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Angela Powditch - 5th May 2017
The 61st Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) concluded 24 March 2017 at the UN’s Head Office in New York. One of the agreed conclusions of this forum on ‘women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work’ was to strongly condemn gender-based violence (including domestic violence), recognising that such violence can affect the […]
Surya Rajkumar - 1st May 2017
On the 8th of February 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law an amendment that relegated domestic violence, as previously discussed on this blog, to an administrative offence. This post will argue that the new law lacks any persuasive justification and does not comply with Russia’s international human rights obligations. Under the new law, […]
Camilla Pickles - 5th April 2017
Pregnancy and childbirth can trigger the violation of a number of rights including bodily and psychological integrity, equality, dignity, and privacy. This concern is particularly relevant when women are funnelled into facility-based obstetric care which is over-medicalised; not women-centred; and marred by paternalism, and harmful and discriminatory gender stereotypes. In some facilities, ‘care’ is coercive […]
Marianna Muravyeva - 23rd February 2017
The Russian bill providing for what has been called the ‘decriminalisation of domestic violence‘ passed a second reading in the Russian State Duma and was approved by the Federation Council on 1 February without much opposition from the senators. It is official now: assault against any family members not resulting in any serious injury is […]
Brian Bird - 2nd September 2016
On August 3, 2016, the government of Canada announced a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (the “Inquiry”). The Commission’s mandate is “to examine and report on the systemic causes behind the violence that Indigenous women and girls experience and their greater vulnerability to that violence”. The Commission has also been […]
Elise Maes - 17th August 2016
On 3 February 2016, the Criminal Division of the Court of First Instance of Ghent in Belgium found a 33-year old man guilty of rape, but decided to suspend the imposition of punishment. The public prosecutor appealed, demanding a sentence of 18 months of imprisonment, of which 12 months would be conditional upon the offender […]
Lucia Mazzuca and Keina Yoshida - 12th August 2016
On 19 November 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) handed down a decision on gender-based violence in Guatemala. This decision comes at a time when Guatemala has been pursuing prosecutions for grave crimes perpetrated during the dictatorship of Rios Montt (as a background, see the documentary “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator”). […]
Lucia Mazzuca and Keina Yoshida - 9th August 2016
In November 2015, a decade after the sexual assault and murder of a young Guatemalan woman, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) released a ground-breaking judgment further clarifying the scope and content of states’ responsibility in addressing gender-based violence. On 12 August 2005, Claudina Isabel Velásquez Paiz, a 19 years old student, went […]
Arushi Garg - 15th July 2016
This post examines a petition made to the Indian Supreme Court by a rape victim’s mother. The petitioner avers that her daughter’s case should be tried in a court set up to prosecute sexual offences against children because even though the victim is 38 years old, her mental age is that of a three-year-old. It […]
Alec Cunningham - 24th June 2016
The recently published 2015 Global Burden of Armed Violence (GBAV) report by the Small Arms Survey has continued in the same vein as the two previous publications in 2008 and 2011. The reports highlight a concerning trend of violence inflicted on women in numerous countries, including El Salvador, South Africa, Russia, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, Ukraine, […]
Karen Busby - 4th April 2016
For the last 16 months, Canadians have been engaged in extraordinary conversations connected to the sexual assault allegations leveled against one of Canada’s most charming and charismatic talk show hosts, Jian Ghomeshi. In October 2014, Ghomeshi posted a defence of his interest in “rough sex” on Facebook in an attempt to get ahead of a […]
Viviana Waisman - 7th March 2016
On paper, it looked like a victory for women’s rights. The government of Colombia enacted historic legislation to address the country’s epidemic of sexual violence – one heightened by decades of armed conflict that left women and girls particularly vulnerable. This legislation, Law 1719, would be a road map for health service providers to follow […]