text stringlengths 1 3.06k | scope stringclasses 9 values | document_url stringlengths 51 200 | source_url stringlengths 33 2.19k |
|---|---|---|---|
Women and the UN This book provides a critical history of influential women in the United Nations and seeks to inspire empowerment with role models from bygone eras.
The women whose voices this book presents helped shape UN conventions, declara- tions, and policies with relevance to the international human rights of women throughout the world today. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
From the founding of the UN and the Latin American feminist movements that pushed for gender equality in the UN Charter, up until the Security Council Resolu- tions on the role of women in peace and conflict, the volume reflects on how women delegates from different parts of the world have negotiated and disagreed on human rights issues related to gender within the UN throughout time. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In doing so it sheds new light on how these hidden historical narratives enrich theoretical studies in international rela- tions and global agency today.
In view of contemporary feminist and postmodern critiques of the origin of human rights, uncovering women’s history of the United Nations from both Southern and Western perspectives allows us to consider questions of feminism and agency in international relations afresh. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners of law, diplomacy, history, and development studies, and brought together by a theoretical commentary by the Edi- tors, Women and the UN will appeal to anyone whose research covers human rights, gen- der equality, international development, or the history of civil society. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Rebecca Adami is Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Stockholm Uni- versity and Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies).
She specializes in critical human rights theory through counternarratives, and studies on intersectionality, cosmopolitanism and childism.
Author of the book Women and the Universal Declara- tion of Human Rights. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In 2018 a UN photo exhibit “Women Who Shaped the Universal Declaration” based on the book was exhibited at the United Nations in New York by Sec- retary General António Guterres and first Latin American female President of the General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, now available online.
Dan Plesch is Professor of Diplomacy and Strategy at SOAS University of London.
His books include, The Beauty Queen's Guide to World Peace, Human Rights After Hitler and America, Hitler and the UN. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
His research focuses on strategies for preventing global war and emphasises a restorative archeology of knowledge of the effective peacemaking work in the 1940s.
Routledge Explorations in Development Studies This Development Studies series features innovative and original research at the regional and global scale. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
It promotes interdisciplinary scholarly works drawing on a wide spec- trum of subject areas, in particular politics, health, economics, rural and urban studies, sociology, environment, anthropology, and conflict studies.
Topics of particular interest are globalization; emerging powers; children and youth; cit- ies; education; media and communication; technology development; and climate change. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any orthodoxy, the series draws broadly on the tool kit of the social sciences in general, emphasizing comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of qualitative and quanti- tative methods. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships Edited by Jasmine Gideon and Elaine Unterhalter Political Participation and Democratic Capability in Authoritarian States Lien Pham and Ance Kaleja The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks A System of Debt or Development? | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Adrian Robert Bazbauers and Susan Engel Philanthropic Foundations in International Development Rockefeller, Ford, and Gates Patrick Kilby Foreign Aid and Development in South Korea and Africa A Comparative Analysis of Economic Growth Kelechi A. Kalu and Jiyoung Kim Women and the UN A New History of Women’s International Human Rights Edited by Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch Youth Civic Engagement and Local Peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa Prospects and Challenges for Community Development Edited by Ibrahim Natil For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge- Explorations-in-Development-Studies/book-series/REDS Women and the UN A New History of Women’s International Human Rights Edited by Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.
com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Adami, Rebecca, editor.
| Plesch, Daniel, editor.
Title: Women and the UN : a new history of women's international human rights / edited by Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021.
| Includes bibliographical references and index. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021005991 (print) | LCCN 2021005992 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Women's rights--History.
