Women's Human Rights Resources Database

This article discusses the experience of women in situations of humanitarian crisis, and suggests ways in which the needs of women can be better served. The author first discusses the importance of understanding the pre-existing social inequities women face, which are compounded during a crisis and lead to special vulnerabilities. The issue of hypermasculinity is then addressed, which marginalizes women and their needs during a crisis. Men, both local and foreign, exclude women from the decision-making process regarding crisis response. The article promotes the inclusion of women in such processes so that their needs may not be neglected. Finally, the author discusses the idea of gendered security, which would go beyond mere physical security, and secure meaningful political, social, and economic environments for women. Throughout the article, the author highlights the importance of including women at every level of decision-making.

The author explores the development of human rights law, particularly with respect to women, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (includes Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). She begins by considering the region's plural legal systems, before comparing the different constitutional models of SADC countries through the lens of inheritance laws. The author explores how these systems can work to protect or limit the rights of women. The author also provides a historical overview of Africa's engagement with human rights issues since the Second World War, including the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. She goes on to examine the SADCs own declarations addressing gender-based discrimination and violence. Finally, Banda considers the significance of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, adopted by the African Union in 2003. She emphasizes that gender equality can only be achieved by adopting a holistic approach not solely focused on granting legal rights.

The author advocates adopting a contextual approach to assessing the legality under International law of restrictions on wearing Muslim headscarves and veils in public educational institutions. Taking a secularist approach to women's human rights, the author argues that the European Court of Human Rights ruled correctly in Leyla Sahin v Turkey (2004) when it upheld Istanbul University's ban on headscarves. Bennoune summarizes the background and reasoning in Sahin, and responds to NGO criticisms of the decision. Considering the conflict between the right to equality and freedom of religion in international law, the author argues for a contextual approach by looking at the meaning and impact of the religious expression in context. Applying this contextual analysis, the author considers the Sahin case, as well as a similar case from the British House of Lords, Begum v Headteacher (2006), and the 2004 French law banning religious symbols in public schools. She concludes that while the two cases were correctly decided, the 2004 French law might be driven more by religious and ethnic discrimination rather than protecting womens human rights.

This article discusses the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) engagement with the international human rights legislation (IHRL) framework. The OIC is the world’s second-largest intergovernmental organization and the only one unified around a single religion. Several of its human rights declarations justify restricting women’s rights by invoking the supremacy of Islamic law and norms. Blitt argues that failing to reject the OCI’s parochial, Islamic notions of equality and non-discrimination risks undermining the spirit of universality reflected in IHRL ideas of fundamental human freedom and equality in dignity and rights. More immediately, it legitimizes ongoing rights violations against women. Given the OIC’s reach in the Muslim world, these concerns potentially impugn the rights of large swaths of women around the world. Understanding the challenges that Islamic and other religious organizations have posed towards actualizing the IHRL framework will be key to ensuring its global effectiveness and harmony with cultural antecedents.

Inclusion of labour provisions in free trade agreements (FTAs) has become increasingly more commonplace by the international community since 1994 when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its labour side agreement, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), came into effect. The author explores whether and how labour provisions in post-NAALC FTAs can be utilized to improve the lives of working women. She examines and compares significant advances in the development and application of labour norms in FTAs by the governments of Canada and the United States. Section I of the article is a comparison of the structure and contents of labour provisions and complaint procedures of post-NAFTA US and Canadian FTAs. Section II is a discussion of reports and developments in the application of US post-NAALC FTA labour provisions between 2009 and 2016. Section III is an examination of US and Canadian FTA labour provisions from a gender perspective. While the US government has more experience than the Canadian government in investigating and responding to public petitions under FTA labour provisions, definitional shortcomings in US FTAs present a challenge to using them as tools to improve working women's lives. In contrast, gender protections in Canadian FTA labour provisions have not yet been tested by petitioners but could serve as a useful tool in improving working women's lives because they contain clear protections for equal pay for equal work for men and women and for the elimination of workplace discrimination based on sex and other grounds.

The author Nina J. Crimm recalls a newspaper article of an ethnographic study of a matrilineal society, Vanatinai. Ideologies of male superiority are non-existent in Vanatinai, thus illustrating that female subordination is not inevitable. Crimm goes on to describe the various abuses women face in many societies – physical injury, mental injury, and denial of basic political, civil, and legal rights. She applauds several societies that have progressed in achieving gender equality but quickly mentions others that have regressed. The author concludes that gender equality cannot be resolved with simple rhetoric but active participation in providing solutions on the international stage.

The article lists and briefly describes international, regional, and Nigerian legal instruments related to the rights of women. Participation by women in Nigerian politics is low but rising. The author explores challenges encountered by women in politics as (1) poor encouragement of participation within political parties, (2) a rough style of politics with threats, blackmail, and assassinations used to scare women, (3) misconceived cultural and religious beliefs promoting submission and staying out of the public eye, (4) limited financial resources and support, and (5) perception of female politicians as unscrupulous and “loose”. The author calls for Nigeria to pass of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill to protect political rights of women, increase public awareness of women’s political rights, and criminalize discriminatory cultural and religious practices that suppress women’s participation. 

