This article comments on the continued struggle that women face when pursuing asylum claims under the Refugee Convention. It criticizes how the Convention has been applied using the ground of “political opinion” in circumstances of gender based persecution, particularly claims of forced marriage in Britain and the United Kingdom. The main argument presented is that the political opinion ground can and should be used for claims of forced marriage rather than associating gender based persecution with the category of “social group”. If a refugee is fleeing their country of origin to escape a forced marriage, this is a valid expression of the political opinion and agency and therefore should be treated as such in a subsequent refugee claim.

This article focuses on the shortcomings of domestic & international law with respect to the human rights implicated in commercial transnational surrogacy, particularly within India. Part I of the article discusses the plight of Alaja, a young transnational surrogate who is maneuvering within a legal environment ripe for human trafficking violations. Part II of the article discusses the inadequacy of domestic surrogacy laws to protect surrogates in those nations in which surrogacy is most prevalent. Part III addresses how human trafficking, specifically labor trafficking, is often implicated in transnational surrogacy agreements. Part IV delves further into this issue by analyzing the operation of disparate power relations within existing labor trafficking case law. Finally, Part V applies the same power disparity analysis to the socioeconomic inequality often present in transnational surrogacy agreements. The article concludes its findings to suggest that such disparate socio-economic power should subject these commercial agreements to human trafficking regulation.

Transnational surrogacy is a rapidly evolving and increasingly commercial practice used to create new families.  This article grounds itself in preventing the exploitation of vulnerable peoples, violations of human rights and other issues. Part I of the Article introduces and explains why domestic/state family law is inadequate to address these issues. Part II uses the framework of international human rights laws to provide a guideline to address the rights issues implicated in transnational surrogacy.  The articles thesis is that where surrogacy is permitted, human rights protections should be assured. However, if these assurances are not given, then surrogacy should be barred as a violation of human rights. 

This article discusses whether international human rights law addresses violence against women. Specifically, it discusses Alice Edwards’ book which elaborates on: (1) focus on jurisprudence of UN human rights treaty bodies, a challenging but valuable cataloguing effort, (2) she defines violence against women broadly, extending far beyond domestic violence, and (3) finally, offers a deeply critical perspective on the ability of international human rights law to address violence against women. Throughout the book, Edwards struggles with the question of whether international human rights law "is able to accommodate the diversity of women and women's lives without compromising its strength that lies in its appeal to universality and the promotion of gender equality".  As a result, her thoughtful and original proposals to reform the UNhuman rights treaty body system might begin to ameliorate the lives of women throughout the world. 

While human rights law in its current form is less than fifty years old, the issues that it grapples with are much, much older. People oftentimes dismiss religion or religious norms as being out of date, close-minded, or old-fashioned, and label religious views as discriminatory in theory or even in practice. In reality, religions have been dealing with human rights issues since ancient times, and in some ways have laid the groundwork for modern discussions. The answers that religions give deserve a respectful analysis before they are cast aside or labeled as one-dimensional and discriminatory towards any particular group. For example, this article examines the State of lsrael's controversial qualifications to CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women), and attempts to cast them in a new light of understanding i.e., in light of feminist critiques of the structure of CEDAW itself.

Although often overlooked as a human rights issue, abortion affects the reproductive, liberty and privacy rights of pregnant women. This article posits that recognition of a “right to abortion” for the international community and individual countries is the best approach to protect reproductive and liberty rights of women. It discusses different approaches to recognize abortion as a human right – through a right to privacy, a right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, through substantive equality, and a right to life and right to health. The author argues that, currently, the argument for abortion as a human right is argued by virtue of the importance of other rights, instead of explicit recognition. Therefore, the author concludes that to ensure full protection of reproductive rights, it should be recognized everywhere as its own right.

This article examines the realization of economic, social and cultural rights for women during financial pre-crisis, times of crisis, and post-crisis. The author discusses her observations as a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). Before the crisis, women did not participate in the formal labour market, and were without access to social security benefits or protections for income loss. Social and economic inequalities during the crisis increased for vulnerable groups. As governments curtailed their social spending in response, due to rising costs for privatization of education, girls’ rights to education, right to work, social security, and standard of living were impacted. The author discusses the lack of recognition by governments toacknowledge the gendered dimensions of the crisis and austerity measures which have led to violation of women’s rights. Examples of recommended government measures to address the impact of the crisis are also discussed.

This article discusses the Serious Crime Act 2015 in the UK, which introduced Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders. These orders provide increased protection over the civil law provisions (e.g., prohibited step orders) whose non-specificity impacted effectiveness of protection of girls. The authors focus their analysis on the case, Re E (Children) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders), the case of three young Nigerian girls who were protected with the female mutilation protection orders. This case illustrates the risks of young girls who live in the UK of being exposed to female genital mutilation. The previous legislation enacted, Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, had restricted the extra-territorial scope of the criminal offences. The author applies the previous legislation to this case and contrasts it with applying the current legislation. The author concludes that it is uncertain whether these reforms will result in a reduction of occurrence given the progress of previous reforms.