Re-examining the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: The UN Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi

Abstract

The third and final governmental conference of the United Nations Decade for Women (Decade) convened in Nairobi, Kenya, from July 15- 26, 1985. In following the World Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Women's Year and the Programme of Action for the Second Half of the United Nations Decade for Women, the Nairobi delegations produced the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women During the Period from 1986 to the Year 2000 (Strategies). The Decade's objectives of equality, development, and peace, along with the sub-themes of employment, health, and education were the focus of a broad-ranging evaluation of the status of women in the world. The intensified efforts during the Decade on behalf of women arose from the general awareness that women's reproductive and productive roles were closely linked to the political, economic, social, cultural, legal, educational and religious conditions that constrained the advancement of women and that factors intensifying the economic exploitation, marginalization and oppression of women stemmed from the chronic inequalities, injustices and exploitative conditions at the family, community, national, subregional, regional and international levels.