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This comprehensive and important volume includes contributions by activists, journalists, lawyers and scholars from twenty-one countries. The essays map the directions the movement forwomen'srights is taking--and will take in the coming decades--and the concomittant transformation of prevailing notions ofrights and issues. They address topics such as the rapes in former Yugoslavia and efforts to see that a War Crimes Tribunal responds; domestic violence; trafficking of women into the sex trade; the persecution of lesbians; female (...) genital mutilation; and reproductiverights. (shrink)

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Since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, women’srights in the country have made slow gains and suffered some setbacks. However, therights of women and their guaranteed participation in politics was outlined in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. This paper will survey some of those gains as well as describe the social backlash experienced by women leaders who have been trailblazers in post-colonial Kenyan politics.

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This book, based on the Round Table on Bioethics and Women held at UNESCO during the Fourth Session of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC), presents the ...

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Appealing to reason rather than religious belief, this book is the most comprehensive case against the choice of abortion yet published. This updated edition of The Ethics of Abortion critically evaluates all the major grounds for denying fetal personhood, including the views of those who defend not only abortion but also post-birth abortion. It also provides several (non-theological) justifications for the conclusion that all human beings, including those in utero, should be respected as persons. This book also critiques the view (...) that abortion is not wrong even if the human fetus is a person. The Ethics of Abortion examines hard cases for those who are prolife, such as abortion in cases of rape or in order to save the mother's life, as well as hard cases for defenders of abortion, such as sex selection abortion and the rationale for being "personally opposed" but publically supportive of abortion. It concludes with a discussion of whether artificial wombs might end the abortion debate. Answering the arguments of defenders of abortion, this book provides reasoned justification for the view that all intentional abortions are ethically wrong and that doctors and nurses who object to abortion should not be forced to act against their consciences. Updates and Revisions to the Second Edition include: --A response to Alberto Giubilini's and Francesca Minerva's now famous 2012 article, "After-Birth Abortion" in the Journal of Medical Ethics--Responses to new defenses of Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist argument--The addition of a new chapter on gradualist views of fetal moral worth, including Jeff McMahan's Time-Relative Interest Account--The addition of a new chapter on the conscience protection for health care workers who are opposed to abortion--Responses to many critiques of the first edition, including those made by Donald Marquis, David DeGrazia, and William E. May. (shrink)

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Establishingwomen'srights became part of the moral justification given for waging `war on terror' by ensuring regime change in Afghanistan. Yet by December 2002, HumanRights Watch was reporting ongoing violations ofwomen'srights. Western presumptions thatwomen's lives would be transformed simply by removing the Taliban were false. This `interchange' explains this gap between expectation and reality by examining the contentious history of Afghan gender politics and the current political and economic situation. (...) Acknowledging such factors reveals that Western intervention will not easily subvert the existing gender order. Rather, any real change will result, not from prescribing Western models, but by enabling Afghan women to be autonomous agents with the right to determine their own life plans. (shrink)

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Across the African continent,women'srights have become integral to international declarations, regional treaties, national legislation, and grassroots activism. Yet there is little research on how African men have understood these shifts and how African masculinities are implicated in such changes. Drawing on a year of ethnographic research in the Ugandan capital Kampala, this article investigates how ordinary men and women in Uganda understandwomen'srights and how their attitudes are tied to local conceptions of masculinity. (...) The author argues that a new configuration of gender relations is evident in urban Uganda—one that accommodates some aspects ofwomen'srights while retaining previous notions of innate male authority. This article therefore illustrates the complex and often contradictory engagements with humanrights that occur in local contexts and how such engagements are shaped by—and are shaping—gender relations, including conceptions of masculinity. (shrink)

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Therights of women in fundamentalist Muslim countries has become a cause celebre for many North American women; however, the problem of how to balance respect forwomen'srights and respect for cultural differences remains in dispute, even within feminist theory. This paper explores how U.S. feminists who are serious about supporting the struggles of women across cultural borders might best adjudicate the seeming tension betweenwomen'srights and cultural autonomy. Upon examining 4 representative approaches (...) to this problem, the paper argues that the seeming choice between respect forwomen'srights and respect for cultural differences is a false one and that both goals are advanced when global-minded U.S. feminists build on the insights of marginalized cultural groups to reflect critically on their own moral authority and their own communities' complicity with otherwomen's oppression. (shrink)

