Grievance Formation, Rights and Remedies
Involuntary Sterilisation and Castration in the Nordics, 1930s–2020s

Uses an interdisciplinary, comparative approach to explore Nordic states' varying treatment of victims of involuntary sterilisation and castration.

Daniela Alaattino?lu (Author)

9781009171687, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 August 2023

280 pages
28 x 19 x 2.2 cm, 0.638 kg

'This is an important contribution to the discussion of trans rights, law and legal theory. While focused on the Nordic countries, this book should be read by everyone that has an interest in human rights and remedies against violations of human rights.' Mårten Schultz, Stockholm University

In the last century, the treatment of victims of involuntary sterilisation and castration in Nordic countries has varied drastically from state-to-state, across time and victim groups. Considering why this is the case, Daniela Alaattino?lu investigates how laws and practices of involuntary, surgical sterilisation and castration have been established, abolished and remedied in three Nordic states: Sweden, Norway and Finland. Employing a vast range of primary and secondary sources, Alaattino?lu traces the national and international developments of the last 100 years. Developing the concept of grievance formation, the book explores why some states have claimed public responsibility while others have not, and why some victim groups have mobilised while others have remained silent. Through this pioneering analysis, Alaattino?lu illuminates issues of human and constitutional rights, the evolution of the welfare state and state responsibility in both a national and global context.

Prologue: Eugenics and the control of reproduction and sexuality
Part I. Developing Rights and Wrongs
1. Victims, harms and grievance formation
Part II. A Question of Rights
2. A master frame of rights – involuntary sterilisation and castration in international law
3. Sweden – Remedies with limited legal recognition of responsibility
4. Norway – 'ethnic cleansing'?
5. Finland –-silence
Part III. Rights Framing and Grievance Formation
6. From harms to remedies?
7. Law and society in change
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ]