International Law

Gendered Violence and International Human Rights: Thinking Non-discrimination Beyond the Sex Binary

Citation:

McNeilly, Kathryn. 2014. “Gendered Violence and International Human Rights: Thinking Non-Discrimination Beyond the Sex Binary.” Feminist Legal Studies 22 (3): 263–83. doi:10.1007/s10691-014-9268-y.

Author: Kathryn McNeilly

Abstract:

The concept of non-discrimination has been central in the feminist challenge to gendered violence within international human rights law. This article critically explores non-discrimination and the challenge it seeks to pose to gendered violence through the work of Judith Butler. Drawing upon Butler’s critique of heteronormative sex/gender, the article utilises an understanding of gendered violence as effected by the restrictive scripts of sex/gender within heteronormativity to illustrate how the development of non-discrimination within international human rights law renders it ineffective to challenge gendered violence due to its own commitments to binarised and asymmetrical sex/gender. However, the article also seeks to encourage a reworking of non-discrimination beyond the heteronormative sex binary through employing Butler’s concept of cultural translation. Analysis via the lens of cultural translation reveals the fluidity of non-discrimination as a universal concept and offers new possibilities for feminist engagement with universal human rights.

Keywords: gendered violence, Non-discrimination, Sex/gender, Judith Butler, heteronormativity

Topics: Gender Analysis, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Law, International Human Rights, LGBTQ, Women's Rights, Violence

Year: 2014

Women and Political Leadership in an Authoritarian Context: A Case Study of the Sixth Parliament in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Citation:

Moghadam, Valentine M., and Fatemeh Haghighatjoo. 2016. “Women and Political Leadership in an Authoritarian Context: A Case Study of the Sixth Parliament in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Politics & Gender 12 (01): 168–97. doi:10.1017/S1743923X15000598.

Authors: Valentine M. Moghadam, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo

Abstract:

When Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, presented his proposed Cabinet to the Majles (parliament) in August 2013, one issue brought up in social media was the strange silence of the women members throughout the intensive four-day sessions to assess the ministerial nominees' programs before the vote of confidence. None of the nine women parliamentary members (MPs) used the podium to object that the president had not nominated any woman as minister. Only on social media and Persian language television was there criticism for the absence of women ministers. Eventually, Rouhani promised to include a woman in his Cabinet and to promote women in middle managerial positions. Not only was this tokenism evidence of gender-blindness, but it also evinced historical amnesia, as it overlooked the intense campaigning for women's greater participation and rights on the part of the 13 women members of Iran's Sixth Majles during the reform era coinciding with President Mohammad Khatami's two terms (1997–2005). That parliament is notable for its commitment to political and cultural reform and for the caucus that agitated for women's greater presence. Among its accomplishments were passage of the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); raising the minimum age of marriage for girls from puberty to 13; and removing the ban on single young women traveling abroad on state scholarships.

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Elections, International Law, Political Participation Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iran

Year: 2016

Ending Violence against Women in Latin America: Feminist Norm Setting in a Multilevel Context

Citation:

Roggeband, Conny. 2016. “Ending Violence against Women in Latin America: Feminist Norm Setting in a Multilevel Context.” Politics & Gender 12 (1): 143–67. 

Author: Conny Roggeband

Annotation:

Summary: 
“Much of the literature that deals with international norm development depicts norm diffusion as a rather mechanical process. The central concern is how norms emerge on the international level and how these norms then become adopted and implemented at the national level. More recently, a number of authors argue that we need to develop more complex approaches to transnational norms diffusion processes (Krook and True 2012; Montoya 2013; Zwingel 2012). In this article I attempt to contribute to a more adequate theoretical understanding of norm diffusion building on the case of feminist norm setting on violence against women under conditions of multilevel governance in Latin America. I argue that, in particular, three central assumptions prevalent in the global norm diffusion literature are problematic to understand these complex multilevel processes of norm institutionalization” (Roggeband 2016, 144). 

