The Body of Rights: The Right to the Body

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-37
Author(s):  
Debra Berghoffen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
The Body ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind

This paper examines the ways that feminists have built on and transformed Mary Wollstonecraft’s Enlightenment idea that women’s rights are human rights. It argues that Wollstonecraft’s marginal attention to the issue of sexual violence reflects the mind-body dualism of her era where reason divorced from the body established our dignity as persons. Today’s feminists reject this dualism. They have adopted and retooled Wollstonecraft’s idea that women’s rights are human rights to (1) create solidarity among women of different places, races, classes, religions etc., (2) break the silence surrounding the experience and meaning of rape, and (3) create grassroots, national and international forums that expose the fact that sexual violence is one of the crucial anchors of patriarchy. Wollstonecraft believed that human rights were guaranteed by reason and God. We find that these rights are embodied and fragile. They depend on us to make them real. Addressing this responsibility, the paper ends with a question: Are we up to the task?

scholarly journals Globalisation Of Women’s Rights Norms: The Right To Manifest Religion And ‘Orientalism’ In The Council Of Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Helen Skeet
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Equality Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
General Indicator

Women’s access to and enjoyment of human rights are increasingly being used as a global measure of other “goods” in societies: for instance as a measure of development, a gauge of the health and depth of democracy and as a general indicator of a state commitment and adherence to international responsibilities. Therefore, while the study of women’s relationship to human rights is of considerable importance and interest in itself it is also gaining prominence across a range of other areas of international and domestic law. This might be viewed as a positive indication of the growing strength of women’s human rights norms but it bears closer analysis. Also within this discourse on women’s rights what rights norms are being globalised and how is this occurring? This paper considers how supposedly universalist rhetorics around equality rights can advance ‘orientalist’ and patriarchal discourses in relation to who “women” are and how their rights may be realised. Such discourses may hinder implementation of women’s rights especially for women who are “other.” This is particularly evident in relation to women’s rights to freedom of expression, the manifestation of religious freedom and rights to participate in culture. To illustrate this specific focus is given to the increasing discrimination against Muslim women and to human rights responses in this context within Europe.

Family Planning and Reproductive Rights in Chile

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family Planning ◽  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Planned Parenthood ◽  
Family Planning Programs ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right

The official histories of family planning and reproductive rights in Chile started in the 1960s, with initiatives by Chilean doctors to reduce maternal mortality due to self-induced abortions; Chilean women’s mobilization for rights surged in the 1970s, and the concept of reproductive rights became the focus within health policy debates only by the 1990s. Specific Chilean political developments shaped these trajectories, as did global paradigm changes, including the politicization of fertility regulation as a subject of the Cold War. These same trajectories also generated new understandings of reproductive rights and women’s rights. The goals of preventing abortions and maternal mortality, of controlling population size, and of protecting families all contributed to the public endorsement of family planning programs in the 1960s. Medical doctors and health officials in Chile collaborated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and founded the first Chilean family planning institution, the Association for the Protection of the Family (APROFA). Since 1965, APROFA, affiliated with the IPPF, has remained the primary institution that makes family planning available to Chilean women and couples. The concept of “reproductive rights” is relatively new, globally, and in its specific national representation in Chile; questions of women’s rights gained unprecedented international prominence after the United Nation’s designation of the International Women’s Year (IWY) in 1975. International conferences, and the extension of IWY to a Decade for Women between 1975 and 1985, stimulated debates about policy norms that linked human rights, women’s rights, and the right to health to nascent definitions of reproductive rights. Just as international gatherings provided platforms for debates about rights, unparalleled human rights violations under military rule (1973–1990) interrupted the lives of Chilean citizens. Women in Chile protested the dictatorship, mobilized for democracy in their country and their homes, and added reproductive rights to the list of demands for democratic restructuring after the end of dictatorship. While family planning programs largely survived the changes of political leadership in Chile, the dictatorship dealt a lasting blow to quests for reproductive rights. The military’s re-drafted Constitution of 1980 not only compromised effective political re-democratization, but also imposed such changes as the end of therapeutic abortions, which have remained at the center of political activism against reproductive rights violations in the 21st century.

