Conference: Women’s Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Developments and Challenges under International and European Law

On February 14, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights, in cooperation with Foundation René Cassin-International Institute of Human Rights and with the support of the General Consulate of Japan in Strasbourg, will hold a conference on "Women’s Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Developments and Challenges under International and European Law" in Strasbourg. The deadline for the public registration is February 7. See registration details below. The program is here. Here's the idea:

Women have been historically discriminated in society. Based on assumptions about the “natural” gender roles in society, women have been denied important rights from the suffrage, the right to sign contracts or perform work outside the home to custody rights. Over the last century, important developments have taken place. The conceptualization of women’s rights as human rights and their incorporation into international law played an important role in this. Women’s equality became the subject of international documents such as the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the 1995 The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women or more recently the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. In addition, supranational courts such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court or the Court of Justice of the European Union have responded to women’s demands by an increasingly gender-sensitive reading of different international and regional legal norms. Notwithstanding, women’s full equality has not yet been achieved. Women everywhere are still subject to different forms of violence in war and in times of peace, in the public and the private spheres, they earn less and are facing higher poverty rates than men, are under-represented in positions of power in fields like politics, on the boards of companies and on the benches of the highest national and international courts and face other gender-specific forms of discrimination such as poor access to justice and to sexual, reproductive and maternal care.

This conference aims to discuss a few aspects of the state of women’s human rights and the challenges to achieving gender equality in the twenty-first century. It will do so by looking at developments in the field of gender equality under International and European Law and before regional courts, particularly the European Court of Human Rights.

The conference hopes to provide a forum of reflection on gender equality for members of the judiciary, legal practitioners, academics, representatives of European institutions and non-governmental organizations, as well as other professionals.

The event is open to the public. Should you be interested to register or have any questions, please contact: iidh-intern@iidh.org until 7 February 2020 and please bring your ID in the day of the conference. If you have a Council of Europe badge, please register before 12 February. Members of the Council of Europe who did not register are welcome to attend should there be any available places in the room.