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Governance, International Law, Post-Conflict, Women's Rights, Violence Regions: Americas, Central America, South America

Year: 2016

Feminist Legal Method and the Study of Institutions

Citation:

O’Rourke, Catherine. 2014. “Feminist Legal Method and the Study of Institutions.” Politics & Gender 10 (04): 691–97. doi:10.1017/S1743923X14000506.

Author: Catherine O'Rourke

Abstract:

Consistent with feminist scholarship more broadly, feminist legal methodology is more clearly unified by a common objective—revealing and challenging the role of law in exacerbating women's inequality—than specific methods per se. Nevertheless, common methods and approaches to the feminist legal study of institutions can be discerned. This brief intervention will focus on describing these common methods and approaches, explaining how they differ from feminist political science, and conclude with some reflections on how feminist legal studies might enrich feminist political science study of institutions in order to inform strategies for change.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender Analysis, Constitutions, International Law, International Human Rights, Justice, Post-Conflict

Year: 2014

“New,” “Old,” and “Nested” Institutions and Gender Justice Outcomes: A View from the International Criminal Court

Citation:

Chappell, Louise. 2014. “‘New,’ ‘Old,’ and ‘Nested’ Institutions and Gender Justice Outcomes: A View from the International Criminal Court.” Politics & Gender 10 (04): 572–94. doi:10.1017/S1743923X14000427.

Author: Louise Chappell

Abstract:

What difference do new actors and new institutions make to gender justice outcomes? This article explores this question through an examination of the objectives and influence of “new” international actors on the design and implementation of the “new” victims' rights and gender justice provisions contained in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court's (ICC). Highlighting the role of gender and formal and informal institutions, this article argues that during its first decade in operation, the ICC has produced mixed outcomes in terms of the treatment of victims, especially of conflict-related sexual violence. While there is some sign that the new actors and rules have helped produce some positive outcomes, there are also signs that “old” informal gender rules and the historical context in which the ICC is “nested” has contributed to undermining and distorting news rules aimed at addressing gender injustices. The article suggests that “newness” matters, but so, too, does “oldness” and “nestedness,” and understanding the interaction and relationship between these factors is key to understanding gender justice outcomes.

Topics: Gender, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, Sexual Violence, Violence

Year: 2014

International Feminist Strategies: Strengths and Challenges of the Rights-Based Approach

Citation:

Zwingel, Susanne. 2013. “International Feminist Strategies: Strengths and Challenges of the Rights-Based Approach.” Politics & Gender 9 (03): 344–51. doi:10.1017/S1743923X13000226.

Author: Susanne Zwingel

Abstract:

Claiming the rights of women in a world of blatant gender hierarchies is an international feminist strategy that has been around for a long time. Rhetorically, it has been part of the human rights framework since its very inception, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 already contains important elements of gender equality, thanks to the lobbying efforts of a handful of women's rights advocates at the time. But it took the wave of global consciousness regarding gender inequality that swept the world in the 1970s to make women's rights relevant enough to codify them in a human rights treaty: the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). A decade and a half later, the Vienna Conference on Human Rights (1993) coined the slogan “women's rights are human rights” and thus emphasized the centrality of women's experiences for a holistic understanding of human rights. In the time since then, the human rights discourse has become increasingly intersectional and inclusive. While the scope and content of human rights remain contested, many women's rights activists around the world rely on this framework in their struggles for global justice.

Topics: Gender Analysis, International Law, International Human Rights, Justice, Women's Rights

Year: 2013

Women and PMSCs: International Law and Regulation

Citation:

Vrdoljak, Ana Filipa. 2015. “Women and PMSCs: International Law and Regulation.” In Gender and Private Security in Global Politics, edited by Maya Eichler. Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author: Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, International Law, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security

Year: 2015

Justice on Whose Terms? A Critique of International Criminal Justice Responses to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Citation:

St. Germain, Tonia, and Susan Dewey. 2013. “Justice on Whose Terms? A Critique of International Criminal Justice Responses to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.” Women’s Studies International Forum 37 (March): 36–45. 

