Obstetric Violence as a Violation of Human Rights: CEDAW’s Second Decision a Welcome Addition but Not Enough
Image Description: In the image, four (male) doctors are performing a C-section on a woman. One of the doctors has a newborn baby in his hands and another doctor is...
Rosanna Flamer-Caldera v Sri Lanka (CEDAW, 2022): The First International Case on Lesbian Criminalisation
Image Description: The words CEDAW appear along with the logo of the United Nations. UN Logo – The olive branches are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents...
Limiting Women’s Rights Using 19th-Century Standards
Image description: Protesters outside the Supreme Court defending the right to abortion following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. (A longer version...
365 Days to Access Justice: Nepal’s Precarious Rape Law Provision
Image Description: A poster which says ‘End Violence Against Women’ in block letters. The statute of limitation to file a complaint, in the case of rape in Nepal, forms part...
UK Government Bans Hymenoplasty
Image description: A poster reading ‘My body, my rights’. With the rising concern of young girls and women being subjected to virginity testing and hymen reconstruction surgery, the British government...
Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan declares the custom of Swara as un-Islamic and unconstitutional
On 25 October 2021, a three-judge bench of the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan (FSC) headed by the FSC Chief Justice delivered the landmark judgement in Sakeena Bibi V. Secretary...
Gruba and Others v Russia: Policemen’s Equal Access to Parental Leave
It is increasingly recognised worldwide that the responsibility for taking care of children ought to be shared between parents instead of being the sole responsibility of women. Male and female...
Statement by Edwin Cameron, Retired Justice, South African Constitutional Court: The President of Magdalen prosecutes a homophobic case to deny LGBTIQ persons in the Cayman Islands equal rights
Statement by Edwin Cameron, Retired Justice, South African Constitutional Court. The President of Magdalen prosecutes a homophobic case to deny LGBTIQ persons in the Cayman Islands equal rights. I express...
Should All Male Prisoners be Required to Have Their Hair Cut?
In the judgment handed down by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (‘CFA’) on 27 November 2020 (Leung Kwok Hung v Commissioner of Correctional Services [2020] HKCFA 37), it...
Foreign National Rough Sleepers Penalised Under the UK’s Revised Immigration Rules
On 22 October 2020, the UK Government’s Home Office Department published a Statement of Changes (‘SoC’) to update the UK’s Immigration Rules. The 507 page document confirmed that from 1...
Bad blood? Belgian Constitutional Court rules on gay and bisexual blood ban
In September 2019, the Belgian Constitutional Court (‘BCC’) reviewed the constitutionality of a law setting up a 12-month blood donation deferral period for men who have sex with men (MSM)....