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Populist-nationalist ideologies pose a threat to women’srights. This article examines to what extent national institutionalisation of international frameworks promoting women’srights can weather the misogynistic political climate accompanying the global rise of populist nationalism. The post-2016 situation in the Philippines offers a testing ground for this problem due to the co-existence of President Duterte’s hypermasculinist national leadership with a strong history of institutionalisation of the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Drawing from an analysis of WPS (...) policy and institutions in the Philippines between 2009 and 2019 and from field research and interviews with government agencies, local civil society organisations and international partners, this article argues that the WPS agenda will likely survive in the hostile environment. But it also finds that institutionalisation alone does not guarantee successful implementation. While the WPS agenda may ostensibly remain a national priority under populist-nationalist regimes, its progression has been halted. (shrink)

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This article deals with the empirical example of how social subjects, in this case women, have appropriated the language ofrights in order to demand social inclusion. Since there are many different points of view in feminist theory with regard to how to deal with the idea of women’srights, this article is divided into three sections. In the first section, I focus on how some important normative contents about democracy andrights have already been accepted by (...) many different theorists who speak from critical perspectives. In the second section, I deal with how women’s struggles have gained consensus about the importance of defending the idea ofrights for their own struggles to overcome their exclusion. In the third and last section, I turn back to the theoretical efforts by leading feminists, in order to show how these struggles from women all over the world can be thematized in our global scenario. (shrink)

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This article analyses existing biases – whether due to misinterpretation, culture or politics – in the application of women’srights under Islamic Shari’a law. The paper argues that though in its inception, one purpose of Islamic law may have aimed at elevating the status of women in pre-Islamic Arabia, biases in interpreting such teachings have failed to free women from discrimination and have even added “divinity” to their persistent subjugation. By examining two case studies – Saudi Arabia and Egypt (...) – the article shows that interpretative biases that differ in application from one country to the other further subject women to the selective application ofrights. Dictated by norms, culture and tradition rather than a unified Islamic law, the paper shows how culture and politics have contributed to such biases under the pre-text of Islamic dictate. As such, it proposes a re-examination of “personal status” laws across the region in light of international humanrights norms. (shrink)

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There has been much recent debate aboutwomen'srights and their relation to humanrights. Debates about domestic violence in Vanuatu are situated in this global frame but also in a regional and historical context dominated by the relation between kastom (tradition) and Christianity. This article depicts the dynamics of a conference on Violence and the Family in Vanuatu held in Port Vila in 1994, in terms of the competing claims of universal humanrights and cultural (...) relativism. The allegedly western character of humanrights which focus on the individual and civil and politicalrights is often contrasted with the non-western stress on collectivities and therights to economic development and self-determination. These sorts of ideological oppositions in international politics reverberate in domestic politics as well, and especially in those which situate women and men as subjects in conflict, as they are in many domestic disputes. (shrink)

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Major changes have taken place in Muslim societies in general during the last decades. Traditional family and social organizational structures have come into conflict with the perceptions and needs of development and modern state-building. Moreover, the international context of globalization, as well as changes in intercommunity relations through immigration, have also deeply affected social and cultural mutations by facilitating contact between different cultures and civilizations. Of the dilemmas arising from these changes, those concerning women’s and men’s roles were the most (...) conflictive issues because of different interpretations and evaluations of historical, religious and/or cultural heritages. In the case of Morocco, for over 30 years, women’s and humanrights NGOs have acted and advocated to promote women’srights. The main disputes have concerned the distinction between what is within the requirements of Islam and what is the consequence of traditional social beliefs and practices. This ended nevertheless with the adoption by the Parliament of a new Family Law proclaimed in February 2004. This law was the result of a process of consultation and national debate, which made possible substantial progress in terms of proclaimed values of equality ofrights between men and women, with the support of most national political and social leaders. Several lessons can be learned from the Moroccan experience. The crucial role of civil society, the political support of the state at its highest level, the working methodology of the Royal Advisory Commission and the final process for the adoption of the new code were from the most determinant parameters. In light of recent developments in some majority-Muslim countries, the future of women’srights is a key issue of the so-called Arab spring. Muslim women’s challenges and struggles are not only ideological and legal battles, but they are also social and political struggles for which one of the major conditions is to prevent and prohibit the use of Islam as a political instrument. Muslim societies need to educate people properly and change their traditional representations and patterns of thought. To promote justice, equity and equality in general, as well as to protect women’s economicrights, they need appropriate economic and social policies. Then women can really promote, protect and benefit from the advances of their legal status. (shrink)

