This article reviews the approach of the European Court of Human Rights in cases regarding violence against women. The author highlights that given the lack of specific provisions in the European Convention of Human Rights, the Court has developed an extensive case-law by using several provisions in the Convention as it relates to gender-based violence. The article acknowledges the positive developments within the Court regarding protection from different forms of gender-based violence, but notes that there are a few cases where the Court was inconsistent with its previously established case-law. Considering that the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights create the main guidelines for the States in fulfilling their obligations in accordance with the Convention, the author concludes that it is very important for the Court to clarify its approach in gender-based violence cases and fix the inconsistency.

This article focuses on the notion of “intersecting borders of equality” ––drawn from intersectionality theory and the concept of “normative boundaries of belonging” ––to show the disadvantages and human rights violations faced by migrant women. The author highlights that formal, normative, and practical borders construe migrant women as outsiders or lesser members in society. When viewed through this lens, it becomes evident that migrant women’s experiences are shaped by different inequality structures rather than their own personal choices or failures. The author concludes by paying attention to how it may not always be possible to dismantle borders of inequality, especially without making deep changes in dominant cultural attitudes. Therefore, the focus of international human rights law should be to remain attentive to fixing these borders rather than reinforcing its disadvantages.

This research paper analyzes various international legal instruments that deal with the trafficking of women and discusses the ways in which it provides protection to the victims. These instruments include the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of Others, CEDAW, the Palermo Protocol, and Human Rights Covenants. In their analysis, the authors highlight the inefficiencies of anti-trafficking regulations in preventing trafficking activities and providing remedy to the victims. In order to remedy these gaps in international legal instruments, the authors suggest establishing co-operation between different states, employing more rigorous enforcement mechanisms of Covenants, and promoting education and awareness about trafficking within the independent states.

This article engages with well-known critiques of international human rights law discourse and how they limit the human rights project’s ability to further profound change. The author argues that it is possible to transform discursive practices of international human rights law so as to better address structural inequalities. The author demonstrates this using the case study of the feminist campaign to frame domestic violence as torture (DVT). She analyzes the discursive practices of the campaign and applies the common critiques of justification and representation to it. The author finds that while the discourse of DVT exhibits familiar flaws of justification and representation, it overcomes these critiques by putting forward a substantive vision of justice to address what is identified as a social, structural problem. This in turn suggests international human rights law’s potential for profound reform. The author concludes that the case study suggests it is possible to successfully operate within international human rights law while advocating for a structural understanding of injustice.

This article explores the ways in which developments in new digital technologies reproduce patriarchal structures and operate to silence women. The author first underlines how patriarchal structures continue to exclude women from accessing and using information and communications technologies (ICTs) and perpetuate gender-based violence against women, which results in their silencing. She then turns to how international human rights architecture, including CEDAW, can be invoked to challenge the patriarchy’s silencing of women through digital technologies. The author suggests that the cause of this silencing is not only the patriarchal culture permeating digital space, but also the failure of states to meet their core human rights obligations under CEDAW. Therefore, she urges that ensuring equality of access to, and use of, digital technologies is necessary in order to ensure that women can benefit from, contribute to, and influence the development of digital technologies in a meaningful manner.

This article articulates the ways in which international human rights law can respond to global trends of violence against women and girls with disabilities. In parts one and two, the article describes the prevalence of violence against women and girls with disabilities in personal and institutional contexts, and addresses the barriers stalling its reduction. In part three, the article looks at the legal, physical, and perception-based obstacles that women and girls with disabilities face in accessing the justice system. In part four, the article explores the ways in which international human rights law can serve to promote access to justice for women and girls with disabilities. The authors analyze the capacity of three UN Conventions to promote such access: the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In parts five and six, the authors compare the regional human rights protections available to women and girls with disabilities in North America, Africa, and Europe, then explores a Peruvian case study on violence against women with disabilities. In parts seven and eight, the article presents normative recommendations to state governments to better empower women and girls with disabilities’ access to justice using international human rights law. 

The article draws attention to how integrative interpretation – a methodology where the European Court of Human Rights integrates its normative environment into the interpretation of the European Convention of Human Rights – may offer an important path to bridging many of the challenges caused by fragmentation in the field of human rights. More specifically, the article offers insight into a selection of ECHR cases that are characterised by the existence of normative overlap between the ECHR, the CEDAW and the CRC; and by the fact that interaction between these legal sources actually takes place in the interpretation carried out by the Court. Interaction is discussed through two topics: the issue of state obligations in relation to domestic violence, and the issue of state obligations in relation to expulsion of immigrants with children. The article demonstrates that systemic integration may result in a strengthening of the protection of human rights under ECHR through what is termed ‘interpretive widening and thickening’.

This article critically assesses the decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (UKSCt) on whether Northern Ireland’s near-total abortion ban was compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in terms of the UKSCt’s treatment of international law. It argues that the UKSCt was justified in finding that Northern Ireland’s ban on abortion in cases of rape, incest, and FFA was a violation of Article 8, but that the majority erred in its assessment of Article 3 ECHR and of the relevance of international law more generally.

In this article, Karima Bennoune assesses two competing views about the status of the protection of women in armed conflict in international humanitarian law. The first view, espoused by the International Committee of the Red Cross, holds that existing laws are adequate to protect women in armed conflict if only they are properly implemented and respected. The second view, espoused by a number of contemporary feminist critics, holds that existing laws are archaic and reflect stereotypes about women that perpetuate discrimination such that implementing them is insufficient adequately to protect women in armed conflict. Bennoune agrees with the second view. She argues that, since what the law designed to protect women says about them affects how militaries are trained, the way in which crimes against women are understood, and whether these crimes are prosecuted, the existing law should be revised to reflect our advanced understanding of violence against women.

After fifty years of independence from British colonial rule, Ghana made history by passing into law a bill aimed at combating domestic violence. This bill was met with vehement opposition by those who claimed that the women's movement it embodied was not in line with Ghanaian culture and that it borrowed uncritically from Western feminism. Using the rights concerns of women and minorities in Ghana as an entry point, the author discusses the interconnected nature of first and second generation rights and cultural relativism in universal rights discourses. The author first engages theoretical debates on the power dynamics which are in play in assessing human rights as a universal good and provides context for women's rights advocacy in Ghana. The author then focuses on how Canada engages Ghana in the promotion and protection of human rights. Finally, the article concludes with suggestions for a research agenda on Canadian-Ghanaian human rights engagements that would include a detailed ethnographic work to assess the myriad of human rights problems and employ critical discourse analyses on texts to understand how both governments address these issues.