| United Nations--History. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Classification: LCC HQ1236 .W6375 2021 (print) | LCC HQ1236 (ebook) | DDC 323.3/4--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005991 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005992 ISBN: 978-0-367-47823-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-04938-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-03670-8 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003036708 Typeset in Times by SPi Global, India This volume is dedicated to Peg Snyder (1929-2021), founding director of the UN Development Fund for Women (today’s UN Women). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Contents Contributors Introductory note: Learning journey for a feminist: Making women visible, recognizing women’s achievements and demanding power to women TORILD SKARD Preface: Women of the UN: Shifting the Narrative by Revealing Forgotten Voices FATIMA SATOR AND ELISE DIETRICHSON 1 From women’s rights to human rights: The influence of Pan-American feminism on the United Nations KATHERINE M. MARINO 2 The Latin American women: How they shaped the UN Charter and why Southern agency is forgotten ELISE DIETRICHSON AND FATIMA SATOR 3 Excavating hidden histories: Indian women in the early history of the United Nations KHUSHI SINGH RATHORE 4 International welfare feminism: CSW navigating cold war tensions 1949 REBECCA ADAMI 5 Universal human rights for women: UN engagement with traditional abuses, 1948–1965 ROLAND BURKE ix xiii xviii 1 17 39 55 71 viii Contents 6 Feminism, global inequality and the 1975 Mexico city conference AOIFE O’DONOGHUE AND ADAM ROWE 7 Who wrote CEDAW? | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
ELLEN CHESLER 8 Were children’s rights ever a feminist project? | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
LINDE LINDKVIST 9 Creating UNSCR 1325: Women who served as initiators, drafters, and strategists CORNELIA WEISS 10 Commentary: The restorative archeology of knowledge about the role of women in the history of the UN – Theoretical implications for international relations REBECCA ADAMI, DAN PLESCH AND AMITAV ACHARYA Index 88 104 125 139 161 169 Contributors Amitav Acharya, Distinguished Professor, American University Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Govern- ance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, Ameri- can University, Washington, DC. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
He is the first non-Western scholar to be elected (for 2014-15) as the President of the International Studies Association (ISA), the largest and most influential global network in international studies.
Previously he was a Professor at York University, Toronto, and the Chair in Global Governance at the University of Bristol.
Roland Burke, Senior Lecturer, History LaTrobe University Roland Burke is author of Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
His current research examines the shifting accents of the human rights system, and the constellation of activists, across the 1980s and 1990s (London Review of International Law). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Roland has examined memorialization processes around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Journal of Global History, International History Review, History & Memory), and the gulf between legal lexicons of rights diplomacy, and the power of emotion in rights and humanitarian campaigns (Diplomacy & Statecraft, and Human Rights Quarterly). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Ellen Chesler Ellen Chesler is currently Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Research Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute on International Affairs, City University of New York. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She is author of Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America, 1992, 2007; co-editor of Where Human Rights Begin: Health, Sexuality and Women in the New Millennium, 2005; co-editor of Women and Girls Rising: Progress and resistance around the world, 2015, and has written numerous essays, articles, and blogs.
She worked for many years in philanthropy, most recently at the Open Society Foundations, and early in her career, in government.
She holds a B.A. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She holds a B.A.
from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in his- tory from Columbia University x Contributors Elise Dietrichson Elise Dietrichson, is a Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies), where she also completed her MA in International Studies and Diplo- macy. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Together with Fatima Sator, Elise has engaged in advocacy engagements, including TEDxPlaceDesNations 2018 and the HBO Documentary “Bertha Lutz” (2021).
The chapter contributions to this book is written in the personal capac- ity of Elise Dietrichson and views expressed here are her personal views.
These chapters should not be seen as a UN Women publication, research presented here was conducted prior to taking up her role as staff in UN Women April 2019. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Linde Lindkvist, Senior Lecturer at Stockholm University College Linde Lindkvist is associate dean and senior lecturer in human rights studies at the University College Stockholm.
He specializes in questions of human rights history, the right to religious freedom, and children’s rights.
He is the author of Religious Freedom and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2017).
His current project concerns the origins of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Katherine M. Marino, Associate Professor, UCL Katherine M. Marino is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She is the author of Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement (University of North Caro- lina Press, 2019) which received the Latin American Studies Association Luciano Tomassini Latin American International Relations Book Award and co-won the International Federation for Research on Women’s History Ida Blom-Karen Offen Prize in Transnational Women’s and Gender History, among other awards. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Aoife O’Donoghue¸ Professor of International Law and Global Governance, Durham University Professor O'Donoghue's research centres on public international law, constitu- tionalism, and feminism with a particular interest in global governance and legal theory.
Aoife's work examines constitutionalism, tyranny, utopias and feminism, legal theory and international legal history.
Aoife works on theories of tyranny and tyrannicide with her monograph Tyranny and the Global Legal Order coming out in 2021. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Aoife also works with collaborators on developing ideas around feminist utopias, manifestos, and global constitutionalism.
With Máiréad Enright of Birmingham Law School and Julie McCandless of Kent Law School, Aoife is Co-Director of the Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project and is embarking on a new project with Máiréad Enright and Liam Thornton and Catherine O'Ro- urke to revisit Northern/Ireland constitutional texts. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Adam Rowe, Phd Candidate, Durham University Adam is a Ph.D. candidate, part-time tutor, and a deputy-director of the Global Law and Justice research group, at Durham University.
