Women and the media
is to be achieved, human rights instruments
must be applied in such a way as to take more
clearly into consideration the systematic and
systemic nature of discrimination against women
that gender analysis has clearly indicated.
1. The Beijing Platform for Action identifies women
and the media as one of 12 critical areas of concern.
As stated in the Beijing Platform for Action, gender
stereotyping in advertising and the media is one
of the factors of inequality that influences attitudes towards equality between women and men.
Through a series of dialogues on the subject during
its fortieth session, the Commission on the Status
of Women examined measures to be used for
increasing the participation and access of women
to expression and decision-making in and through
the media and new technologies of communication. Everywhere the potential exists for the media
to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women. The conclusions emanating from
the Commission's dialogue contain proposals for
successful implementation of the strategic objectives and actions in the Platform for Action, taking
into consideration the importance of implementing
all the elements of the Platform.
3. Relevant United Nations bodies, including the
Commission on Human Rights and its mechanisms
and procedures, the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women and independent expert bodies, should within their mandates,
further examine violations of the human rights of
women, including freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, from a gender perspective, in
cooperation with the Commission on the Status of
Women within its mandate.
B. Self-regulation, voluntary guidelines and
responsiveness to civil society
4. The Platform for Action states that self-regulatory
mechanisms by the media should be encouraged
and, consistent with freedom of expression, should
include the development of professional guidelines and codes of conduct and other forms of
self-regulation so as to eliminate gender-biased
programming and to promote the presentation of
non-stereotypical images of women and balanced
and diverse portrayals of women and men.
A. Respect for the human rights of women,
including freedom of expression, and
the media
2. The Commission on the Status of Women recon-
firmed the importance it attached to the principles
of freedom of expression and of freedom of the
press and other means of communication. The
Commission discussed freedom of expression from
a gender perspective, in particular as it related to
women's full enjoyment of freedom of expression,
equal access to the media, balanced and diverse
portrayals by the media of women and their multiple roles, and media information aimed at eliminating all forms of violence against women. Respect
for the human rights of women, including freedom
of expression, is a fundamental principle of the
international community. In this regard, concern
was also expressed about discrimination, threats
and acts of violence against professional women in
the field of information, including women journalists. If the goal of the full realization of the human
rights of women, including freedom of expression,
5. In the context of responsiveness to civil society,
self-regulation for public and private sector industries should be set within a framework of monitoring, awareness and education and well-developed
and effective avenues for complaint. Such selfregulatory measures and voluntary guidelines
should be established through a process of dialogue with media professionals, not by coercion.
6. With regard to the presentation of violence in the
media, initiatives by Governments and other relevant actors, as appropriate, should be taken to raise
awareness of the role of the media in promoting
non-stereotyped images of women and men and
in eliminating patterns of media presentation that
generate violence; to encourage those responsible
for media content to establish voluntary professional guidelines and codes of conduct; and to raise
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