Constitutions

Gender and the Constitution: Equity and Agency in Comparative Constitutional Design

Citation:

Irving, Helen. 2008. Gender and the Constitution: Equity and Agency in Comparative Constitutional Design. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Helen Irving

Abstract:

We live in an era of constitution-making. New constitutions are appearing in historically unprecedented numbers, following regime change in some countries, or a commitment to modernization in others. No democratic constitution today can fail to recognize or provide for gender equality. Constitution-makers need to understand the gendered character of all constitutions, and to recognize the differential impact on women of constitutional provisions, even where these appear gender-neutral. This book confronts what needs to be considered in writing a constitution when gender equity and agency are goals. It examines principles of constitutionalism, constitutional jurisprudence, and history. Its goal is to establish a framework for a "gender audit" of both new and existing constitutions. It eschews a simple focus on rights and examines constitutional language, interpretation, structures and distribution of power, rules of citizenship, processes of representation, and the constitutional recognition of international and customary law. It discusses equality rights and reproductive rights as distinct issues for constitutional design.

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Governance, Constitutions, International Law, Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2008

Envisioning a U.S. Government That Isn’t 84% Male: What the United States Can Learn from Sweden, Rwanda, Burundi, and Other Nations

Citation:

Millar, Nancy. 2007. “Envisioning a U.S. Government That Isn’t 84% Male: What the United States Can Learn from Sweden, Rwanda, Burundi, and Other Nations.” University of Miami Law Review 62 (1): 129–56.

Author: Nancy Millar

Topics: Gender, Governance, Constitutions, Quotas, Political Participation Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2007

Integrating or Setting the Agenda? Gender Mainstreaming in the European Constitution-Making Process

Citation:

Lombardo, Emanuela. 2005. “Integrating or Setting the Agenda? Gender Mainstreaming in the European Constitution-Making Process.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State Society 12 (3): 412–32.

Author: Emanuela Lombardo

Abstract:

The European Union (EU) constitution-making process has adopted an "integrating" rather than an "agenda-setting" approach to gender mainstreaming. This argument draws on analysis of both the European Constitutional Convention and its product--the Constitutional Treaty. Five indicators of application of mainstreaming serve as reference points for exploring how it has been applied in the EU Constitutional Convention: a broader concept of gender equality, the incorporation of a gender perspective into the mainstream, equal representation of women, the prioritization of gender policy objectives, and a shift in institutional and organizational culture. The article provides a tentative explanation for the failure of the EU constitution-making process to adopt an "agenda-setting" approach to gender mainstreaming.

Topics: Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Constitutions, International Organizations Regions: Europe

Year: 2005

Gender and Neoliberal States: Feminists Remake the Nation in Ecuador

Citation:

Lind, Amy. 2003. “Gender and Neoliberal States: Feminists Remake the Nation in Ecuador.” Latin American Perspectives 30 (1): 181–207.

Author: Amy Lind

Topics: Civil Society, Development, Economies, Poverty, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Nationalism, NGOs Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Ecuador

Year: 2003

From Gender Apartheid to Non-Sexism: The Pursuit of Women’s Rights in South Africa

Citation:

Andrews, Penelope E. 2001. “From Gender Apartheid to Non-Sexism: The Pursuit of Women’s Rights in South Africa.” North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation 26 (3): 693–722.

Author: Penelope E. Andrews

Abstract:

This article discusses the quest for women's rights in South Africa and how the transition from apartheid to democracy led to a commitment to gender equality as incorporated in South Africa's transitional and final Constitutions. In this endeavor, it refers to the organizational attempts by women prior to and during the constitutional drafting process to ensure that the new Constitution embodied the aspirations and reflected the struggles for women's rights by women activists in South Africa. This article is divided into six sections. Section Two describes the legacy of apartheid for all women in South Africa. This investigation is appropriate because the legacy of apartheid will bear significantly on the status and lives of women for a long time. This section shows how the laws and policies of apartheid were comprehensive, not only in enforcing rigid racial segregation, but also in racializing gender. Section Three focuses on the Constitution and outlines the myriad of ways this document details comprehensive rights for women both in the public and the private spheres. This section demonstrates how the South African Constitution, in particular its section on equality, has been described as one of the most impressive human rights documents of the twentieth century. Specifically, the Constitution details rights expansively and comprehensively, while its inclusion of sweeping rights for women satisfies South Africa's international legal obligations. Section Four of this article focuses on two cases regarding women's rights decided by the Constitutional Court, arguing that South Africa's evolving constitutional jurisprudence demonstrates a deep commitment by the highest courts to eradicate odious discrimination against women. Section Five analyzes the lobbying efforts of women's organizations during the transitional period to ensure that women's rights were incorporated into the new Constitution. In addition, this section analyzes how these lobbying efforts resulted in significant formal gains as reflected in the Constitution. This article concludes by assessing some of the remaining obstacles to attaining women's equality despite the significant advancements made thus far. (Introduction)

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Constitutions, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2001

Evaluating the Progress of Women’s Rights on the Fifth Anniversary of the South African Constitution

Citation:

Andrews, Penelope E. 2007. “Evaluating the Progress of Women’s Rights on the Fifth Anniversary of the South African Constitution.” Vermont Law Review 26 (4): 829–36.

