To submit a blog, please read the OxHRH Blog guidelines.
Gema Fernandez Rodriguez de Lievana - 28th August 2014
In its recent ruling on the case of Ángela González, a Spanish gender violence survivor who fought for years to protect herself and her daughter Andrea, the CEDAW Committee found the Spanish State responsible for violating the CEDAW Convention. For 20 years, Ángela was in a violent relationship with her partner, the father of her […]
Janine Ewen - 10th July 2014
On 23rd May 2014, police from the 76th Police Precinct in Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, invaded (without judicial authorisation) a building occupied by 300 sex workers and other residents. Around 100 sex workers were taken for investigation at police stations. It is believed to be a part of mass hygienisation (social cleansing) in the […]
Saipira Furstenberg - 1st July 2014
Sexual violence represents one of the most serious forms of violation of an individual’s human rights. Although statistics for sexual violence against women are significantly higher than for men, it should not be forgotten that rape not only affects the female population, but is also a concern for many men and boys who have been […]
Jayna Kothari - 19th June 2014
With the national outrage witnessed in India after the gruesome gang-rape of Nirbhaya in December 2012, one truly thought that the country was taking violence against women seriously. The shocking incident led to the Justice Verma Committee being set up to review the criminal law relating to violence against women, the Verma Report and the […]
Zoya Phan and Phyllis Ferguson - 5th June 2014
Editor’s note: this Thursday 5th June the Oxford Burma Alliance will be hosting a roundtable, addressing the issue of ongoing sexual violence in Burma under President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government. Its participants share some of the key issues they will address. Ongoing Sexual Violence in Burma For many decades, the Burmese Army has been […]
Gertrude Fester - 13th May 2014
At the second World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993, the statement, ‘women’s rights are human rights’ was first coined and accepted due to vociferous lobbying on the part of women’s rights activists. It was at the African regional meetings in 1994 and 1995, culminating in Dakar, Senegal, that African women, in preparation for […]
admin - 13th May 2014
At the second World Conference on Human Rights in June 1993, the statement, ‘women’s rights are human rights’ was first coined and accepted due to vociferous lobbying on the part of women’s rights activists. It was at the African regional meetings in 1994 and 1995, culminating in Dakar, Senegal, that African women, in preparation for […]
Amy Weatherburn - 16th March 2014
The results of the world’s largest survey on women’s experiences of psychological, physical and sexual violence have shown that violence against women is a problem which exists at home, at work, in public and online. Following 42,000 face-to-face interviews in all 28 EU Member States, the survey, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental […]
Olivia Bliss - 26th February 2014
The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (WEGE) is currently before Parliament in South Africa. One of its main aims is to ‘give effect to the letter and spirit of the Constitution’ by promoting gender equality. Such legislation might be considered a welcome step for a country infamously struggling to grant its women their constitutionally-guaranteed rights […]
Jayna Kothari - 9th December 2013
Two big sexual harassment complaints have sent shock waves in India this month– one by a legal intern complaining of sexual harassment from a retired Supreme Court judge and another by a journalist in a well known media house, complaining of harassment by her employer. The complaint by the legal intern is timely because it […]
The Good Lad Workshop - 1st November 2013
Universities may well create the future leaders of our governments, economies, and communities—they are places of intellectual thought and social development. But does that square with what we know about how often university women face sexual harassment and unwanted advances? The statistics on gender-based violence amongst university students in the UK are staggering: one in […]
Harry Roque - 31st August 2013
On November 23, 1944, Japanese troops descended on the town of Mapanique in the Philippines. The troops gathered men and boys in the town and proceeded to castrate them. Afterwards, the men were forced to put their severed sexual organs in their mouths before they were burned to death en masse. Women and girls were […]