FEMINIST APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL LAW "THE FIRST FEMINIST WAR IN ALL OF HISTORY": EPISTEMIC SHIFTS AND RELINQUISHING THE MISSION TO RESCUE THE "OTHER WOMAN" (original) (raw)

Feminist Critique of International Human Rights Law

Sociologically feminism can be defined as,....“a movement for social, cultural, political and economic equality of men and women. Though the issues of feminism might vary from culture to culture but they are globally tied together in their campaign to end gender-based discriminatory practices – and violence - against women”. No singular feminist perspective or unified theoretical framework exists around but essentially they all agree that socially and culturally institutionalized patriarchy and hierarchical structure of power between men and women are the source of all forms of violence and discrimination against women. Demonstrating, how women-specific-violence is far more serious in its nature and effects, lacunas in the international human rights law (IHRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL) will be pinpointed from a feminist perspective. Women’s rights are pushed to the margins of IHRL and IHL, save offering additive and compartmentalized protections during armed conflicts and genocides. No denying a fact that remarkable changes are underway but in terms of structure and content, the law is inherently deficient and biased. Other than enforcement problem, overdeveloped role of the patriarchal state and societal-order also cause a barrier towards change. Where improvements are admirable, its impact and behavioural change is yet to be seen (Gardam J. 1998). Feminists claim that both national and international law is gendered, putting it rightly, male-gendered, conceptually, technically and procedurally. Jurisprudential framework and substance largely favour men (Fellmeth, A.X. 2000, 268-270). Drawing on feminist theory and research methodology, the proposal in hand aims to underline violence against women, particularly during genocides and armed conflicts, and proposes adequate reforms in the legal and political structures to eliminate the evil.

Feminism, International Law, and the Spectacular Violence of the 'Other': Decolonizing the Laws of War (Draft

Theorizing Sexual Violence, 2008

Blood! Blood!… Birth! Ecstasy of becoming! Three-quarters engulfed in the confusions of the day, I feel myself redden with blood. The arteries of all the world, convulsed, torn away, uprooted, have turned toward me and fed me. 1 Spectacular Violence across Borders In her comparative analysis of violence against women in India and the US, Uma Narayan argues for the importance of attending to the epistemology of "border-crossings" and the historically and politically specific contexts in which violence against women is manifested. 2 In particular, Narayan focuses on the wide circulation of the reductionist story that "women in India are burned everyday", a reference that mistakenly conflates the incidence of contemporary so-called "dowry-deaths" with what is wrongly assumed to be an ancient and hegemonic Hindu tradition of suttee. She asks feminists to consider the function and effects of the circulation of these stories of 'spectacular violence' against women, and the dehumanizing and decontextualizing effects that ensue from attributing to a complex, dynamic and diverse peoples the practice of burning-women-since-the

The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the Native Subject in International/Postcolonial Feminist Legal Politics

2005

In this Article, I examine how the international women's rights movement has reinforced the image of the woman as a victim subject, primarily through its focus on violence against women (VAW). I use the example of India to examine how this subject has been replicated in the post-colonial context, and the more general implications this kind of move has on women's rights. My main argument is that the focus on the victim subject in the VAW campaign reinforces gender and cultural essentialism in the international women's human rights arena. It also buttresses claims of some "feminist" positions in India that do not produce an emancipatory politics for women. This focus fails to take advantage of the liberating potential of important feminist insights. These insights have challenged the public/private distinction along which human rights has operated, and traditional understandings of power as emanating exclusively from a sovereign state.In the first Part of this Ar...

A “Quick and Dirty” Approach to Women’s Emancipation and Human Rights?1

Feminist Legal Studies, 2008

During the past decade, women's and human rights 'language' has moved from the margins to the 'mainstream' of international law and politics. In this paper, the author argues that while feminists and human rights activists criticise the 'mainstream's interpretation of women's and human rights, 'we' do not question what becoming part of the mainstream and the cosmopolitan classes has meant for us. Drawing on examples of how women's and human rights arguments have been used in the post-conflict state-building process in Afghanistan, the author attempts to show how international women's rights and human rights advocacy campaigns planned by well-meaning humanitarians in Western capitals can backfire when implemented in politically complex environments.

