Dowry Deaths: Proposing a Standard for Implementation of Domestic Legislation in accordance with Human Rights Obligations

This article discusses the due diligence standard of governmental responsibility, and measures the adequacy of India's implementation of its national dowry death legislation in accordance with its international human rights obligations. Although India's laws seek to ban dowry death, the author argues that India continues to violate human rights treaties because it lacks actual commitment to the implementation of its national legislation. This article examines India's breach of its duty of due diligence. Such a breach constitutes government complicity in condoning and perpetuating dowry deaths, which violate women's human rights in India. Through this complicity, India arguably neglects its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.