He obtained his LL.B at Newcastle University in 2016 and his LL.M (also from Newcastle University) Contributors xi in 2017.
Adam’s research interests concern the theory of international law. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
He has written about the political nature of state sovereignty and its influence upon the legal nature of certain norms, and the problems of causation implicit within contemporary legal theories.
His current research explores issues of international legal ontology.
Specifically, it seeks to apply a Nietzschian framework to the concept of state sovereignty. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Adam has published two pieces on the dilemma of causation in International Legal Theory in Edinburgh Student Law Review and on Soft Sovereignty and the Legality of Humanitarian Intervention in the North East Law Review.
Fatima Sator Fatima Sator is a Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She holds a BA in economics and a Master's in International Relations and Diplomacy, from SOAS and in journalism from University of Neuchâtel.
Together with Elise Dietrichson, Fatima spoke at TEDxPlaceDesNations in 2018.
Their work features in the HBO Documentary "Bertha Lutz" (2021) and in sev- eral mainstream media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Asso- ciated Press, Daily Mail, and Le Monde Diplomatique. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Khushi Singh Rathore Khushi Singh Rathore is a PhD candidate in International Politics at the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament (CIPOD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
Her doctoral research project is on the role of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, India’s first woman diplomat, in the history of Indian foreign policy making.
Her research interests are Gender and Diplomacy, Feminist IR, Diplomatic History & International History. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Currently, she is also serving as a member-at large of the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Executive Commit- tee, International Studies Association; and is the Graduate Student Representative for the Gendering IR Working Group, British International Studies Association.
Torild Skard Torild Skard is a Senior Researcher in the social sciences with special interest in women and children. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
A pioneer in the women’s movement nationally and inter- nationally, she was formerly a MP and became the first woman President in the Norwegian Parliament in 1973.
She was then the first Director for the Status of Women in UNESCO, Paris, in 1984, the first woman Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1986, and the first woman Regional Director of UNICEF in West and Central Africa, in 1994. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She has written numer- ous books, studies and articles, her most recent being “Women of Power – Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide”.
Cornelia Weiss Cornelia Weiss is a retired military colonel, having served in the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Honors received include the US Air Force Keenan Award for making the most notable contribution to the development of international xii Contributors law and medals from Colombia for human rights and military justice accom- plishments.
She holds a BA in Women’s Studies from the University of Utah, an MA from Chile’s national academy of strategy and policy studies, and a JD from Vanderbilt University School of Law. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She first learned about UNSCR 1325 when attending the Inter-American Defense College in 2010-2011.
Knowing that his- tory is often used as an excuse to exclude women, she excavates forgotten history about women, peace, and power. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Introductory note Learning journey for a feminist: Making women visible, recognizing women’s achievements, and demanding power to women Torild Skard Senior Researcher, former President in the Norwegian Parliament and Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director of UNESCO and UNICEF When the United Nations was created after the Second World War, my mother Åse Gruda Skard was there as the only woman in the Norwegian delegation. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The 50 states that met in San Francisco in 1945 to create a new international organi- zation to maintain peace and security, all had male-dominated governments.
Only 3 per cent of the representatives at the conference were women.
My mother was appointed, because there was an active Norwegian women’s rights group in London, where the government of Norway was established in exile during the War. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The group demanded that at least one woman should be included in the country’s delegation to San Francisco in addition to the 15-20 men, and my mother was exceptionally well suited for the task.
First and fore- most, she lived in the US at the time and spoke English fluently.
My family fled to America when the Germans attacked Norway in 1940, and we settled down in Washington DC with my mother’s father, who was Norwegian Minister of For- eign Affairs from 1935 to 1941. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In addition, my mother had distinguished herself by being the first woman in our country with a university degree in psychology.
She was active in labor and women’s rights groups and well connected with inter- national organizations.
Feminist in male-dominated society Mother’s participation in San Francisco was very exciting, and she had to tell me about her experiences numerous times.
I was particularly interested in the role of the women at the conference. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Soon after the war my family went back to Norway, and I grew up in a society with widespread male domination.