Imperial Wars or Benevolent Interventions? Reflections on "Global Feminism" Post September 11th

This essay aims to provide some reflections on feminist theory and practice in a post September 11th environment. Specifically, it aims to address whether some dominant and popular strands of "global feminism" are able to analyze and offer alternatives to an understanding of global relations between women specifically, and First World/Third World relations in general, in the aftermath of September 11th. Feminist reflections on this question are needed not only because of the enormity of events and developments that beg a feminist perspective, among others, to respond thoughtfully and sensibly to what is going on. Feminist reflections are also needed, specifically, as the war waged in Afghanistan is being presented as a humanitarian war which is about saving women. While there is some diversity among feminist responses to the US political response to September 11th there is as yet little challenge to this image of the war.

AFK-EUPRA – 13 : feminist interventionism, postcolonial critique and non-western feminist approaches

2017

Although it is often rightly pointed out that transitional justice (TJ) practices historically emerged in the global South, the academic discourses on what ‚real' justice constitutes remain highly occupied and determined by white scholars from the global north. These scholars strongly tend to frame justice on a narrow understanding of violence which reduces a violent ‚past' to physical acts of a clearly defined space and time. Especially the western philosophical tradition of liberal humanism posits that all human beings are equal and therefore share the same basic human rights (essentialism). Thus ignoring the complex entanglements of different structures of oppression (class, race, gender) ABOUT WARUM BRETTERBLOG?

“Introduction to Thinking Humanitarianism/Thinking Terror.” At the Limits of Justice: Women of Colour on Terror

comes to be articulated through messy humanitarian interventions. They point to the uneasy entanglements of caring with practices of state surveillance, regulation, and militarization. While the chapters provide no easy answers, they open up a productive set of disparate but related questions about the histories, current mobilizations, and expanding nature of terror and humanitarian regimes. They also insist that we think critically and collectively about other ways to care. As the authors track terror and the humanitarian impulse in places that might be more or less familiar, they ask us to consider how we, as Westerners or as Southern elites, are often placed in and place ourselves in the role of what Inderpal Grewal refers to as the "adjudicating subject," that is, the subject who determines who and what is deserving of our care. These adjudications advance a particular global order and accompanying constellations of power, but there is often little transparency about the specific locations and histories from which they are enunciated. To put it simply, the places and priorities from which we judge are obfuscated. These scholars lay bare these inclinations. And of course, far-off places can sometimes be comforting because distance allows lack of implication. These authors insist that we read across

Feature - Hot Potato: Imperial Wars or Benevolent Interventions? Reflections on "Global Feminism" Post September 11th

2002

This essay aims to provide some reflections on feminist theory and practice in a post September 11th environment. Specifically, it aims to address whether some dominant and popular strands of "global feminism" are able to analyze and offer alternatives to an understanding of global relations between women specifically, and First World/Third World relations in general, in the aftermath of September 11th. Feminist reflections on this question are needed not only because of the enormity of events and developments that beg a feminist perspective, among others, to respond thoughtfully and sensibly to what is going on. Feminist reflections are also needed, specifically, as the war waged in Afghanistan is being presented as a humanitarian war which is about saving women. While there is some diversity among feminist responses to the US political response to September 11th there is as yet little challenge to this image of the war. The fact that the Taliban regime which the war in A...

A Return to Transnational Feminist Praxis

Gender-based violence against refugee women, specifically sexual violence, during conflict is often dismissed or brushed aside as part of the consequences of war. Women continue to be targets because of their gender as well as their ethnicity, religion, or nationality. This violence against women is part of a military agenda that involves explicit forms of horrific torture and cruelty that are gender-specific. International humanitarian institutions have not always recognized sexual violence as crime of war or more exclusively a violation of human rights. Then again, human rights have not always included women. Exploring the relations among refugee and internally displaced women's experiences across war zones and the complexities of women's positionality in conflict brings further investigation into the root of gender-specific violence. The intent of this study is to present a transnational feminist perspective to advance theories of gendered violence.

Hot Potato Imperial Wars or Benevolent Interventions ? Reflections on " Global Feminism " Post September

2012

This essay aims to provide some reflections on feminist theory and practice in a post September 11th environment. Specifically, it aims to address whether some dominant and popular strands of "global feminism" are able to analyze and offer alternatives to an understanding of global relations between women specifically, and First World/Third World relations in general, in the aftermath of September 11th. Feminist reflections on this question are needed not only because of the enormity of events and developments that beg a feminist perspective, among others, to respond thoughtfully and sensibly to what is going on. Feminist reflections are also needed, specifically, as the war waged in Afghanistan is being presented as a humanitarian war which is about saving women. While there is some diversity among feminist responses to the US political response to September 11th there is as yet little challenge to this image of the war. The fact that the Taliban regime which the war in A...