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Women's Rights
The promotion and protection of women's human rights is an integral part of Canada's foreign policy. Canada has been at the forefront of major UN commitments in this area, introducing the first-ever resolution aimed at integrating the human rights of women in the UN which was adopted by consensus at the Commission on Human Rights on International Women's Day, March 8, 1993. Later that same year Canada was instrumental in drafting a strong United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. In 1994, Canada played a lead role in establishing the position of Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, whose mandate to study violence, its causes and consequences was most recently renewed in April 2003 under the Canadian-led Resolution on the Elimination of Violence against Women at the Commission on Human Rights.
Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981 and, on October 18, 2002, acceded to the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.
Canada has also been a long-time advocate for integration of gender perspectives in the UN's humanitarian, armed conflict and peacebuilding areas, including through our work in the context of the International Criminal Court, the Security Council and follow-up to the Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.
For more information, please visit the website of Foreign Affairs and Internation Trade Canada: Canada's commitment to gender equality and the advancement of women's rights internationally.
