Page Extract from Report of Commission on Human Rights, 90 Address of Chairman of Subcommission on Status of Women, 91 Resolution Creating Commission on Status of Women, 94 Extract from Report of Committee on Arrangements for APPENDIX B. WOMAN PERSONNEL IN LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND UNITED NATIONS, and Participants in Activities Related to Status of Women I. Women Officials in League of Nations 1. Women Sent by Their Countries to League of Nations 2. Women Members of League of Nations Commissions 3. Women Officials in League of Nations Secretariat (1920-29) 5. For members of Committee of Experts on Legal Status of II. Women Officials in United Nations 1. United Nations Conference, San Francisco, April-June 1945. 105 Women Sent by Their Countries as Delegates, Assistant Delegates, Advisers, Technical Experts.. 105 Women in United States Delegation to United Nations 106 Women Representing National Organizations, United States 106 Women Officers of Secretariat of United Nations Confer- 107 2. First General Assembly, London, January 1946. 109 Women Delegates and Advisers in First General Assembly, 109 3. United Nations Commissions, New York, 1946. 109 Women Official Members of United Nations Commissions, 109 (For members of Subcommission on Status of Women, see 4. Women in United Nations Secretariat, New York, 1946. APPENDIX C. SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN IN COUNTRIES OF THE. 109 WORLD, 1946 112 THE UNITED NATIONS AND STATUS OF WOMEN Article 55 June 1945-June 1946 FROM THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS 26 June 1945 The United Nations shall promote: * C. Universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. Article 68 The Economic and Social Council shall set up commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights, and such other commissions as may be required for the performance of its functions. FROM RESOLUTION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CREATING SUBCOMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN Section B 16 February 1946 1. The Economic and Social Council, considering that the Commission on Human Rights will require special advice on problems relating to the status of women, Establishes a Subcommission on the Status of Women. 2. The subcommission shall submit proposals, recommendations, and reports to the Commission on Human Rights regarding the status of women. 3. The subcommission may submit proposals to the Council, through the Commission on Human Rights, regarding its terms of ref erence. FROM RESOLUTION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CREATING COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN 21 June 1946 The Economic and Social Council, * * * decides to confer upon the Subcommission the status of a full commission to be known as the Commission on the Status of Women. The function of the Commission shall be to prepare recommendations and reports to the Economic and Social Council on promoting women's rights in political, economic, social and educational fields. The Commission shall also make recommendations to the Council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights. The Commission may submit proposals to the Council regarding its terms of reference. INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN From League of Nations Covenant to United Nations FOREWORD The provisions in the Charter of the United Nations that relate to women's participation, when compared with similar provisions in the Covenant of the League of Nations, may prove a significant index to progress in this field. Two other measures for comparison of the newer international organization with its predecessor may be promptness in creating organs to deal with women's status, and service of women in responsible posts. sex * It is notable that in the Charter of the United Nations the broad references to achievement of "fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to * underlie the provision that the organization should "place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs." This is a far more sweeping mandate than the single statement in the Covenant of the League of Nations that women shall be eligible for "all positions under or in connection with the League." Still it is important that the League of Nations, the first continuing body of government representatives available for focusing world public opinion on the needs of peoples, did from the time of its organization specifically recognize women as participants in its work. Growth also is reflected in the prompt creation in the United Nations of an appropriate agency to consider the status of women. This subject was accorded a formal place in the debates of the First General Assembly; and the Subcommission on the Status of Women was established during the first sessions of the Economic and Social Council, to which the Charter had assigned the responsibility of creating commissions for the promotion of human rights. Following the first meetings of this Subcommission, it was at once made a permanent full commission. All this activity occurred within the first year of the United Nations' existence. In the League of Nations, on the other hand, the subject of the status of women was not brought to the fore in the Assembly until the 11th year (1930), and not until the 18th year (1937) was an organ created for the express purpose of dealing with it-the committee of experts to study the legal status of women throughout the world. The work of this committee led naturally to the demand for a continuation of such developments in the structure and work of the United Nations. The third index of progress may be the service of women in responsible places in these international agencies. In the United Nations six countries sent women as full delegates to the organization conference in San Francisco, and five sent them as full delegates to the first General Assembly, held in London. But in the League of Nations it was not until the 10th year (1929) that any woman was a full delegate to the annual assembly. During its entire existence only 8 countries ever sent a woman in this capacity, and only 10 women ever were appointed full delegates, though it must be noted that from the beginning some women served competently in the League Assembly as substitute delegates and technical advisers, and, all told, 29 countries placed women in these posts. PART I. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND PROVISION AS TO WOMEN IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS COVENANT, 1920 When the Covenant, or constitution, of the League of Nations was first drafted in 1919, it did not provide for women's eligibility to positions connected with the League. Disturbed by this and anxious to assure women's participation in the League's work, a committee representing two large international women's organizations-the International Council of Women and the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship— sought an interview with President Woodrow Wilson in Paris and with the commission drafting the Covenant. As a result, the Covenant of the League of Nations, which went into effect early in 1920, contained the following wording in Article VII: All positions under or in connection with the League, including the Secretariat, shall be open equally to men and women. LEAGUE ORGANIZATION AND WOMEN OFFICIALS The primary operating arms of the League of Nations were its Council, virtually its major executive body, which met five times a year; its Assembly, which corresponded to an international parliament and met once a year; its Secretariat; and various Commissions, some temporary, some permanent, set up by the Council as a result of certain resolutions passed by the Assembly at its annual meetings. In a few cases a woman was appointed by her government as an official delegate for her country to the annual Assembly. Such were perhaps the most important political posts women held under the League. At no time was a woman on the powerful Council. A considerable number of women were appointed by their countries as substitute delegates to the Assembly. The post was a very influential one, for although such an official had no separate vote in the Assembly, she could represent and vote for her country in one of the Assembly's six committees, on each of which every member nation had a right to be represented. Many women received appointments to the Secretariat during the life of the League, and to a number of the expert commissions set up by the League, in some of which women's work was an outstanding contribution. (For list of appointees, see Appendix, p. 99 ff.) |