This indicates that human rights shall be the overarching framework for the discussions and drafting of the Declaration and Programme of Action. This is significant for women and the women's movement worldwide because the adoption of a human rights framework for the conference is a recognition of the continuing need to promote equality between men and women as a fundamental human right and an affirmation of the commitments in the Vienna Platform for Action from the World Conference on Human Rights to mainstream women's concerns into the UN human rights system. Women's rights are human rights. Therefore, a human rights framework for the conference necessitates that sex and gender should not be left out in the discussions on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related intolerance.
Gender discrimination is a human rights violation intersecting all other forms of discriminations.
As a result, women, more than men, are subjected to double or multiple manifestations of human rights violations. Migrant women are treated as second-class citizens in their countries of destination. Racist state policies of host countries in the West and the Asia Pacific, particularly on labour and immigration, account for the exploitation of migrant women. Work opportunities for them are limited largely to domestic work or in the sex industry where their right to work, freedom of movement, reproductive rights, right to acquire, change or retain their nationality, right to health and other basic human rights are violated. The further imposition of restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies by host countries do not deter such violations as intended.