[3] The end of the Cold War brought about the hope that the long stalemate and distortion of United Nations behaviors due to the bipolar superpower confrontation would cease.
[1][5] These struggled to produce new ideas that countries could agree upon,[6] and highlighted differences surrounding the role of state sovereignty, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and whether new or strengthened human rights instruments for the UN were feasible and impartial.
[1][5] Pierre Sané, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, was concerned that conference might represent a backwards step for human rights.
[8][9] Instead, human rights abuses were to be discussed in the abstract only; this led The New York Times to state that the conference was taking place "In an atmosphere strangely removed from reality.
[5] Despite the rules, organizations and demonstrators at the conference's physical site were happy to mention specific ongoing abuses all around the world, with many displaying atrocity photographs in an attempt to out-do each other.
[8][11] The latter group was led by China, Syria and Iran, and also included a number of Asian nations such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
[11] On the opening day of the conference, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher spoke out strongly against this notion, saying "We cannot let cultural relativism become the last refuge of repression.
"[11] Former U.S. House of Representatives member and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro attended the conference as the alternate U.S. delegate,[12] and was one of the attendees heavily interested in women's rights aspects.
[15][16] The key result of the World Conference on Human Rights was the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which was formulated late in the meeting[9] and was adopted by consensus of 171 states on 25 June 1993.