ERTURK 2007 UN Human Rights Council

Question 1

“…dominant culture-based paradigms that justify or explain the violation of women’s right, reducing violence against women to a…

Answer 1

cultural problem”

Question 2

“…cultural practices that discriminate against women are frequently regarded as belonging to…

Answer 2

‘others’ whether they live in developing countries or belong to local immigrant countrie”

Question 3

“Embedded in this practice of ‘othering’ is a trend towards isolating VAW from the wider political and economic environment and the overall concern for…

Answer 3

women’s rights, empowerment and equality.”

Question 4

“…neo-liberal era, identity politics, based on cultural differences has made culture the site of contestation and the notion of culture a tool of…

Answer 4

new forms of oppression.”

Question 5

identity politics - “women…find themselves entangled in these ideological contests as they are reduced to ‘weak victims’ and are left with the ‘choice’ of joining forces with imperialist/hegemonic projects or compliance with..

Answer 5

oppressive practices”

Question 6

“Culture is intimately connected with the diverse ways in which social groups produce their daily existence…

Answer 6

economically, socially and politically”

Question 7

“Culture constitutes…normative systems that provides the rationale for varied patterns of gender roles and identities, which…

Answer 7

signify relations of power.”

Question 8

“…Critics assert that international human rights norms are Western in origin and therefore not…

Answer 8

appropriate in non-Western contexts”

Question 9

“VAW committed in the name of ‘culture’, ‘custom’, ‘tradition’ or ‘religion’ continues to be …

Answer 9

prevalent”

Question 10

“…notion of gender inequality is contested when established interpretations of culture or projections of ‘their’ culture are used to justify and excuse acts of…

Answer 10

discrimination and violence against women”

Question 11

“…Also been a tendency…to essentialise traditional cultures of the Global South as inherently harmful to women…human rights law has been perceived as an instrument to…

Answer 11

eliminate ‘harmful traditional practices’

Question 12

“Cultural essentialism also ignores the agency of women in the developing world and the trajectories of their resistance to…

Answer 12

violence and oppression”

Question 13

Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights 1984 - identified the agenda for…

Answer 13

HTPs

Question 14

While the 1984 agenda helped recognise HTPs, it also contributed to essentialising certain cultures as the..

Answer 14

source of the problem

Question 15

1984 agenda reinforced Western as ‘non-harmful’ to women and ‘Third World’ as..

Answer 15

‘barbaric’

Question 16

Whilst FGM is said to be slowly declining in African countries, another harmful practice seeks to control the sexuality of women through violence is reportedly on the rise…

Answer 16

‘breast-ironing’

Question 17

“In Western countries, distinct cultural norms that define gender relations are often not question or even perceived as culture…e.g. half-day schooling…these seemingly trivial cultural practices complement gender ideologies that prioritise women’s reproductive roles and reinforce, albeit in discrete forms, women’s subordination. This helps to explain why a significant number of women in the West, despite their advances in the public sphere, still encounter…

Answer 17

intimate partner violence”

Question 18

“…cultural practices that discriminate against women are frequently regarded as belonging to…

Answer 18

‘others”

Question 19

Response to FGM and HBV - “many States still fail to provide women facing such violations an escape by bringing their refugee laws into line with international standards on…

Answer 19

gender-related persecution”

Question 20

“‘othering’…redefining violence against women as an integration problem associated with immigrants from developing countries rather than a..

Answer 20

gender inequality problem”

Question 21

“‘othering’…consequences:

“immigrant women and men are further…

Answer 21

stigmatised and marginalised”

Question 22

“‘othering’…consequences:
“violence against native women is relegated from a social justice concern with a human rights dimension to a ‘law and order’ issue that may no longer be prioritised in comparison to…

Answer 22

other crimes”

Question 23

“Culture is frequently presented as static and immutable, as time-honoured ‘traditions’ rather than the custom of some of those currently..

Answer 23

living with the culture”

Question 24

Begins to be a common myth that culture is homogenous and monolithic, e.g. that there is one homogeneous Muslim view of Islamic values.. can lead to…cultural

Answer 24

essentialism