Violence against Women under International Human Rights Law

Alice Edwards critically analyses current international human rights legal approaches to and strategies around combating violence against women.

Alice Edwards (Author)

9780521767132, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 December 2010

410 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.72 kg

'… a thorough and detailed assessment of three areas of international human rights jurisprudence as applied to violence against women - a collection that will make this book a go-to resource for anyone writing in the field … Edwards's call to reassess continually the efforts to include women and their perspectives in the human rights system is one that we must all take seriously. Her book is a powerful step in that direction.' Jaya Ramji-Nogales, American Society of International Law

Since the mid-1990s, increasing international attention has been paid to the issue of violence against women. However, there is still no explicit international human rights treaty prohibition on violence against women and the issue remains poorly defined and understood under international human rights law. Drawing on feminist theories of international law and human rights, this critical examination of the United Nations' legal approaches to violence against women analyses the merits of strategies which incorporate women's concerns of violence within existing human rights norms such as equality norms, the right to life, and the prohibition against torture. Although feminist strategies of inclusion have been necessary as well as symbolically powerful for women, the book argues that they also carry their own problems and limitations, prevent a more radical transformation of the human rights system, and ultimately reinforce the unequal position of women under international law.

1. Introduction
2. Feminist theories on international law and human rights
3. The international human rights treaty system: practice and procedure
4. Equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex
5. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
6. The right to life
7. Conundrums, paradoxes, and continuing inequality: revisiting feminist narratives
8. Strategising next steps: treaty body reform and humanising women.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Public international law [LBB], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1]