JAMIA HAMDARD

SCHOOL OF LAW
HUMAN RIGHTS
VULNERABLE GROUPS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
-WOMEN
SUBMITTED TO – DR JEHRUL SIR,

SUBMITTED BY – ISBA KHAN

ENROLLMENT NO – 2019-342-042

SECTION- A

SEMESTER - 7TH
INTRODUCTION
Some human groups, such as children that belong to a individual clan, are frail and elegant by
nature or as a result of deeply ingrained heritage. But because they are living organisation, they
do possess fundamental liberties and rights. Although , the majority group in society has
consistently infringed on their rights. The impoverished and derived groups' fight to obtain
recognition under the United Nations' auspices has significantly contributed to the public
apprehension of human rights. Some human populations are weak and vulnerable by nature, such
as adults who belong to a specific species, or they may be weak and vulnerable as a result of
deeply ingrained traditions.

DEFINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

Even though the international Bill of Human Rights outlined a comprehensive list of rights to
which all individual, including women, are entitled, additional measures for protecting women's
human rights were deemed necessary because women's rights to go through not always been
protected due to women's immanent humanity. Despite the existence of other instruments,
women still do not have the same rights as men, brutailly to the preamble of the convention on
the elimination of violence against women. In every enlightenment, discrimination against
women still exists.

The convention's article 1 defines discrimination against women as any sex-based distinction,
exclusion, or restriction that has the effect or aim of impeding or invalidating the rights of
women.

EDUCATION

That as per the article 10 of the Convention, women must be given the same care and career
counselling opportunities as men. They will have equal access to education for diploma
completion in educational institutions of all categories in rural and urban areas.

EMPLOYMENT

The convention under Article 11 provided that States Parties shall take all appropriate measure to
eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment providing the same rights in
particular (a) the right to work (b) right to same employment opportunities;(c)right to free choice
of profession and employment ; (d) right to equal remuneration including benefits and to equal
treatment in respect to work .There shall be no discrimination against women on grounds of
marriage or maternity.

HEALTH CARE
The convention under article 12 gives the states parties can take the steps to commerce
discrimination against the women on the ground of health care access to health care service
including those family relating problems.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE

Article 13 of the Convention provides that discrimination against women shall be eliminated in
other areas of economic and social life . They shall be provided , the same rights as to that of
men in particular .

WOMEN IN RURAL AREAS

Article 14 provided elimination of discrimination against rural areas. They are deprived of
certain rights and opportunities and are required to wholeheartedly dedicate themselves towards
the implementation of household responsibilities. In the present existence, there have been
implementation of programs and schemes that girls should be regarded as equal to men. Their
birth should be appreciated and they should be allowed equal rights and opportunities,
particularly with regards to acquisition of education and employment. Changes have come about
in the viewpoints and perspectives of rural individuals and they are granting equal status to girls
and women. The main areas that have been taken into account in this research paper include,
socio-economic status of rural women, labour force participation of women, factors imposing
detrimental effects upon status of women, and measures to enhance the status of rural women .

EQUALITY BEFORE LAW

The Indian Constitution guarantees that no person shall be denied the right to equality before law
or the equal protection of law in the territory of India. This is a right that can be claimed by any
person, whether a citizen or a non-citizen, on Indian soil. Here, we can find that Article 14
comprises two expressions, which are ‘equality before law’ and ‘equal protection of law’.

THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE CONVENTION ON WOMEN

In a landmark decision for women, the General Assembly, acting without a vote, adopted on 6
October 1999 a 21-article Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women and called on all States parties to the Convention to become party
to the new instrument as soon as possible.

By ratifying the Optional Protocol, a State recognizes the competence of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women -- the body that monitors States parties'
compliance with the Convention -- to receive and consider complaints from individuals or
groups within its jurisdiction.

The Protocol contains two procedures: (1) A communications procedure allows individual
women, or groups of women, to submit claims of violations of rights protected under the
Convention to the Committee. The Protocol establishes that in order for individual
communications to be admitted for consideration by the Committee, a number of criteria must be
met, including those domestic remedies must have been exhausted. (2) The Protocol also creates
an inquiry procedure enabling the Committee to initiate inquiries into situations of grave or
systematic violations of women’s rights. In either case, States must be party to the Convention
and the Protocol. The Protocol includes an "opt-out clause", allowing States upon ratification or
accession to declare that they do not accept the inquiry procedure. Article 17 of the Protocol
explicitly provides that no reservations may be entered to its terms.

The Optional Protocol entered into force on 22 December 2000, following the ratification of the
tenth State party to the Convention. The entry into force of the Optional Protocol puts it on an
equal footing with International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture and other
Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which all have
communications procedures. The inquiry procedure is the equivalent of that under the
Convention against Torture.

CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND BEIJING CONFERENCE (1995)

Gender equality is a basic human right. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, stated that “All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights” and Article 2 stated that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion,  birth or other status.” 

