Women’s Human Rights. Treatment Action Campaign v. Minister of Health

A History of Women’s Human Rights Women’s rights movements have existed for at least two hundred years. Principles of nondiscrimination based on sex have existed in international law since the United Nations created the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made it clear that the rights contained within also applied to women, any rights that would apply exclusively to women were not considered human rights. Practices that many recognize today as human rights violations, such as wartime rape and female genital mutilation, were considered private domestic problems.