Counter narratives in international relations and UN history

Women in United Nations Human Rights History

Women and the UN 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 through its history: from the founding of the UN in 1945 and the Latin American feminist movements that pushed for gender equality in the UN Charter, through the adoption of CEDAW in 1979, up until Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

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.

Published books

Open access

Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Women and the UDHR

Dedicated to any woman or girl who aspires to reach higher.

Open access

Women and the UN

A critical history of women shaping human rights at the United Nations.

Essay · Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

The United Nations Charter of 1945 and Women's Rights

An essay on the women delegates who fought for gender equality to be written into the founding document of the United Nations.

Read the essay

Women delegates at the founding of the United Nations

OpenGlobalRights

A changed narrative at the UN

Critical human rights theory has problematised the dominant narrative of European western male rights.

UDHR 70 years celebration

Photo exhibit at the UN Headquarters in New York

'Women who helped shape the declaration', opened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and based on Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2019).

See the exhibit