ABSTRACT
In many international human rights instruments, including the ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’1, gender equality is accepted as an inalienable and integral part of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and it is essential for sustainable development, peace and security as well. It is also important to emphasize that the concept of gender does not only relate to women. Gender refers to both women and men and relations between them. Since the Beijing Conference in 1995, gender equity has been used as a term to provide balance between women and men. Gender equity denotes an element of interpretation of social justice, usually based on tradition, custom, religion or culture. However, it couldn’t be possible to explain the advancement of women by the term gender equity. During the Beijing Conference, it was agreed that the term equality would be used. Gender equality means that the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of individuals will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Equality does not mean ‘the same as’. In other words, promotion of gender equality does not mean that women and men will become the same. Equality involves ensuring that the perceptions, interests, needs, roles, responsibilities and priorities of women and men will be given equal weight in planning and decision making.
