The CEDAW as a Collective Approach to Women's Rights: Dueling Fates: Should the International Legal Regime Accept a Collective or Individual Paradigm to Protect Women's Rights? Symposium Article

This article was written as part of the Michigan Journal of International Law Symposium that posed the question whether "the international legal regime should accept a collective or individual paradigm to protect women." The article identifies the individualist paradigm with the main current of contemporary liberal-individualist political thought, and more specifically with the approach to women's rights reflected in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Part I contrasts the ICCPR and the Concevention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the Women's Convention). Next, the author interrogates the concepts of individualism, collectivism, and the premise of human rights (Part II) and positive liberty and the objects of choice (Part III). Finally, the author puts forward some theories as to how we can achieve a collective commitment to a feminist conception of the good.