Decoupling: Marital Violence and the Struggle to Divorce in China

This article exposes the ways that frequent denial of divorces for women experiencing domestic violence in Chinese courts goes against international norms and treaties promoting women’s rights and gender-equality. Thus, while China has championed such international norms and rights, in practice, its courts violate and subvert national laws and international legal commitments. It is argued that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) appears to have had few positive effects on women seeking divorces after experiencing domestic violence. The highly institutionalized practice of denying first-attempt divorce petitions in China disproportionately affects women and is correlated with the substantial number of female marital-violence refugees.