COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW

Globally, fifty percent of migrants are female. Migrant domestic workers are usually female and migrate on short-term contracts. This article focuses on the intersection of international human rights law and migrant domestic workers. It uses Saudi Arabia as a case study to illustrate the issues. Using Albert O. Hirschman's exit, voice, the article argues that the exclusion of migrant domestic workers from labour laws violates international human rights law. Finally, the author offers suggestions to provide migrant domestic workers with legal protection.

Although the Czechoslovakian practice of sterilizing undesirables was officially abandoned in 1990, many Romai women claim they have continued to be coercively sterilized since the fall of communism in 1989. Victims have obtained little justice from the government. The article argues that the lack of justice for these victims is due to barriers in the Czech and Slovak legal systems regarding laws designed to protect against coercive sterilization. The article discusses how the most successful efforts to obtain justice for the coercively sterilized

This article discusses how The United States Board of Immigration Appeals treats asylum claims made based on forced sterilization differently from those based on past female genital mutilation (FGM). While involuntary sterilization is considered automatic ground for asylum, the treatment of claims for asylum made on the basis of FGM is inconsistent. The article discusses the development of the different approaches and offers five reasons for the difference: gender bias, realpolitik, ideological pressure, cultural justifications, and temporal considerations. The author argues

Many women seek refugee protection fleeing from forced marriages. However, because there is no precedent establishing forced marriage as a form of persecution, these women often have to establish their claims on related harms that already constitute persecution, such as rape,. The article discusses what constitutes forced marriage and the development of requirements for refugee protection. The author then examines the meaning of persecution and how forced marriage may fit within the definition. Following this more general discussion, the article analyzes a number of U.S. cases

This article discusses the treatment of abortion by the European Court of Human Rights, with a focus on A,B,C v Ireland. The article argues that the Court's treatment of abortion has been inconsistent, in that it has refused to address the issue self- determination while only upholding claims that deal with procedural aspects of the right to abortion. In particular, the paper discusses Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect for private life, which requires that the state not interfere unjustifiably with a woman's right to make her own choices

This article discusses the impact on international criminal law of the International Criminal Court Statute's provisions on rape and forced pregnancy. The author notes that prior to the Statute, rape and forced pregnancy were considered crimes that violated honour; post-Statute, these crimes are framed in light of the harm done to the victim's bodily integrity and infringement of their agency. The author argues that "this structure signals a new paradigm for the international criminalization of sexual crimes - one based on broader principles of human dignity, autonomy, and consent".

This article addresses the battering and sexual abuse of women by their partners. The author argues that such violence must be understood as torture, giving rise to obligatory international and national responsibilities. She notes two major obstacles to the recognition of intimate violence against women as a human rights violation: the public/private dichotomy in international law and the persistent trivialization of violence against women.

Using the Media Trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as an example, the author argues that to effectively address the violence committed against Tutsi women during the Rwandan Genocide, the ICTR must recognize the violence was both sexist and racist. The author presents a general background on the Rwandan genocide, the propaganda campaign and its effect on Tutsi women.

The adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Women's Convention) marks a significant movement in the quest to advance international women's rights. The author argues that the Women's Convention has a weak and indirect means of enforcement, and that the Optional Protocol can help supplement the current enforcement mechanisms by offering a new avenue through which to monitor violations by State Parties of their Convention obligations.