Introduction

Abstract

In recent years, the international community has given considerable attention to the socioeconomic development of various countries around the globe and the effects of the changing conditions on women’s lives. Awareness of women’s human rights within the process of development was initiated and has been sustained almost exclusively by nongovernmental organizations.¹ The reports of these organizations have been increasingly encouraging in the last two decades. However, if consideration of women’s human rights is to be an integral part of development planning, a sea change must occur in which women are seen as developers rather than simply one of the subjects or, what is more problematic, simply usable tools of development.²