Step Forward, or Forever Hold Your Peace: Penalising Forced Marriages in the Netherlands

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 446-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renée Kool
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Dutch Government ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
European Public ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Diversity Issues ◽  
And Gender

Being confronted with the import of formerly unknown cultural practices, the European public authorities are expected to set clear public standards regarding the alleged harmful nature of such practices. The adopted solutions are often of a legal nature, using the law as a vehicle to frame certain social behaviour as socially unacceptable. One of the practices that have been subject to framing in terms of law and gender are what is commonly referred to as forced marriages. Calling upon human rights law, Europe's policy is in favour of penalization of forced marriages. However, such an appeal holds the risk of strategically misuse of human rights law for political benefit. Next to a clear risk penalisation being symbolic, diversity issues bear within a risk of xenophobia. Thus penalisation of diversity issues needs to be analysed scrupulously. This paper addresses the issue of the penalisation of forced marriages in Europe, with special attention paid to a draft law recently submitted by the Dutch government, addressing the issue which actors and factors have contributed forced marriages being put on the European and Dutch political agenda.

Trans Rights Are Not Just Human Rights: Legal Strategies for Trans Justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Singer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Legal Advocacy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Legal Strategies ◽  
The Many

AbstractHuman rights instruments are but one of many legal advocacy tools used by trans people. Recent legal scholarship emphasizes that human rights laws are not sufficient to address legal challenges facing trans people, particularly intersectional and systemic barriers. This article looks to Canadian trans case law outside of human rights law to reveal the many instances in which trans people’s fight for legal recognition and redress occur outside of the human rights arena. It focuses on trans case law in three areas: family law, the use of name and gender in court, and access to social benefits. Canadian trans jurisprudence illustrates that not only are trans legal strategies outside of human rights plentiful and effective, they are also imperative. An agile and pragmatic approach to trans rights is necessary, particularly when minority rights are under threat, and for trans people on the margins of trans law reforms.

Part III Structural Principles, Ch.20 Democracy and the Rule of Law

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomuschat Christian
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
International Instruments

This article examines the role of the rule of law and democracy in international human rights law. It discusses the legal nature and the formal recognition of the rule of law and democracy. It explains that that rule of law and democracy are elements that constitute essential pillars promoting real enjoyment of human rights but they are dependent on the general conditions prevailing within society. This article highlights the importance of the supervisory roles of international bodies in ensuring the effectiveness of the guarantees set forth in international instruments for the protection of human rights.

scholarly journals Gender identity and expression in focus: The report of the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, by Victor Madrigal-Borloz.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-135
Author(s):  
Zhan Chiam ◽  
Julia Ehrt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Independent Expert ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
And Gender

In his recent report, the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, examines the “process of abandoning the classification of certain forms of gender as a pathology” – “depathologization”—and elaborates on the “full scope of the duty of the State to respect and promote respect of gender recognition as a component of identity” (p. 2). The report also discusses active measures to respect gender identity and concludes with a list of recommendations. While other United Nations special procedures and agencies have addressed and condemned violence and discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and expression, this report provides a deeper analysis on its root causes. It is the first special procedures report that exclusively addresses human rights with regard to gender identity and expression, and must be considered a mile-stone in the development and enunciation of international human rights law in this regard.

Hate-speech laws: consistency with national and international human rights law

Legal Studies ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic McGoldrick ◽  
Thérèse O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
International Human

Racism has climbed the political agenda at national, European and international levels. Reports from national and international non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and inter-governmental organisations have focused considerable attention on racism and xenophobia and document an increase in racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and race-related activities. As racism has climbed the political agendas, so there has been a substantial increase in the number of national, European and international legal instruments devoted to it. In particular, race-related restrictions on freedom of expression (‘hate-speech’) are increasing and seem likely to continue to do so. Such restrictions give rise to controversy in terms of constitutionality, legal policy and consistency with European and international human rights law. There are also differences of views between the policies of NGO's on restrictions on racist speech.

scholarly journals Abandoning Gender “Identity”

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Giovanna Gilleri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Clear Explanation ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Instruments

International instruments fail to specify the meaning of gender identity. Yet gender identity has been invoked as a prohibited ground of discrimination, particularly in cases concerning trans persons. Trans existences fall outside the expectation of a correspondence between sex and gender. “Trans” is an umbrella term referring to people who do not identify with the sex attributed to them at birth. This broad definition encompasses pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals, as well as persons who have not undergone any medical intervention and do not conform to the social norms of expression and self-identification imposing the binary. Regional conventions do not define the concept of gender identity either. Documents issued by the United Nations (UN) and regional human rights bodies frequently rely on the category, without any clear explanation of the notion, or of what makes gender identity different from gender as such. Relying on Lacanian psychoanalysis, this essay argues that gender is an identity per se and challenges international law's treatment of gender and gender identity as distinct categories. Underlying this essay is the view that questioning the shape that the law gives to “gender identity” is the preliminary step to evaluating what protections human rights law can or cannot offer to individuals.

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