Practically all the important positions were held by men, and in school, I was harassed by boys in my class, because girls were not supposed to be clever and active.
xiv Introductory note Fortunately, my family supported me. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Mother held a high position as associ- ate professor at Oslo University, worked as a child psychologist, was active in the women’s movement worldwide and participated in UNESCO’s activities.
At times, she took me and my sister with her and brought prominent women home.
I got acquainted with people from different cultures and was inspired by women who asserted themselves in other parts of the world.
In addition, my grandmother, who stayed in Norway during the war, became an important role model. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Born in 1871 she was the first farmer’s daughter in her part of the country who got higher education, and she fought for women’s suffrage, which we got in 1913.
At home she took time and explained our patriarchal traditions for me and how women struggled to change them.
She said I must not give up, but qualify myself the best I could, never forget that I was a woman and claim my rights. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
I joined the women’s movement as soon as I could, and worked hard to qual- ify myself professionally in education, psychology, and sociology.
I engaged in various organizational and political activities, learned French in addition to Eng- lish and got involved in international cooperation. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
And during my working life I obtained high posts no woman had occupied earlier: as President in the Nor- wegian Parliament, Director for the status of women in UNESCO Headquarters, Director General for the Multilateral Department in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Director for UNICEF in West-and Central Africa.
Putting women’s rights into practice was tougher than I expected.
Both nationally and internationally progress was slow. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Though all UN member states supported the equal rights for women and men in principle and confirmed this numerous times, men in power did not often walk the talk.
Instead they used many different techniques to maintain their privileges.
They denied that women were discriminated and concealed existing inequalities.
Accounts of women’s activities and achievements in the past as well as the present were extremely rare. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
San Francisco 1945 The UN was our most important organization for international collaboration.
Practically all the nation states were members.
But there were few studies of how the system worked in practice, and gender perspectives were lacking, though the purpose of the UN was not only to maintain peace and security, but also promote human rights and fundamental freedoms. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
After I retired from UNICEF, I started a research project in 2005 about women and the UN to gain better knowledge about how women’s rights were promoted worldwide.
I went back to the establishment of the UN in 1945, and my immer- sion in the San Francisco proceedings revealed that the official UN accounts were both incomplete and partly incorrect. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
They only had a brief statement about wom- en’s rights, noting that faith in the equal rights of men and women was inscribed in the Charter by four women delegates.
This made me wonder.
My mother told me that the women at the conference disagreed among themselves.
I had to delve into the original documents.
Introductory note xv There were not many women delegates and advisers at the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO). | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Only independent Allied states were included, and as the world war was not over, many states were unable to attend.
Totally, there were 22 delegations from the Americas, 14 from Europe, 10 from Asia, and 4 from Africa.
Only 12 of them had female members with functions other than ordinary secretarial assistance. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In addition to the official government delegations a great number of nongov- ernmental organizations were invited to send “consultants” to San Francisco to broaden the scope of the discussions and ensure a solid basis for the negotiations.
These also included women’s organizations, and gatherings were held during the conference so NGO representatives could meet with UNCIO participants. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Already on the first day of the conference my mother tried to get in touch with the other women delegates and advisers to unite them in a group.
Nobody else seemed to think of this, so she invited them for tea with other prominent women, both journalists and others, as well as the Norwegian female secretaries.
She established contact with 13 colleagues: 7 from Latin-America, 1 from Canada, 1 from the US, 2 from England, 1 from Australia, and 1 from China. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
These women were far from “standardized,” mother noted.
The delegates from Latin-America were clearly the most active promoting women’s rights.
They were headed by Dr Bertha Lutz, a prominent scientist from Brazil, and both the President and Vice-President of the Inter-American Commission of Women, Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic and Amalia C. de Castillo Ledón from Mexico attended the conference. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
They felt that they represented the women of the world and wanted to include references to “women” as often as possible in the Charter.
The female representatives from USA, Canada, and England had a different view.
According to their opinion, they participated in the negotiations as “dele- gates”, not women, and saw no reason to differentiate between women and men. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Virginia Gildersleeve from the US, who was Dean of a women’s college, even suggested deleting the word “women” from the phrase “the equal rights of men and women” in the preamble of the Charter, because she thought it was unneces- sary and implied a segregation of women.
But this was opposed by a man from the South: the head of the South African delegation, Field Marshall Smuts, who drafted the text, and the amendment was rejected. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The Chinese delegate Dr. Wu Yi-fang and my mother had what she described as an “intermediate” position.
They supported women’s rights, but not when they thought it was unreasonable.
