An important step forward for victims of sexual violence in Colombia
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...
Let’s Talk about Sex Education and Human Rights
Despite a proposal by four prominent House of Commons Committees and various professional organisations, the Minister of Education announced on February 11, 2016 that age-appropriate sex and relationship education, including...
State-sponsored virginity: South Africa’s Maidens’ Bursary Scheme
It’s clearly not yet 2016 in the UThukela District in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, where the municipality recently decided (for a second year) to institute the “Maidens’ Bursary Awards”. These...
Bombay High Court makes Right to Clean Toilets a Fundamental Right for Women in India
Some women in India have to risk their life and sexual integrity when they decide to go to the toilet. Others who do have access to public toilets face the...
Trafficking of human beings at the ECtHR: Broadening the protection of women and girls through Article 14
Two Spanish cases currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) illustrate the gaping lacuna in the protections extended to trafficked women on the continent. They also, however,...
EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020: Transforming the Lives of Girls and Women through EU External Relations
In October 2015, the Council of Ministers of Development adopted the Gender Action Plan (GAP) 2016-2020 of the European Union (EU). The GAP is based on a Staff Working Document...
Advocating Legal Reform: The UK Transgender Equality Inquiry
In the United Kingdom (UK), the House of Commons Select Committee on Women and Equalities is currently undertaking an inquiry into the equality status of transgender (trans) persons. Among the...
Will There be Any Women in Fifty Years Time, Lord Sumption?
In September of this year, Lord Sumption, a Justice of the United Kingdom Supreme Court caused consternation by issuing a dire warning that a rush to equality could have “appalling...
UN Women Panel: Progress of the World’s Women 2015 Report
On 18 November, OxHRH held a panel event for the recently released UN Women’s Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016 Report ‘Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights’. For the first time, OxHRH...
Rape Law in Morocco
The Moroccan Conseil national des droits de l’Homme (National Human Rights Council, CNDH) has issued a worrying report (for the moment only available in French) on the condition of women...
Hopeful Developments in Family Violence in Australia
In Australia, one woman per week dies from intimate partner violence. By October 2015, 62 women had died due to intimate partner family violence in the calendar year. There have...
The High Court of Delhi on Pregnancy and Sex Discrimination
This July, the High Court of Delhi handed down a landmark decision concerning sex discrimination under the Indian Constitution. Article 15(1) of the Constitution prohibits the State from discriminating “on...
