The International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) was organized in 1985 at the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, to promote recognition of women’s human rights under the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the CEDAW Convention), an international human rights treaty. IWRAW was founded on the belief that the human rights of women and girls are essential to development and that equality between women and men will only be achieved through use of international human rights principles and processes. Since its inception, IWRAW’s program has expanded to encompass advocacy for women’s human rights under all the international human rights treaties.