Thirty one years after the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted by the UN General
Assembly on 18 December 1979. This was followed 16 years later by the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The
Beijing conference was preceded by three conferences on women and gender equality.

The first World Conference on Women took place in Mexico City in 1975, after the Commission on
the Status of Women called for the organization of the first world conference on women to coincide
with International Women’s Year. The conference defined a World Plan of Action for the
Implementation of the Objectives of the International Women’s Year, which offered a comprehensive
set of guidelines for the advancement of women through 1985.

In 1980, 45 Member States gathered for the second women's conference, the mid-decade World
Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women in Copenhagen. It aimed to review progress in
implementing the goals of the first world conference, focusing on employment, health and education.
A Programme of Action called for stronger national measures to ensure women’s ownership and
control of property, as well as improvements in protecting women’s rights to inheritance, child
custody and nationality.

The third world conference for women, the  World Conference to Review and Appraise the
Achievements of the UN Decade for Women took place in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985. The conference’s
mandate was to establish concrete measures to overcome obstacles to achieving the Decade’s goals.
Participants included 1,900 delegates from 157 Member States; a parallel NGO Forum attracted
around 12,000 participants. Governments adopted the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the
Advancement of Women, which outlined measures for achieving gender equality at the national level
and for promoting women’s participation in peace and development efforts.

Ten years later, the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, marked a significant
turning point for the global agenda for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for
Action, adopted unanimously by 189 countries, was an agenda for women’s empowerment and is
now considered the key global policy document on gender equality. It set strategic objectives and
actions for the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equality in 12 critical areas of
concern:

The Beijing conference built on political agreements reached at the three previous global conferences
on women, and consolidated five decades of legal advances aimed at securing the equality of women
with men in law and in practice. More than 17,000 participants attended, including 6,000 government
delegates at the negotiations, along with more than 4,000 accredited NGO representatives, a host of
international civil servants and around 4,000 media representatives. A parallel NGO Forum held in
Huairou near Beijing also drew some 30,000 participants.

These four major UN conferences on women were followed by a series of five-year reviews.

2000: The 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly was held 5-9 June 2000 in New York, in
order to conduct a five-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action, and to consider future actions and initiatives. This Special Session resulted in a political
declaration and further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing commitments.

2005: A 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action was conducted as part of the
49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Delegates adopted
a declaration emphasizing that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action is essential to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including
those contained in the Millennium Declaration.

2010: The 15-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action took place during the Commission’s
54th session in 2010. Member States adopted a declaration that welcomed the progress made towards
achieving gender equality, and pledged to undertake further action to ensure the full and accelerated
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

2015: The 20-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action took place during the
Commission’s 59th session in 2015. The session also addressed opportunities for achieving gender
equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda. Member States
adopted a political declaration that welcomed the progress made towards achieving gender equality,
provided a strong basis for the full, effective, and accelerated implementation of the commitments
made in Beijing, and also championed the key role of gender equality and the empowerment of
women in the post-2015 development agenda.
2020: A 25-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action was to take place during the
64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which was to be held in March 2020.
However, due to concerns regarding COVID-19, the Commission convened once, for a meeting on 9
March 2020 that included opening statements, followed by the adoption of a draft Political
Declaration. The session was then suspended, until further notification.

UN WOMEN

UN Women supports all aspects of the work of the Commission on the Status of Women
and facilitates the participation of civil society representatives. The United Nations faced serious
challenges for many years in its efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate
funding and no single recognized driver to direct UN activities on gender equality issues. To remedy
this, in July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations
Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took an
historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of
women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together
resources and mandates for greater impact. UN Women merged and built on the important work of
four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and
women’s empowerment:

 Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

 International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
 Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

VISHAKA CASEAND THE SEXUAL HARRASMENT OF WOMEN

ATWORK PLACE ACT
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of our country and must be protected and respected
in every instance. The fundamental rights of equality and personal liberty should be protected
and the citizens of our country should not be discriminated against on any grounds. Hence, it is
legal as well as a moral duty to provide a safer work environment for women to prosper. 

The Vishaka guidelines are a set of guidelines that were instituted by the Supreme Court of India
to ensure the safety of women at workplaces and lays down the guidelines for dealing with the
cases that are related to sexual harassment at the workplace. The Bhanwari Devi case is the most
significant landmark case in the history of cases involving sexual harassment of women. 

The Vishaka guidelines is a pioneering step taken to ensure the safety of women. According to
the guidelines, the employers of the organisations are responsible to take preventive actions to
stop sexual harassment at workplaces and to file a complaint if such Act is found to have
happened with the employee. 
This would ensure that the women who are sexually harassed get the required support in terms of
money from their employers so that they are able to file a case in the court and be represented by
competent lawyers. 

Vishaka guidelines have now been superseded by the Sexual Harassment of women at the
workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act, 2013. However, the Vishaka guidelines
are the most significant set of guidelines which are believed to have helped in the development
of the Act of 2013. 