Author: Penelope E. Andrews

Abstract:

This article discusses the quest for women's rights in South Africa and how the transition from apartheid to democracy led to a commitment to gender equality as incorporated in South Africa's transitional and final Constitutions.' In this endeavor, it refers to the organizational attempts by women prior to and during the constitutional drafting process to ensure that the new Constitution embodied the aspirations and reflected the struggles for women's rights by women activists in South Africa. This article is divided into six sections. Section Two describes the legacy of apartheid for all women in South Africa.' This investigation is appropriate because the legacy of apartheid will bear significantly on the status and lives of women for a long time. This section shows how the laws and policies of apartheid were comprehensive, not only in enforcing rigid racial segregation, but also in racializing gender.' Section Three focuses on the Constitution and outlines the myriad of ways this document details comprehensive rights for women both in the public and the private spheres. This section demonstrates how the South African Constitution, in particular its section on equality, has been described as one of the most impressive human rights documents of the twentieth century. Specifically, the Constitution details rights expansively and comprehensively, while its inclusion of sweeping rights for women satisfies South Africa's international legal obligations. Section Four of this article focuses on two cases regarding women's rights decided by the Constitutional Court, arguing that South Africa's evolving constitutional jurisprudence demonstrates a deep commitment by the highest courts to eradicate odious discrimination against women. Section Five analyzes the lobbying efforts of women's organizations during the transitional period to ensure that women's rights were incorporated into the new Constitution. In addition, this section analyzes how these lobbying efforts resulted in significant formal gains as reflected in the Constitution. This article concludes by assessing some of the remaining obstacles to attaining women's equality despite the significant advancements made thus far.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Constitutions, Post-Conflict Governance, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2007

Women, Law and Human Rights in Southern Africa

Citation:

Banda, Fareda. 2006. “Women, Law and Human Rights in Southern Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies 32 (1): 13–27.

Author: Fareda Banda

Abstract:

This article examines the development of human rights in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It looks at personal laws and the attempts of parties in postcolonial states to deal with conflicts that arise between the dictates of state customary law, which may be discriminatory towards women, and the move towards embracing human rights with their focus on the removal of sex and gender-based discrimination. While it is clear that there has been enormous progress made in enshrining women's rights, the article urges caution, noting that there are limits to the law's power to change behaviour. Law cannot always provide a solution to discrimination rooted in socio-economic and cultural dispossession. The article is divided into four parts. Part one introduces the legal systems of the region. Part two offers a discussion of the different constitutional models illustrated by case law relating to inheritance. Part three provides an overview of the African engagement with human rights before moving on to consider the two Declarations of the SADC in dealing with gender-based discrimination and violence against women. Part four focuses on the rights contained within the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women, adopted by the African Union in July 2003.

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Governance, Constitutions, International Organizations, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa

Year: 2006

The Liberal Moment: Women and Just Debate in South Africa, 1994-1996

Citation:

Walsh, Denise. 2006. “The Liberal Moment: Women and Just Debate in South Africa, 1994–1996.” Journal of Southern African Studies 32 (1): 85–105. doi:10.1080/03057070500493795.

Author: Denise Walsh

Abstract:

This article investigates the extent of women's participation in South African public debate during the Government of National Unity, a two-year period beginning with the country's first non-racial elections of 1994 and ending with the signing of the Constitution in 1996. The new democratic government established basic rights enabling all citizens, regardless of race or gender, to engage in public debate. Were women able to take advantage of this opportunity? What factors advanced or impeded their progress? The first section of the article draws upon analyses of deliberative democracy to construct a model for assessing women's participation in public debate. Part two evaluates the justness of South African debate in four arenas of civic performance, action and argument at three geographic levels. The article argues that the liberal moment in South African politics was dominated by a state that prompted significant institutional reform, dramatically opening the South African public sphere. Nevertheless, sexism, a lack of education, skills and resources minimised women's ability to take advantage of these changes.

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Political Participation, Race, Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2006

Coalition Building, Election Rules, and Party Politics: South African Women's Path to Parliament

Citation:

Britton, Hannah E. 2002. “Coalition Building, Election Rules, and Party Politics: South African Women’s Path to Parliament.” Africa Today 49 (4): 33–67.

Author: Hannah E. Britton

Abstract:

This paper argues that pre-transition mobilization by South African women fostered post transition success in constitutional mandates, party politics, and office holding. Informed by examples of failed postliberation gender movements in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Angola, South African women's groups worked collectively and individually to advance gender equality. Women mobilized around their gender identity to form a powerful multiparty women's coalition, which became a vehicle through which women pushed for inclusion in the Constitutional Assembly. Using this external power-base, women's branches of major political parties compelled their parties' leaders to implement affirmative-action measures for candidate recruitment and selection. These measures, particularly the gender quota of the African National Congress, have pressured all political parties to increase the number of women on their party-lists in subsequent elections.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Constitutions, Quotas, Elections, Post-Conflict Governance, Political Participation, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2002

The Constitution of Afghanistan and Women’s Rights

Citation:

Shah, Niaz A. 2005. “The Constitution of Afghanistan and Women’s Rights.” Feminist Legal Studies 13: 239-58.

Author: Niaz A. Shah

Abstract:

This article argues that women's human rights were and are being violated in Afghanistan regardless of who governs the country: Kings, secular rulers, Mujahideen or Taliban, or the incumbent internationally backed government of Karzai. The provisions of the new constitution regarding women's rights are analysed under three categories: neutral, protective and discriminatory. It is argued that the current constitution is a step in the right direction but, far from protecting women's rights effectively, it requires substantial revamping. The constitutional commitment to international human rights standards seems to be a hallow slogan as the constitution declares Islam as a state religion which clearly conflicts wiht women's human rights standards in certain areas. The Constitution has empowered the Supreme Court to review whether human rights instruments are compatible with Islamic legal norms and, in case of conflict, precedence will be given to Islamic law. Keeping this in view, it is argued that Afghanistan's ratification of the Women's Convention without reservations has no real significance unless Islamic law dealing with women's rights is reformed and reconciled with international women's rights standards.

Keywords: conflict resolution, Constitution, incompatibility, Islam, reservations, review, women's human rights

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2005

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Constitutions