Women are entitled to all the rights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights. But in reality, they do not enjoy the rights in equal footing with man, on account of the biological difference and discrimination they face in the society. Therefore, there is a need for specific rights for women or specific application of human rights.

It took a long time for the mainstream human rights movement to accept this perspective of women's rights as human rights issue. The World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna in 1993 was a landmark in the women's movement towards this direction. The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, part I, para. 18 stated:

The human rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in political, civil and economic, social and cultural life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community.

The detailed international legal standards on the prohibition of discrimination against women is laid down in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Beside the enactment of gender-neutral laws, the Convention prescribes the measures for ensuring that women everywhere are able to enjoy the rights to which they are entitled.

The Convention, adopted by the General Assembly in 1979, was ratified by the Government of India (GOI). Now India is legally obliged to implement its provisions.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women, set up under CEDAW, extended the general prohibition on gender based discrimination (Article 1, CEDAW) to include gender based violence (General Recommendation No. 19, 11th Session 1992) including:

(a) The right of life;

(b) The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment;

(c) The right to equal protection according to humanitarian norms in time of international or internal armed conflict;

(d) The right to liberty and security of person;

(e) The right to equal protection under the law;

(f) The right to equality in the family;

(g) The right to highest standard attainable of physical and mental health;

(h) The right to just and favourable condition of work.

The work of the Committee in this area is reinforced by the adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, by the General Assembly in 1993 and appointment of a Special Rapporteur on violence against women by the Commission on Human Rights in 1994.

The Special Rapporteur, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, in her third report to the Commission (contained in UN document E/CN.4/1997/47), summed up the contemporary understanding on the issue in the following words:

14. In the past, a strict interpretation of human rights law considered that the State is only responsible for its own actions or that of its agents and that action by private actors is a matter of criminal justice. In recent times, however, this approach has given way to a more realist thinking which holds that States are expected to exercise due diligence in preventing, prosecuting and punishing those who perpetrate violence against women, Òwhether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private actors'. As the Special Rapporteur stated in her first report, Òthis emergence of State responsibility for violence in society plays an absolutely crucial role in efforts to eradicate gender-based violence and is perhaps one of the most important contributions of women's movement to the issue of human rights' (E/CN.4/1995/42, para.107).

Moreover, given the ongoing armed conflict situation and the imposition of a permanent, de-facto emergency legislation, it will be pertinent to also look into the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, 1974 while dealing with the issues of violence against women in Manipur.

At the international level, women's movement has made substantial progress in setting a fair standard of women's human rights. These achievements would be meaningless to a large extent,

a) unless it is linked with the women's struggles emerging at the local level; and

b) unless the local human rights initiatives start looking at the women's issues using these international standards.

Human Rights Alert is making a humble effort towards this direction.