All in all, it was a very small group of women from Norway and China in addition to those from Latin-America who collaborated to make sure the founding documents of the new organization were satisfactory from women’s point of view.
But mother felt that they achieved more than they could hope for. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
And at the end of the conference, Bertha Lutz proposed on behalf of all the women that a special commission should be established to follow-up the status of women in different countries, and this was supported by a clear majority.
xvi Introductory note Getting UN history right During my research, it was fascinating to find out how a nearly completely male-dominated assembly could proclaim the equal rights of men and women. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The active lobbying of women’s NGOs, the differing views of various female delegates, and the supportive action of leading male politicians were particu- larly worth noting. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
I published my study on “Getting Our History Right: How Were the Equal Rights of Women and Men Included in the Charter of the United Nations?”1 and the events in such an international context led to further interest in the status of women in different countries, particularly in Latin-America, to understand the basis for the action of different representatives. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Inspired by my work, students and scholars at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London followed-up with further research. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
This resulted in several scholarly publications, media coverage, and conferences at the UN in Geneva and New York.2 In 2017, the International Studies Association (ISA) and SOAS established a Bertha Lutz Prize to honor her, and in 2019, the UN changed the official account of the negotiations in San Francisco in 1945, noting that two of the female representatives, Bertha Lutz from Brazil and Minerva Bernardino from Dominican Republic, proposed to add “women” to the Charter.3 Slow progress Though women’s rights were confirmed in the UN Charter in 1945 and again in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and a special UN com- mission dealt with the status of women, there was not much progress before the second feminist wave in the 1960-70s. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Then approaches changed, and the Inter- national Women’s Year in 1975 became a turning point in women’s history with the world conference in Mexico, the UN Decade for Women and the Convention to eliminate discrimination against women.
The large global women’s confer- ences were driving forces in promotion of the status of women. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The conferences were special not only because they focused on women’s issues, but because they were dominated by women, and prominent female advocates for women’s rights played key roles.
In addition to the government meetings, simultaneous global meetings of women’s NGOs were also held.
The world conferences were followed up by numerous initiatives of differ- ent kinds.
But the recommendations required a rethinking and reorganization of work in the whole UN system. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The commitment of both women and men, special knowledge, and competence as well as resources were required.
And the follow-up encountered bureaucratic problems and resistance to change as well as to gender equality.
Seven decades after the UN was established, only one of four top leaders in the system were women.
But with enough political will and resources, pro- gress could be made. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In 2017, the newly elected UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed 50/50 women and men in the UN Senior Management Group for the first time.
Introductory note xvii Being an intergovernmental organization, the development of the UN is to a great extent determined by the national leaders and representatives of member states.
But the progress of women in politics has generally been very slow. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
By the end of 2020, women only constituted a minority of 1/4 of the members of parliament and 1/5 of the cabinet ministers worldwide, and only 27 women were appointed or elected presidents and prime ministers in independent states during the year.
The number of prominent women varied from one continent to the other, as did their way to the top and the role they played in power.
They generally inspired other women as role models, but they did not always promote women’s interests. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Resistance increased if they tried to be “feminist” in one way or the other.
So, some avoided this completely.
But most of the women top leaders in practice did something positive for women, to a greater or lesser degree, though it might not always be easy to discover.
Strengthening the position of women is more complex than is often realized.
It requires sustained long-term action by various actors to change established traditions, social structures, and power hierarchies. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
A basic condition is the exist- ence of active women working together, making women visible, approving their rights, recognizing their achievements, and demanding power to women.
Though they are partly hidden in the history of the UN and member states, they have made a difference and are the reason for the progress that has been made despite the difficulties. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Notes 1 Torild Skard, “Getting Our History Right: How Were the Equal Rights of Women and Men Included in Charter of the United Nations?,” Forum for Development Studies June, no.
1 (2008): 37–60.
2 See preface and chapter 2 in this anthology.
3 Carolyn Hannan, Aina liyambo, and Christine Brautigam, “A Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women” (New York: UN Women Headquarters, 2019).
Bibliography Hannan, Carolyn, Aina liyambo, and Christine Brautigam. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
“A Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women.” New York: UN Women Headquarters, 2019.
Skard, Torild.
“Getting Our History Right: How Were the Equal Rights of Women and Men Included in Charter of the United Nations?” Forum for Development Studies June, no.
1 (2008): 37–60. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
1 (2008): 37–60.