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In the following study the author goes back to the beginnings of theWomen'sRights movements in order to pose the question on gender equality by approaching it through the prism of language as a powerful tool in humanrights battles. This permits her to show the deep interrelation betweenwomen's struggle for recognition and some particular womenrights, like the "feminization" of professional titles and the implementation of a gender sensitive language. Hence she argues (...) the thesis that even in the most advanced European democracies, where freedom of speech, education, and scientific research seem actually to be legally guaranteed as universalrights, there is still a deep conflict in regard to the use of language and also that we have throughout history backlashes, reproductions of past stereotypes, and a loss ofwomen'srights which were previously acquired. (shrink)

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Women’s legalrights are one of the most significant determinants of their status. In Bangladesh, a series of laws ensuring women’srights have proven largely ineffective in promoting their positions. The prime reasons for this are: dirtier politics, the ineffective implementation of womenrights laws, the traditional and cultural negative views about women’srights, the absence of an accountable and transparent government, the expensive and time consuming judicial process, the lack of an efficient judiciary, and other (...) socio-economic reasons. The core theme of this essay concentrates on the ineffective enforcement of laws with the objective to promote protection of women’srights by recommending remedies to flaws in prevailing laws in Bangladesh. Recommendations are made by reference to comparative and international practices. The primary arguments developed throughout this essay are: the protection of women’srights is imperative to improve their status the legislative, administrative and judicial efforts dealing with women’srights; and improvements in those effortsto better protect women’srights. This study examines laws regarding women’s employment and political participation and the laws on dowry. It also explores the ways laws have been structured and enforced in Bangladesh, and how law can be an effective means of women’s pursuit ofrights. (shrink)

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Freedom of religious expression is to many a fundamental element of their identity. Yet the jurisprudence of the European Court of HumanRights on the Islamic headscarf issue does not refer to autonomy and identityrights of the individual women claimants. The case law focuses on Article 9 of the European Convention on HumanRights, which provides a legal human right to freedom of religious expression. The way that provision is interpreted is critically contrasted here with the (...) right to personal autonomy and identity now developed by that court in interpreting Article 8 which contains a right to respect one’s private life. (shrink)

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Agitation forwomen'srights in Iran is entwined with broader movements for freedom and reform that critique the Islamic Republic's shari'a law as discriminatory. Despite the foundation of these reform efforts in the social realities of contemporary Iran, anyone who critiques laws governing therights of women is prone to the charge of insulting the sanctity and foundation of Islam and subject to harsh penalties. Reform efforts will be hamstrung until there is a foundation for open discourse (...) and debate in Iran. Thus, humanrights such as the right to freedom of expression and relatedrights must be seen as the fundamental basis for successful political and legal reform in Iran – whether that reform is based in liberal Islam or secularism. (shrink)

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This article examines women’srights to property in marriage, upon divorce, and upon the death of a spouse in Uganda, highlighting the problematic aspects in both the state-made (statutory) and non-state-made (customary and religious) laws. It argues that, with the exception of the 1995 Constitution, the subordinate laws that regulate the distribution, management, and ownership of property during marriage, upon divorce, and death of a spouse are discriminatory of women. It is shown that even where the relevant statutory laws (...) are protective of women’srights to property, their implementation is hindered by customary law practices, socialization, and the generally weak economic capacity of many women in the country. The article delves into the even weaker position of women’srights to matrimonial property at customary and religious laws. In many homes, wives provide labor to support their husbands without having a stake in the use or monetary benefit from it. Under Islamic law regulating intestate succession to property, the entitlements for widows fall short of the constitutional standards on equality and non-discrimination. Polygyny is widely practiced by Muslims implying that the widows share the one eighth whenever there are children or one fourth in cases when there are no children. Radical reforms such as adopting an immediate community property regime instead of the present separate property regime are inevitable if women’srights to property are to advance. (shrink)