Authors: Tonia St. Germain, Susan Dewey

Abstract:

This article argues that the international criminal justice system fails to sufficiently address conflict-related sexual violence in two critical ways: [1] by advocating a pro-prosecution, “end impunity” approach (defined as holding perpetrators accountable through criminal, civil, administrative or disciplinary proceedings) which applies the prevailing Euro-American model of justice designed to prosecute one man for the rape of one woman to post-conflict zones where widespread sexual violence occurred, and [2] by identifying conflict and post-conflict zones as both discursive and practical sites of pathology that require intervention by elites who strongly identify with a Euro-American liberal individualistic vision of justice. We argue that the international community can no longer conveniently refuse to address the inequalities characterizing the international criminal justice system, in which a tiny minority of self-congratulatory elites uses the noble principles of human rights and justice to advance an agenda that works in their own best interests. To explore possible alternatives to a prosecution-centered approach to conflict-related sexual violence, we employ two African case study examples of community-led gender justice initiatives that have successfully shifted legal discourse while simultaneously transforming wider cultural frameworks.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Post-Conflict, Rights, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence

Year: 2013

Overcoming the Gender Gap: The Possibilities of Alignment between the Responsibility to Protect and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Citation:

Hewitt, Sarah. 2016. “Overcoming the Gender Gap: The Possibilities of Alignment between the Responsibility to Protect and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.” Global Responsibility to Protect 8 (1): 3–28. doi:10.1163/1875984X-00801002.

Author: Sarah Hewitt

Abstract:

This article examines the relationship between the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P remains ‘gender-blind’, inadequately addressing gender issues encompassed within the WPS agenda. Currently, women are limited by gendered structural inequalities and marginalisation in conflict, where the WPS agenda has failed to be incorporated in R2P and broader conflict mechanisms. I argue that the WPS agenda and R2P are mutually beneficial and complementary in their protection mandates to enable lasting peace. I identify three common intersecting commitments of these two normative frameworks to provide a more holistic, gender-sensitive approach to conflict. These are prevention and early warning systems, protection and gender-sensitive peacekeeping, and women’s participation in peace processes. I conclude that identifying common areas of engagement could potentially effect positive changes for women and men on the ground in conflict prevention and protection, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Keywords: responsibility to protect, UNSC Res. 1325, gender-sensitive indicators, women's participation, peace processes, Women Peace and Security agenda

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gender Analysis, International Law, International Human Rights, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Countries: Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Solomon Islands

Year: 2016

Forced Pregnancy: Codification in the Rome Statute and its Prospect as Implicit Genocide

Citation:

Jessie, Soh Sie Eng. 2006. “Forced Pregnancy: Codification in the Rome Statute and Its Prospect as Implicit Genocide.” New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law 4 (2): 311.

Author: Soh Sie Eng Jessie

Abstract:

The Bosnia–Herzegovina political conflict between 1992 and 1995 shone international light on the use of forced pregnancy campaigns as tools in ethnic conflicts. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the first international treaty to explicitly define the crime of forced pregnancy, but its enactment was controversial. This article discusses the intensive opposition to its inclusion in the Rome Statute, from religious, cultural and political perspectives. It also suggests that domestic antiabortion laws and control over women's reproductive rights raise different issues from a forced pregnancy provision, and that there was a need for the express codification of forced pregnancy as a separate offence, given that it is neither novel nor rare. The Rome Statute lists forced pregnancy as a separate offence, but it is not expressly criminalised as genocide. However, this article argues that forced pregnancy is implicit genocide. It involves attacking women in the targeted group for the purpose of their impregnation through rape, and their detention to facilitate the birth of resulting babies. Forced pregnancy campaigns infiltrate the targeted community through gene pool pollution and manipulation of cultural beliefs.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Genocide, Health, Reproductive Health, International Law, Justice, Crimes against Humanity, Sexual Violence Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2006

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