obstructions to equality, such as women of different religions, cultures, races or ages, deserve greater access to training, education and health services, and should be more involved in communities Modern mass media and technology have spread narrow, stereotyped images of women for their own purposes; therefore, women need to be involved in technological decision-making so that the image of the human person is promoted, not of the male person. Environmental degradation affects the health and livelihood of women more than men. Programs designed to enhance and protect rural environments where indigenous and local women work must be developed in order to ensure future local, national and international stability. As the world becomes more inter-dependent, global health will depend on the health of local, rural areas and environments. Furthermore, urban migration results in the sexual exploitation of women. To make sure that future women are not exploited, girls need to be nurtured, educated, protected for their roles in tomorrow's society. All types of violence against women and girls must end. Half of the world's population under 25 and 85 % of the world's youth live in developing nations. Women in these areas need to be involved and protected more attentively. To recap the major areas of concern: ¸ The effect of poverty on women ¸ Unequal access to education and training, health and social services ¸ Violence against women ¸ Armed conflict and foreign occupation ¸ Economic structural inequality ¸ Lack of power-sharing and equality in decision-making ¸ No respect for human rights ¸ Stereotyping of women and women's roles ¸ Gender inequality in resource management and environmental decision-making ¸ Violation of the rights of the Girl child Therefore, the Action Plan requires that all peoples of the world work towards a peaceful, democratic and just world based upon the human rights, freedoms and equality of all people. Continued economic growth that promotes sustainable development is vital to the maintenance of social development and justice. All levels of government and all institutions, public and private, should be committed to the Action Plan. Resources and financial aid to developing nations must be mobilized, publicly and privately, in order to ensure the advancement of women at all levels.