Women who shaped the UN - a conversation with Rebecca Adami

The Next Page

We invited Dr. Rebecca Adami, Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer at Stockholm University, Award winner of the 2022 Bertha Lutz Prize for highest quality public writing and research on women in diplomacy by the Diplomatic Studies Section (DPLST) of the International Studies Association (ISA), for a conversation around the role non-Western women had in shaping the UN system, from the UN Charter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In this rich conversation, Dr. Adami shares with us the context of situation post-World War II and tells us the story of how the rights of women were included in the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She introduces us to several of the prominent non-Western women who were behind the negotiations both at the San Francisco Conference and for the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including Hansa Jivraj Mehta and Lakshmi Menon from India, Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic, and Begum Shaista Ikramullah from Pakistan.

Resources

Adami, R and Plesch, D. (2022) Women and the UN: a new history of women's international human rights. London: Routledge

https://www.routledge.com/Women-and-the-UN-A-New-History-of-Womens-International-Human-Rights/Adami-Plesch/p/book/9780367478230#

Adami, R. (2019). Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Routledge

https://www.routledge.com/Women-and-the-Universal-Declaration-of-Human-Rights/Adami/p/book/9781138345355

Where to listen to this episode

• Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-page/id1469021154
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/10fp8ROoVdve0el88KyFLy
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fslNo-7U9hg

Content

Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Adami, Associate Professor,

Host: Francesco Pisano, Director, UN Library & Archives

Producer: Amy Smith

Editing & social media: Amy Smith & Nadia Al Droubi

Recorded & produced at the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva