The first meeting, held in Mexico City in 1975, focused on equality, development, and peace. However, attention gradually shifted from peace to human rights, with a growing interest in defining violence against women as a human rights offense expressed in the 1980 Copenhagen and 1985 Nairobi meetings. It was not a major issue in the 1975 and 1980 global women's conferences, although it was mentioned in the 1980 Copenhagen document (Thomas 1999: 244-5; Stephenson 1995). The Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies developed in 1985 identified reducing violence against women as a basic strategy for addressing the issue of peace (Report of Secretary General 1995: 125). .
In 1990, the UN's Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution recommended by the Commission on the Status of Women stating that violence against women in the family and society derives from their unequal status in society and recommending that governments take immediate measures to establish appropriate penalties for violence against women as well as developing policies to prevent and control violence against women in the family, work place, and society (Report of Secretary General 1995: 131-32). This recommendation suggests developing correctional, educational, and social services including shelters and training programs for law enforcement officers, judiciary, health, and social service personnel. The major UN convention on women's rights, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) does not mention violence against women explicitly, but the committee monitoring the Convention developed an initial recommendation against violence in 1989 and formulated a broader recommendation which defined gender-based violence as a form of discrimination in 1992. The 1992 statement placed violence against women squarely within the rubric of human rights and fundamental freedoms and made clear that states are obliged to eliminate violence perpetrated by public authorities and by private persons (Report of Secretary General 1995: 131-32; Cook 1994: 165).
