Grupo de Investigación en Género women, as well as the obligations of

y Sexualidad States to protect, promote and

Facultad de Humanidades y guarantee them, including the right
Educación to live free of gender-based
Universidad de Los Andes violence.
Mérida-Venezuela
However, a major problem with
Abogada Alda Facio human rights is that most of the
Consultora internacional national, regional and international
systems and mechanisms that have
HUMAN RIGHTS FROM A been established to enforce them
GENDER PERSPECTIVE AND have been developed and
PUBLIC POLICIES implemented based on a male model.
Thus, to date, the human rights
Human rights are those that all system has not adequately taken into
human beings possess and that they account the specific experiences and
have the right to enjoy simply circumstances of women. But thanks
because of their human condition. to the international women's
During the 1993 World Conference movement for human rights, this
on Human Rights, States reaffirmed, situation is changing. Increasingly,
through the Vienna declaration, that individuals and organizations
these rights are born with the advocating for women's rights turn
person and that their protection is to human rights systems to demand
the responsibility of every State. compensation for the injustices
inflicted on women.
They are based on the fundamental
principle that all people possess The concept of human rights and
inherent human dignity and have an Human Rights Law are, by nature,
equal right to enjoy it, regardless of dynamic. This means that, although a
their sex, race, color, language, range of fundamental human rights
national origin or class, or their already has legal recognition, nothing
religious or political beliefs. This excludes the possibility of giving
conference also specifically them a broader interpretation or of
recognized the human rights of fighting for the international
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community to accept, at any time,
additional rights. In this way, human
rights acquire new meanings and
dimensions. This dynamism makes
human rights a potentially
powerful tool to promote
justice and the dignity of all people.
To the extent that oppressed groups
demand recognition of their rights
and make the need for new forms of
protection visible, so will human
rights be transformed to include
more and better the varied range of
human needs.
That is, the universally recognized
list of protected human rights (as
found in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and subsequent
instruments) represents
important consensus on the dignity
that should be conferred on every
human being and on the will of
society to respect the basic rights
of all / as equally. At the same time,
there are human rights that have not
yet been included in the lists of
protected and recognized rights.
Consequently, there are
rights violations that are
considered as such and for which no
one is held to account.
in the history of human rights two
currents are perceived: one that
represents the struggle to
proclaim previously unaware rights
and obtain their acceptance as
very human rights, and the other that
social represents the continuous struggle
to ensure that established rights
are respected.
Perhaps due to this dynamism,
human rights are discussed and
studied from many perspectives or
angles. For example, they can be
studied from their historical
development in three or more
generations or they can be
understood as a code of conduct,
or as fundamental freedoms, as
constitutional guarantees, as
an rights that concern human beings
for the mere fact of being, as the
rights included in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and
subsequent instruments or, very
limitedly, such as the rights of
citizens or political prisoners. And,
although the majority know them
mainly through the accounts of
human tremendous violations and massive
not abuses committed by the too many
dictatorships and Wars of the
20th Century, few relate it to the
systematic violations of women's
rights.
2

Furthermore, even the
themselves are unaware of the
struggles that have taken place
throughout history for
recognition of women's
rights in different fields and at
different levels. History books on
the evolution of human rights do
not include them and there are
really few people who understand
that human rights,
indivisible, inalienable
universal, must be understood
from a gender perspective because
otherwise they would not
speaking of human rights, but of
human rights.
Even for those who know them
more broadly, human rights from a
gender perspective are still few
known. But I am not going to
develop a theory about this. I am
going to limit this talk to give some
ideas of how to frame public
policies within the principles and
standards of human rights from a
gender perspective.
But, although I am not going to
delve into the history of human
rights, I do want to insist that this
one, which since it was framed
within the Universal Declaration
more than fifty years ago, has
been an energetic struggle to
women understand and realize the
meaning of the rights included
therein, and therefore I want to
the invite you to study and read about
human this exciting and inspiring story. I
hope that all of you feel so much
inspiration for the concept of
human rights, including that of
women, that they will fill your
activities, and more importantly,
being your hearts, with your dynamism
and and commitment.
Before talking about public policy, I
be want to affirm that, for me, human
rights are the belief that all life
deserves respect. Once you create
this, you don't need to read all the
documents that define them to
know them. It does not require
learning all the mechanisms and
procedures that exist for its
defense. I would not even need the
explanation of a methodology to be
able to incorporate human rights
into the work itself. Although all of
the above can be useful, practical
and even very efficient, it will be
useless if one / or is not in contact
with their own and only divinity. Nor
will it do you any good until you can
see and feel it in all living things. So
in these times of destruction,
3
violence and death, where patriotic
revenge seems to be on the minds
of so many people and, the political
and economic gain on those of a
powerful minority, I would like us to
take a minute before continuing.
silence to really feel the sacred
within us. Please give us the
opportunity to make contact with
our Inner Being, and we will see
that immense love and respect for
life comes to us in all its wonderful
manifestations.
From there I feel it / or I invite to
undertake with me the intellectual
task of knowing the relationship
between gender, human rights and
public policies. Yes, I beg you to
take the time to connect with your
being from time to time to learn to
love what makes us human beings
and to respect and feel it in all
creatures.

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