Glossary

Selected by the Social Innovation Fund, Lithuania

Advocacy: a political process consisting of actions designed to transform citizen or popular "interests" into rights; a process aimed at influencing decisions regarding policies and laws at national and international levels; actions designed to draw a community's attention to an issue and to direct policy makers to a solution.

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: Consensus document adopted by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, reviewing and reaffirming women's human rights in all aspects of life; signed by representatives at the Conference and morally but not legally binding.

CEDAW: See Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Centre for Human Rights in Geneva: Part of the UN Secretariat under the administration of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that acts as a secretariat and clearing house for several types of human rights complaints, including those issued through the 1503 Procedure.

Claim: Allegation by an individual or state that it is entitled to a remedy for an injury caused by an offender (usually the state).

Claimant: One who brings a claim.

Commission on Human Rights: Body formed by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations to address human rights; one of the first and most important international human rights bodies.

Commission on the Status of Women: Body formed by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations to deal with issues facing women in the Member States.

Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe: The political arm of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; the Committee can refer cases to the European Court on Human Rights and supervises implementation of the judgments of the Court.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination of Against Women: The Treaty- Monitoring Body created by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to monitor state compliance with that Convention.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation 19, Violence Against Women (Eleventh Session 1992): Influential Recommendation of the Treaty- Monitoring Body charged with enforcing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; defines violence as a form of discrimination against women.

Communication: See Complaint.

Complaint: In legal terms, the initial document that begins an action; a complaint sets forth a brief summary of what happened and argues why relief should be granted; in a human rights case, the complaint (or Petition, or Communication) alleges that the government, or another individual or institution that must answer to human rights standards (such as a surrogate of the government) has violated the human rights of specific individuals or groups of individuals.

Complaint-Information Procedures: Under complaint- information procedures, the goal is not to redress individual grievances but to identify broad human rights violations affecting a large population; petitions are received only as part of the information before the body considering the matter; authors of petitions have no right to a remedy, and may not even have a right to be informed about the disposition of the case.

Convention: Binding agreement between states; used synonymously with Treaty and Covenant; Conventions are stronger than Declarations in that they are legally binding for states that are party to them and governments can be held accountable for violating them; the United Nations General Assembly creates international norms and standards when it adopts conventions; Member States can then ratify the UN conventions, signifying acceptance of the obligations under the treaty.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (adopted 1979, entered into force 1981): The first legally binding international document prohibiting discrimination against women and obligating governments to take affirmative steps to advance the equality women; draws no distinction between public and private life; establishes the Committee on the Elimination Discrimination Against Women as the Treaty Monitoring Body for the Convention; there are more Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women than to any other convention.

Domestic Violence/Family Violence: Any form of physical, sexual or psychological violence which puts the safety or welfare of a family member at risk and/or the use of physical or emotional force or threat of physical force, including sexual violence, within the family or household. Includes child abuse, incest, wife battering and sexual or other abuse of any member of the household.

Enforcement Mechanisms: Reporting, Complaint or other procedures at the national, regional or international level that place obligations on states to ensure respect for human rights.

Equality Between Women And Men (Sex Equality): The principle of equal rights and equal treatment of women and men.

Equal Pay For Work Of Equal Value: Equal pay for work to which equal value is attributed without discrimination on grounds of sex or marital status with regard to all aspects of pay and conditions of remuneration (Art. 141 (ex 119) of the Treaty).

European Commission on Human Rights: Body established by the European Convention on Human Rights to investigate grievances of human rights and brings charges of violations; the Commission consists of a number of members equal to that of the number of contracting parties to the convention.

European Committee for the Prevention of Torture or Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Treaty-Monitoring Body set up under the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture or Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Each party to the Convention is obligated to permit visits by the Committee to investigate complaints.

Family Violence: See Domestic violence.

Feminisation Of Poverty: The increasing incidence and prevalence of poverty among women as compared to men.

Gender: A social construction often contrasted with "sex" which refers to biological differences between males and females; gender refers to socially constructed differences between men and women as well as socially and culturally constructed perceptions of differences between men and women; a broader term than "sex."

Gender-Based Violence: Violence committed against women as women; violence particular to women, such as rape, sexual assault, female circumcision, dowry burning etc.; violence against women for failing to conform to restrictive social norms; the Vienna Declaration specifically recognized gender-based violence as a human rights concern.

Gender Discrimination: Discrimination based on socially constructed ideas and perceptions of men and women.

Gender Division of Labour: Gender Division of Labour relates to the different work that men and women do as a consequence of their socialising patterns, identifying tasks traditionally seen as “women’s work” or “men’s work”.

Gender Mainstreaming: Gender mainstreaming involves not restricting efforts to promote equality to the implementation of specific measures to help women, but mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality by actively and openly taking into account at the planning stage their possible effects on the respective situation of men and women (gender perspective). This means systematically examining measures and policies and taking into account such possible effects when defining and implementing them.

Gender Pay Gap: The gap between the average earnings of men and women.

Gender Planning: An active approach to planning which takes gender as a key variable or criteria and which seeks to integrate an explicit gender dimension into policy or action.

Gender Roles: Gender roles are the culturally and politically defined roles and responsibilities to which men and women are socialized to conform.

Glass Ceiling: The invisible barrier arising from a complex set of structures in male dominated organizations which prevents women from accessing senior positions.

Human Rights Committee: The Treaty-Monitoring Body created by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1) Examines reports submitted by States Parties under the covenant and 2) considers cases submitted under the (First) Optional Protocol pertaining to civil and political rights under that Covenant; one of six bodies charged with monitoring compliance of member states with UN human rights conventions.

Human Rights Systems: Refers to the various groupings of human rights laws, courts, investigatory bodies and other organizations at the national, regional and international level which may provide appropriate Enforcement Mechanisms, such as court-like Complaint procedures and audit-like Monitoring and Reporting Procedures.

Human Rights: The rights people are entitled to simply as a result of being human, irrespective of their citizenship, nationalist, race, ethnicity, language, sex, sexuality or abilities; human rights become enforceable as they become Codified as Conventions, Covenants or Treaties, or as they become recognized as Customary International Law.

Individual Complaints: Complaints of individuals or Nongovernmental Organizations; the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights permits the Human Rights Committee to hear individual complaints.

Positive Discrimination ( Positive Action): Measures targeted at a particular group and intended to eliminate and prevent discrimination or to offset disadvantages arising from existing attitudes, behaviors and structures (sometimes referred to as positive discrimination).

Quota: A defined proportion or share of places, seats or resources to be filled by or allocated to a specific group, generally under certain rules or criteria, and aimed at correcting a previous imbalance, usually in decision making positions or in access to training opportunities or jobs.

Reconciliation Of Work And Family/ Household Life: The introduction of family and parental leave schemes, child and elderly care arrangements, and the development of a working environment structure and organization which facilitates the combination of work and family / household responsibilities for women and men.

United Nations Conference on Women: The first United Nations Conference on Women took place in Mexico in 1975. Subsequently, the UN proclaimed 1975-1985 the Decade for Women and conferences on women took place in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985. The latest conference was in Beijing in 1995. The next world conference on women is scheduled for 2005. The Conferences produce Declarations which, although legally Non-Binding, are important sources of international norms and standards.

Women's Human Rights Advocacy: In general, women's human rights advocacy consists of activities aimed at influencing policies and decision-making at national and international levels in order to assure recognition and respect for Women's Human Rights and assure that the treatment of women is consistent with international human rights standards.

Women's Human Rights: Rights to which women are entitled simply by being human. The primary international document stating women's human rights is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

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