Preface Women of the UN: Shifting the Narrative by Revealing Forgotten Voices Fatima Sator and Elise Dietrichson It is difficult to claim the origins of ideas that have become universal, such as the idea of gender equality. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Still, as ideas become accepted by a majority and become a norm, the particular life story of the individuals that first championed them, cannot be reduced to a singular collective narrative and should as such not be forgotten because “these unique life stories carry with them the potential to change.”1 I—Fatima Sator—grew up wishing I was a man.
Because to me, men were free. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Because to me, men were free.
In Algeria, men went and came as they pleased, they saw and dated whoever they wanted, they had careers, they seemed important, their opinion mattered, they were entitled double heritage to that of their sisters, their words weighed twice as much as those of women’s.
I found it unfair that I would live with the restrictions of a woman.
Then I realized, that this was not only my reality, but a shared one. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
At 12 years old, I decided that I would contribute in creating equal rights and opportunities for men and women.
I didn’t know it then, because I didn’t know that there was a word for it, but I had identified myself as a “feminist.” I had an aunt who always declared herself as a feminist but she didn’t have a good repu- tation, was portrayed as “angry” and I was told that if I acted like her “I would never find a husband.” In my view, not “finding” a husband turned into a kind of compliment. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
When I insistently raised my voice on issues related to feminism, with the support of my parents, this wasn’t well received by my friends and fam- ily.
People told my parents that this was the result of a “Western” education.
That I was choosing the wrong battle, that feminism wasn’t “our” fight—that we had other issues to deal with, such as unemployment or economic insecurity. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Accord- ing to them, I should leave feminism to “the others”—referring to anyone beyond the Mediterranean Sea, not “us.” I was confused, were they right?
Was I the only one feeling that feminists described the very injustice I was confronted with as a woman in Algeria?
It took me several years before I could find the answer to this question. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Years later, I Preface xix studied a Masters in International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in London and that is when I met Elise who was also studying women in diplomacy.
Elise Dietrichson was from Norway and we engaged in hours of conversations around feminism, the United Nations and diplomacy.
For me, she represented “the others” I had been told about.
Elise grew up being taught in school how the first UN Secretary General, Trygve Lie, was Norwegian. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
She visited with excitement the Security Coun- cil Chamber at the UN headquarters in New York furnished and decorated by Norway, understanding that Norway was an important supporter of the UN and its creation.
She felt proud in knowing that Norway had a progressive female Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, when she grew up.
Women in leader- ship was typical Norwegian. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Women in leader- ship was typical Norwegian.
I, on the other hand, had not been taught my Alge- rian roots and how they were connected to gender equality, nor to the values of the UN.
The story of the Latin American women changed that for me: I saw brown women, not dictated by Western imperialists, speaking out for women`s rights.
There they were; my role models.
What this all really shows, is that the way history is presented to us is crucial for what values we take ownership of. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
For Elise growing up, UN values were national values, and these values were her values.
Rediscovering women in history Elise and I wanted to find the women champions in history in our quest for under- standing where values in the UN come from.
We asked ourselves “Who do we have to thank for having gender equality inscribed in international organizations today?” We looked to the UN Charter because it said to represent us all and called “the constitution of the world” when created more than 75 years ago. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
It was when turning to the meeting protocols and minutes from 1945 in UN archives that we discovered Bertha Lutz, the delegate from Brazil, one of only four women to sign the UN Charter.
Her memoirs with her machine and hand- written letters located in a paper box2 right in the heart of London—just a short walk away from SOAS at the London School of Economics (LSE) Women`s Library—was almost untraceable in history books.
The archive of the UN and Lutz` notes were so fascinating! | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
According to minutes from UNCIO and the jour- nal of this Brazilian scientist, frog-lover and diplomat; Bertha Lutz was specif- ically sent by the Brazilian Government in 1945 as a Brazilian delegate to the UNICIO in San Francisco to advocate for the inclusion of gender equality in the UN Charter.3 The Latin American delegates were termed “extremist”-femi- nists, wanting the word “women” everywhere. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Seventy-five years later, we were amazed by the fight these women delegates put up for us to include women in the founding documents of the UN.4 It was then we understood that this story was still important to unearth as it has significant implications for the future.
Explicit recognition of women’s rights is not something we should take for granted.
Remember that only 30 delegations out of 50 present at the San Fran- cisco Conference5 in 1945, represented countries where women had the right to vote. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Remember that women diplomats were denied access to diplomatic posts in xx Preface most countries.
