UN passes landmark first resolution in support of women's rights activists

The United Nations has passed a landmark first resolution in support of women's rights defenders, appealing to all states to publicly condemn violence against women and give activists free access to UN bodies.

Earlier, the African nations, the Vatican, Iran, Russia, China and conservative Muslim states had sought to weaken the resolution passed by the assembly's human rights committee.

As a result, the Norwegian-led coalition, which has prepared the resolution, had to delete a paragraph which said states should "strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and women human rights defenders and refrain from invoking any customs, traditions or religious consideration to avoid their obligations," the Daily Times reports.

The campaign for women's rights defenders has been given a huge boost in recent months by Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, the teenager schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban over her fight for girls right to education, and Denis Mukwege, the Democratic Republic of Congo doctor, who was briefly forced into exile for helping rape victims, the report added.

According to the report, more than 30 European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, withdrew as co-sponsors of the resolution in protest at the concession.

African nations, meanwhile, withdrew a proposed amendment, which said human rights defenders had to fall in line with "local situations".