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Margaret Brazier has argued that, in the literature on reproductive technology,women's “right” to reproduce is privileged, pushed, and subordinated to patriarchal values in such a way that it amounts towomen's old “duty” to reproduce, dressed up in modern guise. I agree that there are patriarchal assumptions made in discussions of whether women have a right to select which embryos to implant or which fetuses to carry to term. Forcing ourselves to see women as active, rational decisionmakers (...) tends to counteract any lingering patriarchal assumptions. But rational decisionmaking requires information. Voting wisely requires information about the candidates. Takingwomen's reproductiverights seriously means taking seriouslywomen's need for relevant information to make rational decisions, including decisions about which embryos to implant or alter. I argue that preimplantation genetic profiles and prenatal test information should be made available to prospective parents, especially prospective mothers, unless doing so threatens to harm the resulting child or the larger society in specifiable and important ways. (shrink)

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Le Code civil français, premier code libéral et bourgeois d’Europe, passe, en raison de sa clarté systématique et de sa langue, pour un modèle de législation moderne. En outre, il eut une influence durable parce qu’il est resté en vigueur dans de nombreux pays d’Europe après la fin des conquêtes napoléoniennes. Pourtant, en comparaison avec d’autres codifications européennes et avec le droit coutumier de son temps, le Code français se caractérise, dans le droit conjugal et familial, par des règles particulièrement (...) rigides consolidant la domination masculine. L’article propose une analyse comparée de certains aspects du droit civil qui ont eu et ont encore un impact considérable sur la vie des femmes et sur l’histoire des mouvements féministes. Il se demande pourquoi les Françaises, qui se sont fait entendre plus tôt que d’autres dans leur lutte pour les droits des femmes qu’elles revendiquaient comme des droits humains, ont paradoxalement obtenu la reconnaissance de leur égale citoyenneté relativement tard (en 1944 seulement) par rapport aux autres pays européens. (shrink)

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Appealing to reason rather than religious belief, this book is the most comprehensive case against the choice of abortion yet published. _The Ethics of Abortion_ critically evaluates all the major grounds for denying fetal personhood, including the views of those who defend not only abortion but also infanticide. It also provides several justifications for the conclusion that all human beings, including those in utero, should be respected as persons. This book also critiques the view that abortion is not wrong even (...) if the human fetus is a person. _The Ethics of Abortion_ examines hard cases for those who are prolife, such as abortion in cases of rape or in order to save the mother’s life, as well as hard cases for defenders of abortion, such as sex selection abortion and the rationale for being “personally opposed” but publically supportive of abortion. It concludes with a discussion of whether artificial wombs might end the abortion debate. Answering the arguments of defenders of abortion, this book provides reasoned justification for the view that all intentional abortions are morally wrong and that doctors and nurses who object to abortion should not be forced to act against their consciences. (shrink)

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The Maputo Protocol, adopted in 2003, was intended to counterbalance the normative deficiencies of the African Charter with respect to women’srights. However, 15 years down the line, there is not much case law on the Protocol. The ECOWAS Court made its first pronouncement on the Protocol in 2017 in Dorothy Njemanze & 3 Others v. The Federal Republic of Nigeria. This paper analyses three gender-based violence decisions by the Ecowas Court: Dorothy Njemanze, Aminata Diantou Diane and Mary Sunday (...) cases. The paper examines the potential of the Protocol and the due diligence principle in influencing the Ecowas Court’s jurisprudence on women’srights and makes recommendations. (shrink)