In Medha Kotwal lele and others v. Union of India .

As enterprises refused to follow the order issued in Vishaka and Ors. vs. State of Rajasthan and Ors.
and there were multiple cases of workplace harassment, a PIL was filed for the Compliance of SH at
Workplace Guidelines. This PIL was filed to insist that the government pass appropriate legislation
that will give all Indian women a secure, adopting this model workplace. The Hon’ble Supreme Court
ruled that new laws should be passed by Parliament and state legislatures to protect women from all
types of indecency, decency, and disrespect in all settings (such as their homes and outside), to stop all
types of violence, which include domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment at work, etc.,
and to protect the others from all types of sexual harassment.

INDIA AND CEDAW

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or CEDAW
is an international human rights treaty, which requires countries to eliminate discrimination
against women in all areas, and promotes equal rights of men and women. The Convention,
adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights
for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination
against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005

Since the beginning of time, women have been the majority of domestic violence victims, and
this trend has remained into the twenty-first century. Domestic abuse affects women from all
sorts of backgrounds, regardless of their age, religion, caste, or profession. However, domestic
violence does not only affect women; it may also affect men, kids, and the elderly. Domestic
abuse involves all fields of human and ethnic communities. 

Domestic violence: a social evil

The offence of domestic violence is committed by someone in the victim’s domestic circle. It
includes family members, relatives, etc. The term domestic violence is often used when there is a
close cohabitating relationship between the offender and the victim. The various forms of
domestic violence include senior abuse, child abuse, honour-based abuse such as honour killing,
female genital mutilation, and all forms of abuse by an intimate partner. 

In the 21st century, various steps are incorporated to address the social issue of domestic
violence. Governments all across the globe have taken proactive measures to eradicate domestic
violence. Furthermore, the media, politicians and campaigning groups have aided people to
acknowledge domestic violence as a social evil.

In India domestic violence is governed by the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence

Act, 2005 and it is defined under Section 3, which states that any act, commission, omission or
conduct of a person harms or injures or endangers the health or safety of an individual whether
mentally or physically it amounts to domestic violence. It further includes any harm, harassment
or injury caused to an individual or any person related to that individual to meet any unlawful
demand would also amount to domestic violence. 

Essential provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005

Appointment of Protection Officers

Protection Officers are appointed by the State Government. The number of Protection Officers
may vary from district to district depending on the size and necessity. The powers and duties
which are to be exercised by the Protection Officers are laid down in confirmation with the Act.
The Protection Officers must be women as far as possible and shall possess requisite
qualifications and experience as may be prescribed under the Act.

Powers and functions of Protection Officers

The powers and functions of Protection Officers include the following:

1. To support the Magistrate in carrying out their obligations in line with the Act.

2. Immediately following any such domestic violence occurrence, the Magistrate is to be

notified, and copies of the report must be forwarded to the police officer in charge of the police
station that has jurisdiction over the incident.

3. If the purportedly wronged party requests a protection order and seeks remedies, should
submit an application to the magistrate in the format specified by law.

4. Ensure that free legal aid is provided to the harmed party in accordance with the Legal
Services Authorities Act of 1987.
5. To keep a comprehensive list of all local organisations offering medical services, shelter
houses, legal aid, counselling, and other support services.

Legislative intent of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 

In the case of Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma, the legislative objective of the Protection of Women
from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, has been thoroughly investigated. It was said that the
legislation enacting such an Act was done so in order to defend the rights of women who are
victims of family abuse of any kind. With the help of this Act, women are supposed to protect
against domestic violence.

The Madras High Court in the case, Vandhana v. T. Srikanth further stated the Protection of
Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 “is an Act to provide for more effective protection of
the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind
occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

Conclusion

In order for women to feel safe and protected in the privacy of their own homes, the Act is
essential to the Indian legal system's effort to preserve their rights. It is a comprehensive piece of
legislation that outlines the rights and responsibilities of the various authorities, the reliefs
available to victims, the procedures for reporting domestic violence, the support offered to
victims, the scope of the Indian Judiciary's authority, and the Central Government's rule-making
authority. The Act offers domestic violence victims civil remedies. And before the Act was
passed, victims of domestic violence sought legal remedies including divorce, child custody,
injunctions in court, In the case of Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma, the legislative objective of the
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, has been thoroughly investigated. It
was said that the legislation enacting such an Act was done so in order to defend the rights of
women who are victims of family abuse of any kind. With the help of this Act, women are
supposed to protect against domestic violence.Although the Act has incorporated essential steps
to safeguard women from domestic violence it fails to provide any remedies for the male
members of the family and it also fails to recognize the cohabiting and marital relationship
between the members of the LGBTQ+ community. Hence, these must be included in the Act to
totally eradicate domestic violence as a necessary evil from Indian society.