HARVARD INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL

This article looks at the specific issues Indigenous Palestinian women are faced with as a consequence of the Intifada, especially concerning custom, religion and human rights. The author presents an overview of the problems inherent in legal reform in an area with a complexity of religious and customary heritages. This historic perspective serves as a backdrop for a discussion on legal reform effecting Palestinian women. Three options for reform are reviewed: a reinterpretation of Islam, adoption of European style civil codes and building upon the changes resulting from the Intifada.

This article suggests that international human rights litigation be used to combat domestic violence and to bring the problem of domestic violence into the public domain. Part I explains how domestic violence constitutes an international human rights violation, identifies states' responsibilities and defines battered women's complaints under international human rights law. Part II examines recent developments in this field and weighs the pros and cons of various mechanisms for enforcing women's right to be free of domestic violence.

The author focuses on human rights aspects of the UN Trafficking Protocol. She notes that much of the discussion regarding human trafficking of women has focused on sex work and the issue of consent. In order to better protect the human rights of trafficked persons and to formulate a series of options for trafficking legislation that are not encumbered by the shortcomings of myopic attention to consent, she argues that the discussion should be broadened to consider other economic and social factors.

This article discusses the case of Defrenne v. Sabena Airlines III in which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) proclaimed that the elimination of discrimination based on sex is a fundamental right. This comment argues that the sweeping proclamation of the ECJ ignores the complex nature of the right of sexual equality and that the Court considers sexual equality a fundamental right only in a few limited situations.