About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

23 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 113 (2009)
Vulnerable Women: A Critical Reflection on Human Rights Discourse and Sexual Violence

handle is hein.journals/emint23 and id is 115 raw text is: VULNERABLE WOMEN: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE Pamela Scully* I write as a historian by training, who is now working on gender, violence, and human rights in contemporary Africa. In this Essay, I hail the great interventions made by women's rights' activists and supporters in placing violence against women on the international human rights agenda, but examine critically the emphasis on female vulnerability in recent UN decisions and documents. I analyze the U.N. Security Council resolutions on the experiences of women in wartime and peace, particularly Resolution 1820. I suggest that an exclusive focus on sexual violence against women and girls limits our ability to understand the root causes of sexual violence, and to build different and sustainable futures for women and men. I explore the implications of the figure of the vulnerable woman for post-conflict reconstruction, arguing that an exclusive focus on sexual violence against women and children leads to the articulation of rights in ways that might actually hinder the objectives of human rights. We live in awful and wonderful times. We all live with daily violence in our homes and cities. Women live with domestic violence in every country of our world.1 Some citizens of the world live in wartime and deal with a level of terror that is hard to comprehend. Women in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, are being raped multiple times a day, with 2 penises and with gun barrels. In addition, we know of the systematic raping of women in the Balkan wars of the 1990s,3 of the rapes of women during the * Professor of Women's Studies and African Studies, Emory University. I am very grateful to Courtney O'Donnell of Emory School of Law for putting together the original panel discussion. This Essay is initial thoughts of a book I am beginning to work on. I want to thank the members of my seminar at Emory on Gender Violence and Gender Justice, Fall 2008, for their insights into many of the issues I raise herein. 1 See generally SALLY ENGLE MERRY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER VIOLENCE: TRANSLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW INTO LOCAL JUSTICE (2006) (considering the universality of violence against women, and the challenges of and opportunities for translating human rights ideals into local contexts). 2 Haleigh Hanlon, Implications for Health Care Practice and Improved Policies for Victims of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 J. INT'L WOMEN'S STUD. 64, 64-72 (2008). 3 See generally MASS RAPE: THE WAR AGAINST WOMEN IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (Alexandra Stiglmayer ed., Marion Faber trans., 1994).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most