On international human rights day, Yakin Ertürk discusses the new vulnerabilities faced by women, including refugee women, and the new opportunities for remedy offered by the international human rights system.
Among Northern Ireland’s peacemakers Inez McCormack was unusual: she was an architect of the parallel peace process, which sought equality as the prerequisite of peace and reconciliation.
Rahila Gupta argues that the term ‘victim’ needs to be reclaimed by feminist politics; whilst 'survivor' is important because it recognises the agency of women, it focuses on individual capacity, but the notion of 'victim' reminds us of the stranglehold of the system.
While the proliferation of domestic violence legislation worldwide is a positive and much-needed development, the explicit criminalisation of marital rape needs to be central to these legal reform initiatives - ensuring that women’s rights are fully protected. Even within marriage.
Twenty years after the United Nations declared violence against women to be a violation of their human rights, we are still a long way from gender violence becoming unacceptable in a society
Thousands of soldiers, mostly women, have been the victims of rape and sexual assault in the American military. Politicians and the Pentagon are worried about the growing epidemic of this behaviour. All twenty women Senators decided “enough was enough”
With the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict taking place in London, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini questions the presence of government officials from countries with dubious track records, and says ministers should take the advice of women who are most at risk and already working at the fro
The patriarchal framework of justice which reflects gendered stereotypes, cultural and traditional prejudice has to change. Whilst there is slow progress in implementation, international law is drifting inexorably into recognising the integrated role of human rights in addressing sexual violence.
As the world's attention focuses on northern Nigeria with the abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok, Fatimah Kelleher explores the importance of understanding the voices and agency of northern Nigerian women's own activism for change.
"I would like you to come with me to explore the past through the eyes of victims and survivors. It is difficult a very difficult place to get to and an even more difficult place to leave". Kathryn Stone, Victims' Commissioner for Northern Ireland.
In the last two years, more than 600 women peacebuilders have met on a cross-community and cross-border basis to share their experiences of working for peace in Northern Ireland. Lynn Carvill reports on the knowledge shared, as the struggle to build a just and lasting peace continues.
Meriam Ibrahim Yahya is incarcerated and shackled in Sudan's Omdurman Women’s Prison. Her twenty month old child and her new born baby are with her. Charged with apostasy earlier this month, she faces flogging and then death by hanging.
