UN women's rights resolution passed despite backlash

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A UN General Assembly committee has agreed a landmark first resolution on women's rights defenders such as Malala Yousafzai, despite a hard fought campaign by an alliance including the Vatican to weaken the measure. A Norwegian-led coalition, which has prepared the resolution for months, had to delete language that condemned "all forms of violence against women" to get the text passed by consensus late Wednesday. 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, diplomats and activists said. The campaign for women's rights defenders has been given a huge boost in recent months by the likes of Malala, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for her battle for girls' education, and Denis Mukwege, the Democratic Republic of Congo doctor briefly forced into exile for his work helping rape victims.

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