World Conference of the International Women's Year (1975 : Conference Centre of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established After years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to adopt a declaration to eliminate discrimination against women, in 1965, CSW began working in earnest to obtain passage of a declaration to secure women's human rights. Collating responses covering education, employment, inheritance, penal reform, and other issues, from government actors, NGO representatives and UN staff, CSW delegates drafted the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW), which was passed by the General Assembly on 7 November 1967.[3] Once support had been garnered for the declaration, the next step was to prepare it to become a Convention. The first UN World Conference on Women was held in Mexico City from 19 June to 2 July.[2] The 1975 conference led to the adoption of the World Plan of Action, as well as the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace.[10] It led to the establishment of monitoring mechanisms such as, International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and set in motion plans for follow-up conferences, the first of which would be held in 1980 in Copenhagen. It established the period of 1975 to 1985 as the UN Decade for Women, to enable progress and failures to be evaluated and resulted in urging that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) be quickly ratified.[11][12] The 1985 third conference in Nairobi, Kenya, not only closed the decade of women but set a series of member state schedules for removal of legislated gender discrimination in national laws by the year 2000.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The 1975 Mexico City Conference was attended by over a thousand delegates. Prominent attendees included Elizabeth Reid and Margaret Whitlam of Australia.[20] The International Women's Year Tribune was also organized by the conference committee and attended by 4,000 women in 1975.[2][21]