Womens Rights Flashcards
What is the violation of women’s rights?
The negative position of women
Intrusion into the rights of women
- perceived as a private matter
- within their homes
- women are subject to mental and physical violence
- rape, dowry deaths, wife battering, FGM, forced sterilisation, prostitution
What did the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights - Gen comment 5 1994
Said that women are subject from double discrimination, for example because of race, religion, national and social origin, old age and disability
In 1993 the general assembly adopted what?
A declaration on the elimination of violence against women as well as appointing a special rapporteur
ECHR
Article 1 secures that the rights are for everyone in the ECHR
Article 14 = grounds of sex
UN charter
Article 1(3): the purpose of the UN is to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems etc without distinction such as sex
Commission on the status of women set up in 1946
Preps recommendations and reports for the council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields
- most famous work was drafting CEDAW
- identified that in the drafting of the UDHR it related to “all men are brothers” = lack of gender identity
UDHR
Article 16
Problem with the UDHR
It never made a distinction between men and women and brought women’s rights up to the same as men’s, = equality achieved yet lacking gender specific provisions
Was the problem continued in the ICESCR and the ICCPR
Yes, both failed to define equality or discrimination in article 3 of both conventions and followed the UDHR approach of equality
Advantages of the equality approach
The prohibition of sex discrimination targeted the elimination of stereotypes of women and the dominating stereotypes of men
Human rights challenged the naturalness of many oppressive beliefs and practices
Disadvantages to the sex discrimination approach
More formal (de jure) rather than substantive approach (de facto) in that even though women have the same rights as men in theory, it doesn’t necessarily then mean they have equality
Shirin A-C and 19 other Mauritius women v Mauritius - HRC
Had to do with residency permits where the husbands of women living in Mauritius lost this residence so had to apply for residency permits, unlike the wives of Mauritian men
- Complained the new laws breached right to family life and non-discrimination, various articles of the ICCPR
- Mauritius could place restrictions on the entry and expulsion of aliens however found that it was discriminatory seeing as the wives of Mauritian men did not have to do the same
ICESCR art 10 is an example of what?
Where the covenant has recognised specific rights to mothers but instead of making it more universal it highlights and re-emerges the protectionist approach to women, rather than having rights to new mothers for example it has “special protection” element
What about the right to work under the ICESCR
Based on a male framework and doesn’t take into account what is specific for women like their interrupted work patterns for child care or
Gender segregation in the work place
One could also say that the ICESCR article 11 does what?
Provision is on the right of HIMSELF to have a family life
- suggests the stereotype
Of women being dependent on men in the home
BUT
- the Committee on Economic Social and a cultural rights has disputed this
Article 1 of cedaw includes
The definition
- but does this mean that it prohibits the laws giving more preference for women or girls over boys
Article 4 says that state parties can give temporary special measures to accelerate de facto equality between men and women but cannot entail separate standards between men and women
What are the three core spheres of the scope of the convention
- public: measures on the state including positive to ensure that there is non discrimination against women - national laws and constitutional rules, gov policies, national institutions and participation in political life: article 2
- private: includes corporations but can penetrate into the family life because of article 16 which is the hardest to enforce
- cultural: stereotypes, cultural practices, beliefs and prejudices: see article 5**
Obstacles / challenges to CEDAW
CVAA
- comparisons with men: reliance on this to give a de jure perception of “equality”
- violence against women: little reference to it in the convention
- assumption of married heterosexuality
- lack of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of intersectional forms of discrimination
Challenges to cedaw from a cultural perspective
Some cultural beliefs do have oppressive mechanisms such as FGM and arranged marriages, the preference for sons etc so will have to weigh this up with women’s rights and the respect to family life
Also there are reservations to the convention
Think at least every stage has a reservation to the convention which is linked to one of its core obligations
- in article 28(2) of the convention it is stated that some states can provide a reservation to the articles
- e.g Saudi Arabia with regards to provisions on divorce, custody, adoption and inheritance
Obstacle 1) comparison with men and women
E.g. Women’s productive rights in article 10(h), 12(1) and 16(1)(e) all have to be enjoyed on the basis of equality
> little stand alone room for women’s rights including on abortion!! Unless they fall under “measures protecting maternity” under article 4(2)
> comparison with the Protocol on women’s rights in Africa 2003 which recognises women’s autonomy in sexual and reproductive health
> no recognition to different groups of women like unmarried women’s access to reproductive assistance and is only denied insofar as unmarried men are
> evicting a female spouse from a family home is not discriminatory because there is no male comparator
Obstacle 2) lack of reference to violence against women
Gendered violence doesn’t happen the same to women as it does to men
> cedaw Committee general recommendation 19 = violence against women is a form of discrimination against women and applied by the jurisprudence of the cedaw
Committee
= violations of state obligations to eliminate violence against women in family relations (art 16) where the state’s have not acted with due diligence to protect women (AT v Hungary 2005) (Jallow v Bulgaria 2012)
Violence against women contin
- since the decisions in AT v Hungary and Jallow v Bulgaria
Violence against women declaration by the General Assembly in 1993
Council of Europes approach to violence against women
Preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence 2011
Obstacle 3) women’s family life is assumed to be married in a heterosexual relationship
> ignores HR violations that take place in different family formations e.g. Unequal sharing of income and assets, violence in lesbian relationships and fails to protect women when an unmarried relationship breaks down
> CEDAW Committee General Recommendation 21 at 22: tried to rectify that problem by identifying different relationships exist by using “spouse or partner”
> cedaw fails to address discrimination that women face for expressing their sexuality outside of marriage whether in relationships, sex workers, in pursuit of sexual pleasure or lovers of other women
Obstacle 4) women are treated as a homogeneous group that experience the same forms of discrimination
> gender discrimination can interlink with other forms of discrimination that are not fully comprehended as sex discrimination
> most extreme form is disabled women
> however there is the advantage in article 14 of the different types of discrimination rural women can face and gives a wide definition of rural
Summary 1
NGOs, cedaw and Cedaw Comittee all have played active part in reducing the discrimination of women
> despite its shortcomings and obstacles, the formal recognition of discrimination against women is a move towards inclusiveness
> a women’s specific treaty was needed to combat the criticisms of the UDHR ICESCR and ICCPR which focused on sex discrimination
> hasn’t really done much difference to this though
women’s specific treaty shows the marginalisation between men and
Women still
> 45 countries have discriminatory laws remaining
