GENDER LAW AND HEALTH: international perspectives

The United Nations has spearheaded the movement to eliminate gender discrimination and bring gender equality to the centre stage of the global agenda. A number of meetings and conferences were organized to bring the attention of the world community on the issue. The first three decades of the work of UN focused primarily on the codification of women’s legal, civil and human rights along with gathering of data on the status of women around the world. However, later it was evidenced that formulating laws do not suffice to ensure the rights and gender equality. The Beijing Conference of 1995 assured women of their rights. It was here that gender and law assume significance and attracted scholarly attention to focus on the strategies and plans of action for the advancement of women in terms of their legal rights to fully participate at all levels of human activity. 

In addition to the legal rights, international agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) has contributed significantly to formulate gender strategies to ensure equality in health. It has developed tools to ensure systematic consideration of gender in the design, implementation and evaluation of health policies and programmes. Strategies for gender mainstreaming, women empowerment and developing gender responsive health programmes have been devised to ensure physical and mental health of women.