Search results
The book explores the relationship between violence against women on one hand, and the rights to health and reproductive health on the other. It argues that violation of the right to health is a consequence of violence, and that (state) health policies might be a cause of – or create the conditions for – violence against women. It significantly contributes to feminist and international human rights legal scholarship by conceptualising a new ground-breaking idea, violence against women’s health (VAWH), using the Hippocratic paradigm as the backbone of the analysis. The two dimensions of violence at the core of the book – the horizontal, ‘interpersonal’ dimension and the vertical ‘state policies’ dimension – are investigated through around 70 decisions of domestic, regional and international judicial or quasi-judicial bodies (the anamnesis). The concept of VAWH, drawn from the anamnesis, enriches the traditional concept of violence against women with a human rights-based approach to autonomy and a reflection on the pervasiveness of patterns of discrimination (diagnosis). VAWH as theorised in the book allows the reconceptualisation of states’ obligations in an innovative way, by identifying for both dimensions obligations of result, due diligence obligations, and obligations to progressively take steps (treatment). The book eventually asks whether it is not international law itself that is the ultimate cause of VAWH (prognosis).
3 The treatment: re-conceptualising states’ obligations in countering VAWH Starting from the beginning: the nature of state obligations This chapter consists in the treatment, and it attempts to find an answer to the question which obligations states must abide by with regard to VAWH? There is often no univocal response – and hence a treatment – to a disease. However, the current legal instruments underestimate – to the point of not even mentioning women’s rights to health and to reproductive health – the point that focusing on health is a way, in considering
This book provides a critical exposition of the international law concerning child soldiers. It starts by looking at the situation of child soldiers in the world today, examining why children are recruited into armed forces and groups; why they volunteer for military service; and, once recruited, what treatment they receive. The book explores how perceptions of childhood and children's rights have changed, and how this has affected the ways in which child soldiers have been treated. It describes the activities of the United Nations with regard to the child soldier phenomenon. The book examines the legal regulation of the recruitment and use of children in hostilities. It shows that although international law comprehensively regulates the recruitment and use of child soldiers, owing to the plethora of treaties on the subject, states' obligations continue to differ and children can still lawfully be recruited and used to participate in armed conflict. The book discusses how, once recruited into armed forces and groups, international law treats child soldiers. It considers the status of child soldiers as combatants and as persons in the power of an adverse party in both international and internal armed conflicts, and states' obligations with regard the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers. An unusual feature of how child soldiers are viewed is that they are often seen as both victims of human rights abuses and as human rights violators. Finally, the book examines the extent to which the recruitment and use of child soldiers is an international crime.
, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis has provided a sufficient descriptive framework for systematising my argument and has encouraged a reflection which has led me to the elaboration of a new concept in international law around which to construe states’ obligations. I started my analysis from the conviction that VAW always relates to the right to health and the right to reproductive health. I contended that the relationship is not merely a causal one, however, in the sense that VAW causes a violation of the rights to health and to reproductive health (what I called the
soldiers, owing to the plethora of treaties on the subject, states’ obligations continue to differ and children can still lawfully be recruited and used to participate in armed conflict. Chapter 7 discusses how, once recruited into armed forces and groups, international law treats child soldiers. The chapter considers the status of child soldiers as combatants and as persons in the power of an adverse
obligations to promote the empowerment of women.’5 Although 1 DE VIDO 9781526124975 PRINT.indd 1 24/03/2020 11:01 Violence against women’s health in international law this argument has not been further developed at the international level, it appears essential in order to build a solid framework for reconceptualising states’ obligations in preventing and combating VAW as linked to the right to health and the right to reproductive health. Using an international law perspective, this book will distil the relationship between violence against women and the right to health
2 The diagnosis: a conceptualisation of VAWH Unravelling the notion of violence against women’s health The anamnesis leads us now to the diagnosis. In this chapter I will unravel the innovative notion of VAWH as conceived in this book, which will pave the way for the analysis of states’ obligations in chapter 3 (the ‘treatment’). Going back to the philosophical metaphor that I used as fil rouge of this book, Greek physicians undertook detailed histories and examinations of patients, noting all elements that were useful for the diagnosis, including the course
at CERD sessions, I track the debates that have shaped the Committee’s policies and practices on disaggregated data over its first forty-five years.2 The increasing interest at CERD in using statistics to track States’ obligations is not unusual in the treaty body system, but it has a distinct historical trajectory from the recent rise of ‘indicators’ elsewhere in human rights governance.3 One significant feature of this history is 1 I use the term disaggregated data rather than demographic data because it better encompasses the range of data with which CERD has
issue of childhood statelessness reinforces states’ obligations and the need for more targeted national-level action, particularly in complex cases including ‘children born to irregular migrants or to refugees, children of same-sex couples, children commissioned by European parents through international commercial surrogacy and children who have been abandoned’ (European Network
war crime in their prosecutions for crimes against humanity which included acts of sexual violence.14 Moreover, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, rape and sexual slavery, along- Bosnia: genocidal rape and its children 153 side forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation and similarly grave acts of sexual violence have now been recognised as both crimes against humanity and war crimes.15 In addition, since then these issues have featured in a variety of UN resolutions, detailing the member states’ obligations relating to