Family Law, Pluralism, and Human Rights

This article examines the key human rights protections relevant to family law, explores the tension between religious understandings of marriage and family and broad conceptions of human rights, and argues that pluralism in family law weakens community bonds and societal connections and can pose challenges for the protection of human rights, especially for women and children. The author concludes that, just as the State cannot place "the family" outside the realm of human rights, it cannot invoke pluralism to insulate social and legal practices from human rights scrutiny. The author specifically discusses the signing and ratification of the General Recommendations on Marriage Equality and Family Relations from the Committee of the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and notes that many countries have failed to implement these laws on a practical level. The author suggests that there are a wide array social and cultural trends that reinforce ideas that challenge human rights, particularly in countries where religion promotes traditional family law values that differ from constitutional or international law. The author focuses particularly on the United States and Canada and the issues pluralism creates for human rights with respect to traditional practices including forced marriage and female genital cutting. These governments face the challenge of balancing their obligation to protect individuals from violence with their efforts to uphold values of religious freedom.