The goal of equality between women and men is a basic principle of the United Nations (UN), which is set out in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations. This commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment was reaffi rmed in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979; the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994; the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995; and in outcomes of other major United Nations conferences such as the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and the World.
