The popularization of the rights of women refers to the process by which women join the historical struggle for their basic human rights on the individual and social, public and private, national and international levels. In Central America, a methodology was recently developed for reconceptualizing human rights of women and constructing these rights based on systematizing experiences from daily life. The methodology has been used in several workshops and courses in countries of the region. The methodology has four specific objectives: to identify the principal rights that have been denied to women, to identify rights achieved by women in their daily lives through their own efforts, to contribute to a new form of human rights education for women in which human rights instruments are conceived as instruments to satisfy human needs, and to develop strategies for achieving full exercise of rights. Steps in applying the methodology include encouraging participants to recall their first awareness that a human right was denied because of sex, and to recall the first time they ever successfully asserted a right. These remembered incidences then become the objects of a search through international and national human rights instruments to see whether the relevant rights are mentioned. Since most of the recollected experiences will have occurred in the domestic sphere, they will not be recognized in the instruments. The next step is to identify actions and strategies to overcome the limitations resulting from the separation of public and private spheres and to achieve recognition of the actual life experiences of women. The final step requires sharing fears and concerns regarding the implementation of the suggested strategies and actions.
The Latin American and Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights was attended by representatives from over 150 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The women's groups attending the preparatory meeting succeeded in developing a "women's platform" whose proposals were largely adopted by the main conference. The composition of the attending NGOS was varied. Some of the women represented the traditional, androcentric human rights focus, while around 20 of the organizations were feminist. Human rights groups and women's organizations were urged not to wait for a government invitation, but to seek accreditation and attend the conference independently. The feminists prepared for the conference with a preliminary satellite conference in which a 19-point women's platform was created and strategy was discussed. The women consequently were able to use the conference time for meeting and lobbying the delegates. The women's platform was distributed to women's and human rights groups before the conference so that they would arrive prepared to defend it. The satellite conference debated the need to reconceptualize "human rights". The significance of "human being" is often taken to refer to male human being, and human rights might then be considered rights of male human beings. A second theme debated was whether mechanisms to protect the human rights of women are insufficient and marginal in UN activities. The feminization of poverty resulting from neoliberal policies, gender violence as one of the gravest forms of discrimination against women, and the need for recognition of rights required only by women were other topics debated. The final Declaration incorporated a paragraph affirming that violence against women should be considered a violation of human rights.
This work attempts to trace the history of attitudes toward women and their bodies from a feminist perspective, arguing that women in history have always been defined in terms of their sexuality, their sex, and their bodies. Women and nature were defined as inferior to men and the culture created by men. This situation existed throughout history, in one form or another in all countries, and formed a central part of the construction of social, political and cultural significance, especially in western countries. The patriarchal era in which we live has existed for 6000 years. Its institutions, created by men, were ruled by men and described in history by men. But much of the art left behind from the prehistoric era attests to a time when nature and the reproduction of life were venerated. The female body figured in all representations of this era as a powerful and miraculous central subject and not as a controlled and marginalized object. Women's bodies continue to be big business and despite some progress, women are still obliged to struggle against sexual discrimination and increasing day to day violence. It is important for women to know this history for the light it sheds on their present situation.