scholarly journals Does Customary Law Discriminate Balinese Women’s Inheritance Rights?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Hanna Christine Ndun ◽  
Sarah Suttor ◽  
I Gusti Agung Ayu Dike Widhiyaastuti
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

There is a stereotype with regard to the rights of the Balinese women on inheriting under the Balinese tradi-tional customary law. It is generally assumed that the law discriminates Balinese women as well as against the human rights principle of equality. This article analyzes the contemporary problems of such issue and would demonstrate the actual principles, rules and practices, including the essential concept of the rights under the Balinese traditional customary law of inheritance. This issue has been explored under a normative legal approach where the resources are primarily taken from the relevant national legal instruments and court decisions, instead of textbooks and journals. An interview has also been commenced for clarifying some aspects of the issue. This article concludes that there has been a generally misleading on viewing the Balinese customary law as discriminating women on an inheritance issue, as in fact, the law also provides rules for supporting women’s rights for inheriting. The law in a certain way has properly preserved the right of women for inheriting in which women under the law have also enjoyed rights for inheriting, especially the daughter and widow. In contrast, the Balinese men that are generally perceived as the ultimate gender enjoying privileges rights to inherit, in the practice of inheritance in the traditional community are also subject to some discrimination. The law has provided a set of rule of inheritance both for men and women where they are subject to certain equal rule and condition. The law also clarifies that both genders are enjoying equal rights on inheritance in a certain portion and situation binding under the principle of balancing between rights and obligation for each side.

scholarly journals Equality and Nondiscrimination Through the Eyes of an International Religious Organization: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Response to Women’s Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Blitt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Family Values ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Intergovernmental Organization ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Right

This article is the first of a two part series that draws on women‘s rights and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) to explore how the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) represents, interprets and seeks to impact the right to equality and protection against discrimination as enshrined under international human rights law. The study is a novel one inasmuch as the OIC is neither a state nor a religious group per se. Rather, the OIC stands out as the only contemporary intergovernmental organization unifying its member states around the commonality of a single religion. In this capacity, the organization maintains no direct obligations or rights under key instruments such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).Nevertheless, as part of its mandate representing 57 predominantly Muslim states, the OIC has increasingly asserted a role for itself on the international stage as "the collective voice of the Muslim world." This new assertiveness is particularly evident in the context of debates surrounding the content of human rights norms in international fora such as the United Nations, where the OIC has sought to develop common policy positions and encourage its members to vote as a bloc on issues of concern. Against this backdrop, the article concludes that supporters of universal human rights norms need to better understand how the OIC‘s mission to "protect and defend the true image of Islam" may impact international debates over the substance of equality and nondiscrimination norms, and develop appropriate responses to these efforts as a means to ensure that universality is not undermined.This article begins with a brief introduction to the OIC, and proceeds to explore its relationship with the principles of equality and nondiscrimination by examining its founding document and other relevant primary sources. With this understanding in place, the paper turns to examine the OIC‘s contemporary handling of these principles as manifested in debates surrounding women‘s rights as well as the relevance and impact of "Islamic family values" on the scope of those rights. This article‘s exploration of "family values" also serves as a pivot point to begin framing rights issues related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and related SOGI issues. Throughout this examination, the role of the OIC‘s newly established Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) is considered as a means of appraising whether a shift in the OIC‘s position may be forthcoming.

Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Shed Light

This volume reframes the debate around Islam and women’s rights within a broader comparative literature. It examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part I addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part II localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy, and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part I. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women’s rights vis-à-vis human rights to shed light on gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder over the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.

Human rights and women's rights

Midwifery ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights

Hina Jilani on her Satyagraha for Women’s Rights in Pakistan

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-253
Author(s):  
Juanita Kakoty
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Rights Consciousness

This piece is based on a conversation the author had with lawyer and human rights activist from Pakistan, Hina Jilani, in May 2016. It captures Jilani’s account of the ‘Satyagraha’ she has waged in her lifetime for the rights of women in her country; and as she narrates her story, she interweaves it with the ‘Satyagraha’ that shaped the women’s movement in Pakistan. One can read here about Jilani’s struggle for truth, for a human rights consciousness in a political climate of military regime; and how she challenged courts in the country to step outside the realm of conventional law and extend justice to women and girls. And in the process, learn that her struggle for truth has been intertwined with that of the women’s movement in the country.

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