Akanshha Agrawal - 27th January 2019
The government of India attempted to take a progressive step to protect the rights and dignity of transgender persons by introducing the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016. This was passed by the Lower House of Indian Parliament and is set be introduced in the Upper House. The groundwork for this bill was laid […]
Julius Komorowski - 20th November 2018
The UK Government’s consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 proposes making it easier for trans people to change legal sex or gender. Commentary supporting reform has relied upon the Commission for Equality and Human Rights’ longstanding guidance on the Equality Act 2010. But the Commission’s consultation response is inconsistent with that advice. Their […]
Satang Nabaneh Marion Stevens and Lucia Berro Pizzarossa - 24th October 2018
South Africa has one of the most liberal laws on abortion and constitutionally recognizes reproductive rights as human rights. However, data shows important difficulties translating the legal norms into effective access to services. One of the key challenges is physicians’ refusal to perform abortions invoking an “ad hoc, unregulated and at times incorrect” conscientious objection. […]
Raja Dandamudi - 11th October 2018
Recently, a (4:1) majority of a five-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court in Indian Lawyers Association v. State of Kerala upheld the right of women to worship in the famous Sabarimala temple, irrespective of their age. This judgement struck down a rule which banned the entry of women between the ages 10 to 50 years into the temple. The judgment has thereby sounded the death […]
Srujana Bej - 5th October 2018
In September 2017, India’s National Human Rights Commission issued notices to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu about the dedication of young girls to the Devadasi system. However, this practice has continued. Most recently, in August 2018, a woman in Karnataka alleged initiation into the Devadasi system. Despite being outlawed for over 30 […]
Ruzha Smilova - 22nd August 2018
On July 27 Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (often called the “Istanbul Convention”) contravenes the Bulgarian Constitution. In early 2018, the Convention ratification bill met strong opposition from nationalist parties in government, major opposition from the Socialist party, the President of the […]
Anik Bhaduri - 30th July 2018
In 1983, the Indian Supreme Court held that the right to privacy did not guarantee the autonomy of an individual over her own body, and so the restitution of conjugal rights under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act could not be said to be unconstitutional on the ground that it violated the right to […]
Meera Manoj - 11th June 2018
The vast Hindu population of India of 95 million is subject to sexist and unconstitutional inheritance norms under the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. Several of its provisions are vulnerable to constitutional challenge under Article 15 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex. The test here, is whether discrimination is solely based […]
Anita Davies - 7th June 2018
In the wake of the Irish referendum vote to end the country’s ban on abortion via the repeal of the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, the spotlight has turned to Northern Ireland – which now holds the dubious distinction of having the the most draconian penalties for the termination of pregnancy in the British […]
Shreya Mohapatra - 14th May 2018
The Kerala High Court judgment annulling the marriage of Hadiya, a 24-year-old homeopathy student from Kerala with a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan, and the Supreme Court of India instigating a National Investigation Agency (NIA) inquiry into the matter have already gone down in public discourse as one of the judiciary’s most problematic decisions. The courts […]
- 23rd April 2018
In a recent case before the Indian Supreme Court, Ms X v Mahmood Farooqi, the court refused to overturn a Delhi High Court decision which set a dangerous precedent that a ‘feeble no’ did not signify a lack of consent in rape cases. In the present case, Ms X accused Mahmood Farooqi of committing rape […]