Remember that women were not mentioned in the original draft of the UN Charter.6 Taking for granted our rights, and how we got there was something Bertha Lutz critiqued already in 1945.
She felt that women from countries where wom- en’s rights were more advanced had forgotten how these rights were given to them. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
In a tea meeting, the British women advisors told Bertha Lutz that as she was in the Kings Private council, this meant women in Britain had arrived at gender equality.
Bertha Lutz was clear saying that, no, this meant only that a few individuals had been invited but they were not representative of all women. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
One of our favorite quotes by Bertha Lutz, that really made an impression on us, was when she said after meeting the American and British delegates that: “It is a strange psychological paradox that often those who are emancipated by the efforts of others are loath to acknowledge the source of their freedom.”7 Why are women in history forgotten?
This volume is a collection of texts representing the journey of women before us, women like Bertha Lutz who grew up with ideas and questions that had global reach. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
These texts speak of the realization that individual ideas only have value if they are recognized by the collective, owned and validated by the majority.
Just as women’s rights weren't included by accident in the founding documents of the UN, neither will we claim that forgetting the contribution of women dip- lomats like Berta Lutz is accidental.
And neither will her legacy, nor the broader legacy of the other women acknowledged in this volume be recognized if we continue to overlook it. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
During most of the press conferences or interviews on the topic of the Latin American women who fought for gender equality in the UN Charter, a question was often asked “how come this story has been forgotten?” For us forgetting the contribution of Bertha Lutz is an example of how the main narrative of history, the domination of accepted beliefs, references of what is considered normal by dominant actors in society, sometimes overshadow other significant events.8 The idea that women will always defend women’s rights, and that women always speak with one voice, and that the most progressive feminist usually are from Western countries overshadows the diversity of women’s voices, their agency, and actions. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The presentation of history is political.
It is skewed and shaped in favor of the most powerful, often men, which means that some of what we believe to be truths should be challenged.
“If good ideas are found outside the West, they are often dismissed as imitation.”9 This is explained by some as why the contributions of the global South have generally been ignored and neglected. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Neglecting the historical contributions of Bertha Lutz is also a part of a wider tendency neglecting the contributions of women in international relations, and particularly, neglecting the fundamental Southern contributions to global norms, such as human rights and gender equality. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
The lack of recognition of the Latin American women, not only meant silencing their voices but silencing all women’s voices, particularly those from the South, the conscious identity as “non-Western” Preface xxi was something Bertha Lutz used to describe herself and the other Latin Ameri- can women representing the “South.”10 These women will only be rediscovered if there is a deliberate will to see the gaps left in history books, redefine what is important and put new value to sources earlier dismissed. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Women wrote letters, journals, they told anecdotes, men who were actors in the public sphere wrote their biographies, men wrote our history books.
Women were only heard as a group, while a man could make his mark as a state leader with a notable name.
Advocating for change Before finding a research article authored by Torild Skard11 on the role of Women and the UN Charter, neither Elise nor I had ever heard about Bertha Lutz before.
This was mind-blowing. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
This was mind-blowing.
How could it be that we had never heard of Bertha Lutz?
We who were international relations’ students, feminists, and former interns at the UN, with a particular interest in women in diplomacy. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
We started asking our former colleagues at the UN, professors in IR, diplomats who worked on wom- en`s rights “have you heard of the Brazilian Diplomat who got women`s rights into the UN Charter, Bertha Lutz?” We asked professors at SOAS, Brazilian and UN diplomats, UN staff, ambassadors, we looked at the UN Women website, the UN Blue Book series12 but there was not a single mention of her and her legacy. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
Our journey began with the inspiration from Torild Skard’s work and with Dan Plesch’ visionary research on UN History for the Future, we started the project “Women and the UN Charter.”13 Through our advocacy work we came in contact with researchers who shared this passionate interest for the hidden women in the history of the UN but this was a counter-narrative not recognized widely. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
For Elise and I, this remarkable period in history, where it was the Latin Amer- ican women who bore the torch for women`s rights at the birth of the UN, truly ignited a fire in us.
For us, as feminists, this piece of forgotten history was not only important in itself to understand how we got the first reference to equal rights of men and women. | INTL LAW | https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/9781003036708_webpdf.pdf | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003036708/women-un-dan-plesch-rebecca-adami |
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 6