Women and Rights

The "Focus on Gender" series makes available in book form the contents of the Oxfam journal "Gender and Development". Highlighting practice as well as theory, the thematic series makes the resource available to students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in particular topics. "Women's rights are human rights" was one of the messages to come out of the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993. This work explores the issue of women's rights in a variety of different contexts. Focusing on women's rights involves the recognition that, throughout the world, legal systems aiming to guarantee rights have their roots in cultures which discriminate against women. Development and human rights are closely linked, and the empowerment of women to claim their full rights will enable them to take full advantage of development processes.