A/HRC/4/34 page 11 26. Not least due to the universality of women’s oppression, the human rights movement itself struggled for a long time to recognize that the equality of women and men constitutes a logical and indispensable element of a normative system built on dignity and equality.12 The inclusion of the norm of non-discrimination on the ground of sex in the Charter of the United Nations as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the ground for universal rights, was made possible in response to the demands of women.13 2. Primacy of women’s right to live a life free of violence 27. Building on the Universal Declaration, women’s movements appropriated the universally agreed language of human rights and transformed the international human rights framework to address their concerns. The evolution of women’s history, especially since 1970s, has revealed the commonalities and the global connectedness of women’s local resistance. The United Nations provided a platform for women to network and integrate the common elements of this history into the work of the Organization, which has resulted in the growth of a well-established gender equality and women’s rights regime. Most important in this regard is the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) by the General Assembly. The Convention addresses linkages between culture and gender discrimination, requiring States not only to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women, but also stipulates that States “shall take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women” that are linked to inequality between the sexes and gender stereotypes. While the Convention enjoys near universal ratification, a number of States have sought to curtail its scope by entering extensive reservations to articles 2 and 16 on cultural or religious grounds. Reservations to the core provisions of articles 2 and 16 are legally impermissible (see Convention, article 28 (2)), since they are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention.14 28. The Convention, however, does not explicitly make reference to violence against women (apart from article 6 on trafficking of women and exploitation of prostitution, which draws on prior international treaties and relates to “public sphere” forms of violence). In order to remedy this drafting gap, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted a comprehensive general recommendation (No. 19) in 1992, which has 12 For a discussion of continuing challenges at the international level see: C. Chikin, “Gender and International Society”. In R. Thakur and E. Newman (eds.), New Millennium, New Perspectives (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2000), pp. 242-260. 13 It is noteworthy that a woman from India, Hansa Mehta, who, in the drafting of the Universal Declaration, objected to her fellow drafters’ initial proposal to include the phrase “all men are created equal”. 14 Cf. also Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, statements on reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-third Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/53/38/Rev.1), part two, chap. I, sect. A, paras. 8, 16 and 17.