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The article discusses the problems of development of women’s politicalrights in Lithuania in the legal historical aspect starting from the 16th century, when some property and individualrights were enshrined in the first codifications of the laws of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. The aim of the article is to show that women’s struggle for political equality and suffrage at the end of the 19th and at the turn of the 20th century correlates with the movement for (...) re-establishment of the independent State of Lithuania. As a result in Lithuania equal suffrage and politicalrights were ensured from the very beginning of independence. In 1905 the Great Seimas of Vilnius recognized the principles of equality of women and men and declared the principles of equal general election to the Seimas (parliament); women’s suffrage, as one of the elements of legal equality, became constitutionally entrenched already in the first temporary Constitution of the State of Lithuania in 1918. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century women’srights have been further developed, moreover, the first woman was elected as President of the Republic in the national elections in May 2009. (shrink)

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This anthology "explores three areas of life in which religion has a profound impact: political policy; ecology: andwomen'srights. Through the lens of six religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- the carefully-curated articles address some of contemporary society's most challenging issues"--Cover.

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Emerging out of increased attention to gender equality within violence and HIV prevention efforts in South African society has been an intensified focus on masculinities. Garnering a deeper understanding of how men respond to shifting gender relations andrights on the ground is of urgent importance, particularly since social constructions of gender are implicated in the HIV/aids epidemic. As social scientists collaborating on arights-based HIV and antiviolence program, we sought to understand masculinities,rights, and gender norms (...) across six high HIV/aids seroprevalence provinces in South Africa. Drawing on focus group research, we explore the ways that men who are engaged in HIV and antiviolence programming can often be simultaneously resistant to and embracing of changes in masculinities, women’srights, and gender relations. We use our findings on men’s responses to changing gender relations to make suggestions for how to better engage men in HIV and antiviolence programs. (shrink)

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Many caricaturists get the idea for their caricature from current issues of society. The philosophy of the caricature lies in the opinion it presents, which discusses society’s goals, culture, and crises, and it is represented in an ironic way to deliver its visual message. The fight for women’srights, inequality, and discrimination are examples of issues concerning Saudi women that have been represented by several caricaturists. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate female and male caricaturists’ linguistic (...) and semiotic representation of Saudi women’s challenging issues. Following (Kress and Van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn. London: Routledge), a social semiotic multimodal approach to the analysis is adopted in this study, which is drawn from Halliday’s social semiotic theory. Twenty caricatures were carefully selected based on the content and the issues that are being discussed in the caricatures with a consideration of their relation to the aim of the study. The present study contributes to enriching Saudi women’srights in relation to Saudi Vision 2030. The research is significant in that, in examining women/male caricaturists’ representations of the challenges and opportunities of Saudi women empowerment prior/after Saudi Vision 2030 in the workplace, social life, it contributes to understanding the supportive caricature discourse, basic social values for Saudi women, the pressures they undergo, and the success they have achieved so far in attaining theirrights. The study findings show that both the semiotic and verbal elements of the caricatures were significant in delivering the messages for women’srights in the new Saudi. (shrink)

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In India, consistent marginalization of women suggests that broader societal transformation is needed to transcend gender stereotypes and foster gender equality. Effective school curriculum and textbook content can influence and revitalize mindsets to respect and uphold women’srights (WR). This research examines the manifestation and extent to which WR is addressed in Indian school social science textbooks using qualitative content analysis. Data from official primary and secondary school textbooks published between 2006 and 2013 and reprinted between 2017 and 2019 (...) were analyzed, based on the components of WR prescribed by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage). The results indicate that there is negligible focus on WR in textbooks at the elementary level. While both explicit and implicit focus on WR increased at the secondary and senior secondary levels, some vital aspects were either marginally represented or completely missing. (shrink)

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This text addresses the issue ofwomen's humanrights and defends their sensitive or receptive application to the socio-political context. The value ofwomen's humanrights is recognized as instruments of social transformation, but also the limitations of a legal-legalistic conception. A broader political conception is required. Following Ch. Beitz, who defines humanrights as global discursive and political practices whose objective is to regulate the behaviour of States and protect human interests, a non sceptical (...) criticism of this conception is made. The application of the humanrights of women by States without considering the previous social and political structure can unintentionally reinforce the situation of oppression they suffer. In this sense, it is committed to the need to focus the humanrights of women not only as protections, but also as demands. Demands that come from new forms of feminist activism such as decolonial or antineoliberal. Without renouncing the idea ofwomen's humanrights, it is committed to an application sensitive to claims and critical of the social and political context, combining short-range affirmative policies with long-range transformative policies. (shrink)

