The Patriarchal Justice System of Bangladesh Fails Laws Preventing Dowry Violence
Being a party to the CEDAW, Bangladesh promises to promote women`s equality in every sphere. But the discriminative approaches to Dowry crime prevention framework in Bangladesh brought by the existing...
Black Women are Leading the Largest Social Movement in U.S. History—and Their Lives Matter Too
Two months after George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, protests continue across the United States (U.S.). From large urban cities to small rural towns,...
Protecting Abortion, Respecting Disability: Moving Beyond “Fetal Impairment” Grounds in the Treaty Bodies
In June 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States narrowly maintained that states could not unduly burden women’s access to abortion. The case in question, June Medical Services v....
A drought-stricken and marginalised Tharparkar: The right to water and COVID-19 in Pakistan
The people of Tharparkar (Thar), Pakistan, called ‘Tharis’, have been facing water scarcity for years. In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the provision of quality water is essential. While...
Gender Based Violence Courts in Pakistan: A Gap in Gender Equality Remains, but a Promising Start
Available data indicated that in Pakistan, only 2-3% of rape perpetrators were convicted. In light of this, the then Chief Justice of the Lahore (Punjab) High Court invited the Asian...
Abortion In Northern Ireland – We Have Decriminilisation What Comes Next?
After decades of campaigning, parliamentary debates, court cases, national and international inquiries abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019 by the UK government. In doing so it became...
Hungarian Bill Obliterates Gender Recognition Rights
On 19th May 2020, the Hungarian parliament passed Bill T/9934. Article 33 of the Bill makes information on an individual’s gender marker legally immutable post-sex assignment at birth. In the...
Women’s Right to Sexual and Reproductive Decision-Making: The UN Population Fund Report 2020
One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to ‘Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all women and girls’ (Goal 5) and to...
Domestic Violence in the Age of Coronavirus: Additional Reporting Barriers and Potential Immigration Consequences in the U.S.
Increases in the incidence of domestic violence have been reported across the globe during the coronavirus outbreak, tied to the widespread institution of stay-at-home orders and spike in unemployment, among...
The Need for Empathy: Understanding India’s COVID-19 Lockdown (with Kalpana Kannabiran)
“The question really, for me, is not so much one of the degree of deference that courts should grant the State, but the degree of empathy the court demonstrates towards...
COVID-19 and Domestic Violence in South Africa
South Africa has been on state lockdown since midnight of 26 March 2020, in the government’s attempt to curb the spread of the Coronavirus and legally mandate South Africans to...
Does State laicity in Québec breach gender equality?
The ongoing debate on State laicity in Québec recently took a new twist before the courts. Shortly after the enactment of the new Act respecting the laicity of the State,...