The Legacy of the Recent Cycle of World Conferences of the United Nations

International Law has marked its presence in the cycle of the World Conferences convened by the United Nations in the nineties and by the turn of the century. Eight years after the Vienna Conference, the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance duly stressed the value of mutual understanding and respect for cultural diversity. The Beijing Declaration, adopted by the IV World Conference on Women (1995), expressed its determination to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity, as well as to ensure respect for international law, including humanitarian law, in order to protect women and girls in particular. The United Nations itself has summed up the message of its recent World Conferences in singling out their new people-centred, sustainable, gender-sensitive and social dimension, as well as the tuniversality of concernt regarding the issues dealt with.Keywords: Beijing Declaration; cultural diversity; international law; racism; United Nations; Vienna Conference; World Conferences; Xenophobia