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ABSTRACTWe trace Susan Moller Okin’s reception of Mary Wollstonecraft with respect to the relationship between religion and feminist liberalism, by way of manuscripts housed at Somerville College, Oxford and Harvard University. These unpublished documents – dated from 1967 to 1998 – include her Somerville advising file, with papers dated from 1967 to 1979; her 1970 Oxford B.Phil. thesis on the feminist political theory of Wollstonecraft, William Thompson, and J.S. Mill; her teaching notes on Wollstonecraft originating in 1978, for her course (...) ‘Gender and Political Theory’ held at Brandeis and Stanford in the 1980s and 1990s; and her correspondence with John Rawls, dated from 1985 to 1998. A consistently secular feminist liberal, Okin had a blind spot with regard to religion, which led her to misinterpret Wollstonecraft’s theology as contradictory to her consequentialist arguments for women’srights. Wollstonecraft virtually disappeared from Okin’s published corpus, overshadowed by the secular utilitarian feminist liberal J.S. Mill. Wollstonecraft nevertheless remained a deep philosophical source for both the method and the principle behind Okin’s distinctive brand of feminist liberalism. Okin’s reception of Wollstonecraft suggests that the fissures caused by religious conflict in modern politics have not only generated multiple liberalisms, as Rawls argued, but also multiple feminist liberalisms. (shrink)

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Since the Taliban resumed political power in Afghanistan in August 2021, their total application of strict Sharia Law has demanded global attention. This paper theorizes that, in pursuit of social order, the Taliban has enacted a civil religion to justify their complete reversion of women’srights as a public good. I examine Afghanistan's social contact through the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and suggest why the intended social order has not materialized. In conclusion, I depict the (...) erosion ofwomen'srights as a matter of structural injustice and incite critical reflexivity towards our responsibility for global justice. (shrink)

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The paper focuses on the application of a particular conception of the rule of law to situations characterized by traditional local justice and legal pluralism. While in the twentieth century international rule‐of‐law programmes were directed almost exclusively at state legal system, they have recently begun to take into account traditional local justice, namely, those institutions which in many world regions represent the main form of effective justice. Starting with a review of the positive and negative aspects of traditional local justice (...) from a rule‐of‐law perspective, the paper underlines the widespread lack of protection of humanrights, particularly of women’srights. Discussing vertical rule‐of‐law functions in contexts of legal pluralism the paper stresses the advantages of an approach to the promotion of the rule of law based on mutual recognition and influence between different legal authorities and sources. It is argued that this “interactive” approach appears best suited to the complex frameworks of relations that characterize present‐day systems of deep legal pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the correspondence between this approach and a conception of the rule of law as an ideal framework of plural interactions characterized by the limits imposed on the law by the law itself, and it discusses its advantages from the perspective of humanrights and women’srights promotion. (shrink)

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This chapter aims to identify a common ground between liberals and defenders of cultural minorities that can serve as the basis for a mutually acceptable, yet still liberal, policy toward the treatment of women and girls by the cultural minority groups to which they belong. It also aims to defend the very project of a liberal policy by responding to some of the criticisms that Okin and others have received for defendingwomen'srights in apparent opposition to some (...) minority cultural traditions. (shrink)

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The paper is in four parts. The first part offers a brief reminder of the historical context for humanrights aswomen'srights. The second part notes the relative lack of attention in humanrights theory to the roles of social meaning and what has been called the ‘social imaginary’. The third part suggests that the social imaginary — understood in terms of the always present backdrop to meaningful social action — may be seen as a (...) fruitful ‘middle ground’ upon which negotiations may take place between humanrights and cultural norms. The fourth part examines a case wherewomen's entitlements to basic humanrights are compromised by men's claims to cultural or grouprights. I conclude by arguing that if humanrights are to accommodatewomen'srights then women must be recognized as legitimate stakeholders in, and valuable contributors to, the necessarily ongoing re-invention and recreation of social meaning and cultural identity. (shrink)

