Amnesty International launched a worldwide campaign Monday to highlight the human rights abuses of women, which it called the "invisible victims of the 1990s."
Women and children make up most of the casualties of war, most of the world's refugees and displaced people and most of the world's poor, the human rights group said."So far governments have more or less ignored human rights violations against women - and sometimes effectively given a green light to torture or rape by their police or soldiers," Amnesty said in a statement.
Its campaign, which includes a 15-point plan to promote and protect women's rights, aims to put the issue on public and government agendas in the prelude to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in September.
While condemning abuses of women such as domestic violence, genital mutilation, forced prostitution and other violations committed by individuals and organi-za-tions, Amnesty said its campaign was directed at governments and armed political groups.
It urged the U.N. conference to recognize government responsibility for preventing violations of women's human rights. Governments, in turn, should also stop rape, sexual abuse and torture of women and end "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions of women.
In a 135-page report Amnesty said the rights abuses against women resulted mainly from wars and armed conflicts, deeply rooted discrimination and the repression of women's activism.
"Governments are now sending worrying signals that they want to limit - rather than promote - women's civil and political rights at the U.N. conference," Amnesty said.
During wars women are often targeted for reprisal killings and singled out for rape and sexual assault. They comprise 80 percent of the world's refugee population and often must dispense "sexual favors" to border guards and security forces.
Women activists are imprisoned because they are regarded as a political threat and are often subjected to torture and ill-treatment and vile forms of harassment, it said.
"The backdrop of these violations is a world in which few countries treat their women as well as their men," Amnesty said. "The discrimination against and vulnerability of women is exploited."