Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-t27h7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-14T10:39:50.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human Rights Are Women's Right: Amnesty International and the Family

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Saba Bahar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines why the recent recognition of human rights violations against women, as exemplified by Amnesty International's 1995 report on women, remains bound to the limitations of traditional approaches to human rights. The essay argues that despite Amnesty International's commitment to incorporating violations against women into its activities, it nevertheless upholds questionable assumptions about the gendered subject, gender relations within the family, and the relationship between the family and the state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 11 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The Family and Feminist Theory , Winter 1996 , pp. 105 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Associated Press. 1995a. Judge will vacate sterilization order for pregnant cocaine user. ClariNet e. News, 13 February, clari.women.reproduction.Google Scholar
Associated Press. 1995b. France issues abortion ruling. ClariNet e.News, 21 July, clari.women.reproduction.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 1991. Women in the front line. ACT 77/01/91. New York: Amnesty International Publications.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 1995a. Human rights are women's right. ACT 77/01/95. London: Amnesty International Publications.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 1995b. Women: “Invisible victims of human rights violations.” 8 March, news release.Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 1995c. Women in China: Imprisoned and abused for dissent ASA 17/29/95. New York: Amnesty International Publications.Google Scholar
Beasely, Michele E., and Thomas, Dorothy Q. 1994. Domestic violence as a human rights issue. In The public nature of private violence: The discovery of domestic abuse, ed. Fineman, Martha Albertson and Mykitiuk, Roxanne. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Jacqueline, and Shutter, Sue. 1994. Women's movement: Women under immigration, nationality and refugee law. London: Trentham Books.Google Scholar
Bunch, Charlotte. 1995. Transforming human rights from a feminist perspective. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Center for Women's Global Leadership. 1995. Press statement. 30 March.Google Scholar
Charlesworth, Hilary. 1995. What are “women's international human rights”? In Human rights of women: National and international perspectives, ed. Cook, Rebecca. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Cook, Rebecca J. 1995. International human rights and women's reproductive health. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Delphy, Christine. 1995. Egalité, équivalence et équité: la position de l'Etat français au regard du droit international. Nouvelles questions féministes 16(1): 5–58.Google Scholar
Dorkenoo, Efua. 1994. Female genital mutilation: Good practice and prevention. London: Minority Report.Google Scholar
Fekete, Liz, and Webber, Francis. 1994. Inside racist Europe. London: The Institute of Race Relations.Google Scholar
Friedman, Elisabeth. 1995. Women's human rights: The emergence of a movement. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Betsy. 1987. Reproductive rights and wrongs: The global politics of population control and contraceptive choice. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Heise, Lori. 1995. Freedom close to home: The impact of violence against women on reproductive rights. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Jenson, Jane, and Sineau, Mariette. 1995. Mitterrand et les Françoises: un rendez‐vous manqué. Paris: Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques.Google Scholar
Kabel, Marcus (Reuters). 1995. U.N. bans 11 groups from world women's conference. ClariNet e.News, 21 July, clari. women, reproduction.Google Scholar
Kelly, Nancy. 1994. Making the asylum process work for women refugees. Covert Action 4: 38–44.Google Scholar
Leiss, Anne, and Boesjes, Ruby. 1994. Female asylum seekers: A comparative study concerning policy and jurisprudence in the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Also dealing summarily with Belgium and Canada. Amsterdam: Dutch Refugee Council.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1989. Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mertus, Julie. 1995. State discriminatory family law and customary abuses. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Mirsky, Judith, and Radlett, Marty, eds. 1994. Private decision, public debate: Women, reproduction and population. London: Panos.Google Scholar
Mladjenovic, Lepa, and Litricin, Vera. 1993. Belgrade feminists 1992: Separation, guilt and identity crisis. Transcribed by Tanya Renne. Feminist Review 45: 113–19.10.1057/fr.1993.43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nair, Sami. 1994. Lettre à Charles Pasqua de la part de ceux qui ne sont pas bien né's. Paris: Édition de Seuil.Google Scholar
Narayan, Uma. 1995. “Male‐order” brides: Immigrant women, domestic violence, and immigration law. Hypatia 10(1): 104–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Service, News. 1995. UN world conference on women: Genuine NGOs should not be blocked by political self‐interest. Amnesty International.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The sexual contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1989. The patriarchal welfare state. In The disorder of women: Democracy, feminism, and political theory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, Julia, and Wolper, Andrea. 1995. Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Raymond, Janice G. 1993. Women as wombs. San Francisco: Harper.Google Scholar
Reuters, . 1995. Dispute over French anti‐abortion case. Clari Nete. News, 5 July, clari.women.reproduction.Google Scholar
Romany, Celina. 1995. State responsibility goes private: A feminist critique of the public/private distinction in international human rights law. In Women's rights, human rights: International feminist perspectives. See Peters and Wolper 1995.Google Scholar
Roth, Kenneth. 1995. Domestic violence as an international human rights issue. In Human rights of women: National and international perspectives, ed. Cook, Rebecca J.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean‐Jacques. [1762] 1992. Du Control social. Edition établie par Pierre Burgelin. Paris: GF‐Flammarion.Google Scholar
Sidhu, Gretchen and Chatterjee, Patralekha. 1995. Human rights: Amnesty takes a limited stand. Women's Feature Service. New Delhi India . 12 May.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Donna and Toubia, Nahid. 1993. Female genital mutilation and human rights. Unpublished report prepared for the World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, June.Google Scholar
United Nations. 1994. Background information: Conference to set women's agenda into the next century. DPI/1424. Rev 1. UN.Google Scholar