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How best to realize international humanrights law in practice has proved a vexing problem. The challenge is compounded in the USA, which has not ratified several treaties including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Cities for CEDAW movement addresses this deficit by encouraging cities to endorse and implement CEDAW norms. In doing so, it seeks to catalyze a local boomerang effect, whereby progressive political momentum at the local level generates internal pressure (...) from below to improve gender equity outcomes across the country and eventually, at the national level. In this article, we trace the diffusion of Cities for CEDAW activism with attention to the case of Cincinnati and analyze its implications for advancing women’srights principles. We argue that while Cities for CEDAW has potential to enhance respect for women’srights in local jurisdictions, its impact on national policy remains limited. (shrink)

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In this article I put forward three lines of argument. Firstly, the current debate on trafficking in human beings focuses narrowly on exploitation in the sex industry. This has produced a stand-off between moralists and liberals which is detrimental to developing strategies to combat trafficking. Moreover, this narrow focus leads to missing out the large numbers of women who are trafficked into other industries. It also masks some of the root causes of trafficking. In this article I therefore compare the (...) practice of trafficking for prostitution with forced labour in other industries in order to show that the sole focus on trafficking for prostitution is detrimental to the efforts to combat trafficking. This analysis is based on recent research and reports on its methodology as well as its outcomes. Secondly, I relate these findings in the article to the agenda for thewomen'srights debate. Thewomen'srights literature has looked separately at the sex industry and labour migration. In the light of our research outcomes, it makes sense to have a much more intimate exchange between these areas, in order to discern the central role of root causes like globalization, patriarchy and other forms of discrimination. Thirdly, whereas a dichotomy between universalism and particularism has produced its own trenches in this field, I propose a balanced approach which addresses all forms of violence against women, including the central area of exploitation of migrant women in any sector or domestic context. (shrink)

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Legal mobilization in the courts and in political discourse has emerged as an increasingly important strategy of social movements that complements other political approaches. This is true also for women’s movements in post-socialist countries, but most research on strategic litigation has focused so far on common law countries and on supranational litigation in Europe. Using the case of Poland as an example, this article asks why references to the law are so attractive in post-socialist contexts and what can be gained (...) by this with respect to actualrights, justice and social change. It focuses thereby on strategic litigation as the most sophisticated strategy that results from other sustained movement activities connected with the law. It draws on field research, interviews with activists and analyses of primary as well as secondary sources. The article explores the reasons for using the law as the ‘master frame’ by analysing the traditions of gender and law in state socialism and during democratic consolidation. Two examples of strategic litigation, the Tysiąc case for reproductiverights and the ‘Biedronka’ cases for employmentrights, are analysed and situated in the context of other legal mobilization activities. These cases set the agenda for crucial social problems and resulted in binding decisions by the courts. A broad and predominantly supportive media discourse was conducive to cultivating public opinion. These analyses support the conclusion that legal mobilization tends to directly influence law and legal practices. It has a socializing effect on the population and their legal consciousness. In aiming at both state and society, these legal strategies of the women’s movement are a modest but crucial success for democratic consolidation. (shrink)