This paper focuses on women workers in global supply chains in poor countries, addressing the issue of systemic risks to women’s general health and violations of their health rights. The authors argue that the gender-blind approach of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) strategies render these women workers vulnerable to serious health risks, rooted in a lack of access to healthcare, poor workplace healthcare, and poor sanitary conditions at work. The current application of OSH standards emphasizes safety inputs but overlooks these broader workplace-related health issues. The authors contend that this failure to align public health standards with international human rights standards leads to long-term harms. They forward a holistic approach to women workers’ right to health that abandons the division between occupational health and general health and assigns responsibility thereto to corporations. They recommend that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights develop a defined gender approach, so that corporations can adopt an expansive vision of the right to health for women workers in global supply chains. 

This article comments on the continued struggle that women face when pursuing asylum claims under the Refugee Convention. It criticizes how the Convention has been applied using the ground of “political opinion” in circumstances of gender based persecution, particularly claims of forced marriage in Britain and the United Kingdom. The main argument presented is that the political opinion ground can and should be used for claims of forced marriage rather than associating gender based persecution with the category of “social group”. If a refugee is fleeing their country of origin to escape a forced marriage, this is a valid expression of the political opinion and agency and therefore should be treated as such in a subsequent refugee claim.

According to the author, women in the Arab world occupy a position of “enfranchised minorhood.” That is, even after gaining the vote, these women have enjoyed a lesser civic status than that of their male counterparts. The Arab Spring ushered in a new era of political reform and opportunities for advancing women’s rights. This article investigates advancements in three areas of law—criminal law, family law, and nationality law—closely entwined with women’s civic status in each of Morocco, Lebanon, and Kuwait. Together, these countries represent the Arab world’s diverse regional, political, economic, and religious realities. Maktabi finds generally that the reforms have been substantial in criminal law, incremental in family law, and minimal in nationality law. Where women have achieved successes, despite reactionary pushback from patriarchal and religious interests, they have done so by allying with other women, pushing for targeted reforms, and raising awareness of their plight.

The author examines not so much whether burqa bans are legal, but rather focuses on what they symbolize, ie as exercises in national identity-building based on differentiation. The author proposes a model he calls postsecular comparative law - expanded comparative law that creates space for religious laws as objects of comparison. It its focus on religious laws, postsecular comparative law can help bring to the fore essential differences between state law and religious law, while also demonstrating underappreciated similarities. Postsecular comparative law focuses not only on religious law - it also allows for new and hopefully richer understandings of the modern state.

In this article, Nussbaum points to the unsteady progress of women’s rights in Indian law. She suggests that a more robust legal education, exposing up-an-coming legal professionals to women’s issues and perspectives; and better representation of women, especially minority women at the national level, are promising avenues for progressive reform. Nussbaum addresses three broad areas of development in women’s rights: India’s system of personal laws, constitutional non-discrimination provisions, and laws of substantive due process. Nussbaum concludes by affirming that catalysts from within Indian politics are more promising for long-term reform than those intervening externally. The criticisms and proposals contained in this article, while particular to the Indian context, emphasize the kinds of cultural and religious complexities that legal advocates of women’s social and political rights face in any diverse jurisdiction.

In this article, Nussbaum argues that the impact of international human rights law on women’s progress should be assessed broadly. Legal documents, e.g., the CEDAW, have little direct impact on their own. And what direct impact they do have is often difficult to measure. Nevertheless, Nussbaum argues that international women’s human rights documents, for all of their notable limitations, do have a substantial impact when assessed in terms of how they enable the women’s movement. This enablement includes changing the language surrounding women’s issues, bringing together women across the globe, and focusing women’s aspirations for social and political change. In showing that international women’s human rights documents are impactful in ways not easily quantifiable—yet still tangible and meaningful—Nussbaum restores confidence in the efficacy of such documents and opens up new areas of research in the field of international women’s human rights. 

This article discusses the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 National Action Plans (UNSCR 1325 NAPs) and their exclusion of women with disabilities. Representation and fairness are the main reasons women with disabilities should be included in the NAPs. The unique perspective brought by women with disabilities is especially important, since multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination can exacerbate violence against women. Few NAPs, however, refer to women with disabilities. The article outlines several problems surrounding this issue, including the lack of involvement of people or organizations devoted to women with disabilities in the drafting of the NAPs. The article surveys the NAPs of several countries, both those that have included women with disabilities and those that have not. It concludes that since the percentage of persons with disabilities is increasing, it is now urgently necessary for countries to involve women with disabilities in their policy-making processes in order to promote democracy.