For the past two decades, increasing attention has been given to the situation of women and women's human rights. Indeed
the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing identified this issue as a critical area of concern if the condition of women to be improved and human rights emerge as key issue for women. At intervening world conferences in Vienna (human rights), Cairo (population) and Copenhagen (social development), women's rights activists challenged the neglect of women and their rights in all of these areas and argued that the improvement of women's status anywhere depends on improvement their rights everywhere.
Women have borne the brunt of the social costs of the changes in the world economy such as globalization and increased
international competition, structural adjustment, the transition to a market economy and other economic reforms, and technological changes and their impact on the organization of the work.
Yet, despite these and other promising changes in international law and policy, women the world over still face a day to day reality that is characterized by the denial of their fundamental rights. Many women are unaware of their human rights and see the human rights system – to the extent they are aware of it at all – as something abstract and beyond their reach.
Awareness of rights must extend beyond the international human rights elite to every woman and man. Human rights literacy must include not only awareness but the capacity to assert rights.
It is also fundamental to find a comprehensive strategy for tackling the issues which influence the condition of the women in the workplace, in recognition of the interlinked and multifaceted nature of the problem.
Women have tended to be negatively affected by the precariousness of employment, deterioration of the quality and conditions of work, and reduction of resources for social production in many parts of the world in the wake of these changes.
Women's Human Rights Step by Step: A practical guide to using international human rights law and mechanisms to protect women's rights is designed to empower women. It demystify the human rights system, demonstrate its accessibility to women and detail – step by step – how activists can use to build powerful advocacy strategies.