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In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:HumanRights andWomen's RightsAngela KnobelMainstream feminists insist, with a degree of unanimity that is sometimes surprising, that access to abortion is an essential precondition of female equality. That feminism, which is in other respects so flexible, inclusive, and uncategorizable, should be so unyielding with respect to this particular issue seems surprising to many. It is especially surprising to those who, while sympathetic to other feminist goals, (...) also oppose abortion.1 Why is access to abortion so important? Why must one's views about the equality of women stand or fall on one's views about the value of unborn human life? If feminism has to have a flagship issue, why must that issue be abortion? In this paper, I will propose that Pierre Manent's Natural Law and HumanRights offers a possible answer to this question. I will argue that, to the extent that mainstream feminism assumes the truth of what Manent calls the "philosophy of humanrights," it cannot not advocate abortion access. Similarly, I will argue that pro-life feminist attempts to defend the contrary position—namely, that abortion is antithetical to feminism—invariably assume the natural law that the philosophy of humanrights rejects. My argument, if correct, suggests the pivot point in discussions of abortion and feminism occurs much further back than many acknowledge: in our very understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.In what follows I will first briefly summarize Manent's account of what he calls the "philosophy of humanrights." With this background in place, [End Page 275] I will consider the mainstream feminist claim that access to abortion is a necessary precondition of female equality. When "equality" is understood through the lens of the philosophy of humanrights, I argue, the mainstream feminist insistence on access to abortion becomes coherent: a feminism that assumes the truth of the philosophy of humanrights cannot not insist on access to abortion. The pro-life feminist reply that abortion harms and oppresses women, by contrast, is coherent only to the extent one assumes the framework of natural law.2Natural Law or HumanRights?To believe in natural law is to believe that nature itself sets the standard for human life. What the "law" commands is simply action necessary for the realization of the potential implicit in our nature. Under such a framework, Manent notes, "natural inclinations and natural differences, if they exist, constitute a kind of language of nature."3 The fact that human beings are naturally rational or naturally social, or that biological males are (typically) attracted to biological women, helps provide insight into nature's "law": "Natural law issued commands in the name of a teaching implicit in human nature, in a tendency of human nature to society and to knowledge, or in a natural difference among ages, sexes, and capacities, a tendency or difference that reason once made explicit and on the basis of which it founded its commandments and recommendations."4 Nature's laws can be and frequently are violated: cultures or individuals can choose to live up to nature's laws or not. For this reason, Manent says that, under the traditional framework of natural law, human beings are "free under the law."5 Natural law is something we freely choose to follow or freely choose to reject, but because it stems from our human nature, it does not cease to bind even those who reject it.The philosophy of humanrights, by contrast, accepts the notion of freedom but rejects the notion of any overarching "law" against which our free choices are to be measured. While the philosophy of natural law is rooted in the language of nature, and thus sees human beings as free "under the law" of nature, the philosophy of humanrights puts freedom prior to [End Page 276] law and recognizes law only as a means of preserving freedom.6 While the philosophy of natural law understands individual human beings in terms of their human nature, and thus in terms of their natural inclinations and natural differences, the philosophy of humanrights rejects the language of "nature" in favor of an "impoverished common denominator," namely equality... (shrink)

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Identity politics and citizenship are often envisaged in dichotomous terms, but cosmopolitan theorists believe commitments to “thin” universal values can be generated from divergent “thick” positions. Yet, they often gloss over the ways in which the nexus of thick and thin is negotiated in practice—a weak link in the cosmopolitan argument. To understand this nexus better, we turn to women’srights organizations (WROs) in polarized Turkey to show that women affiliated with rival camps (e.g., pro-religious/pro-secular, Turkish/Kurdish, liberal/leftist) can mobilize (...) over issues like empowerment, violence against women, and education. However, thick readings of these issues inflect upon collaboration. This has spurred pro-religious and Kurdish women to develop strategies that flag their specific concerns. As such, mutual recognition along cosmopolitan lines appears possible—and is reinforced through iterative encounters—but is not necessarily negotiated between equally empowered agents and entails complex processes of contestation and concession-making. (shrink)

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Criticisms have been made against international laws and conventions on asylum and refugees, arguing that these have been based on a male model of definition, which have ignored women’s persecutions. This article will argue that recent developments in European asylum policy have the potential to deepen this discrimination and to further reduce therights of female asylum seekers. Although there have been some positive developments in jurisprudence that have recognised that gender-specific persecution may be the basis for granting asylum, (...) these advances remain relatively sporadic and are undermined by the operation of random and discretionary exercises of power by bureaucrats and decision makers in many cases. Further, although new developments in asylum policy are in theory “gender neutral,” differences in the material circumstances of men and women who arrive to seek asylum may mean in effect that the implications of these policies are deeply gendered. (shrink)

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