Women, Political Science, and Human Rights

Bibliography compiled by Jody Ranck
December, 1996

A

 Abzug, Bella; Antrobus, Peggy; Posadskaya, Anastasia; Bunch, Charlotte; and others. On globalizing gender justice. (includes related international statistics on women from the Women's Feature Service) Nation v261, n7 (Sept 11, 1995): 230 (6 pages).

Abstract:
Nine activists in the international human rights for women movement comment on the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women and on women's rights in various parts of the world. Some object to the conference being held in China, but there are hopes that it will still have an international impact.

Amnesty International (1995). It's About Time! Human Rights are Women's Rights. Amnesty International, London.

"An interview with Rigoberta Menchu Tum." (1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner) (Interview). NACLA Report on the Americas v29, n6 (May-June, 1996):6 (5 pages).

Abstract:
Rigoberta Menchu Tum believes that participation in electoral politics would lead to Guatemala's democratization. Tum also says that women and indigenous people should be integrated into the political system. According to Tum, the armed conflict has been an excuse for violence and criminal acts. She does not believe that amnesty should be part of the reconciliation process and calls for a serious investigation on human rights abuses in Guatemala.

Ashworth, Georgina (1986). Of Violence and Violation: Women and Human Rights. Change, London.

_____________________ (1995). A Diplomacy of the Oppressed: New Directions in International Feminism. Zed Books, London.

B

 Bahar, Saba (1996). "Human rights are women's right: Amnesty International and the family." (Special Issue: The Family and Feminist Theory) Hypatia v11, n1 (Wntr, 1996): 104 (30 pages).

Benjamin, Medea (trans. & ed., 1987). Don' t be Afraid Gringo. A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart. Food First, San Francisco.

Binion, Gayle. "Human rights: a feminist perspective." Human Rights Quarterly v17, n3 (August, 1995): 509-526.

Abstract:
Human rights conceptualized through a feminist jurisprudence approach focuses on disempowerment and inclusion, rather than institutionalized rights enforced by government. This way of viewing human rights does not separate public and private as is currently done in law, because most women experience oppression in the home rather than in public.

Bonder, Gloria (1996). "From quantity to quality: women and education in the Platform for Action." (Fourth UN World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995) Women's Studies Quarterly v24, n1-2 (Spring-Summer, 1996): 84 (7 pages).

Abstract:
The Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth UN World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995 moves far beyond the 1985 Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies on the subject of women's education. The Beijing Platform for Action is concerned with the quality of women's education, whereas the Nairobi document focused on women's access to education. The Beijing Platform aims to educate new generations to develop more equal relationships. Its educational program takes into account human rights issues, social diversity, and the technological revolution.

Bunch, Charlotte (1990). "Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human Rights." Human Rights Quarterly, 12:486-498.

Bunch, Charlotte and Niamh Reilly (1994). Demanding Accounility. The Global Campaign and Tribunal for Women' s Human Rights. UNIFEM/CWGL.

Bunting, Annie (1993). Theorizing Women' s Cultural Diversity in Feminist International Human Rights Strategies. Journal of Law & Society: Spring 1993: 6.

C

 Center for Women' s Global Leadership (1994). Testimonies of the Global Tribunal on Violations of Women' s Human Rights. (Vienna 1993).

Clech Lam, Maivan (1994). "Feeling Foreign in Feminism." SIGNS, 19(4): 865.

Cook, Rebecca (1990). "Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women." Virginia Journal of International Law, 30: 643.

Cook, Rebecca, ed. (1994). Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Coyle, Marcia (1996). "Case could widen the grounds for asylum: a young woman's fear of being mutilated could pave way for gender-based petitions." National Law Journal v18, n36 (Mon, May 6, 1996): A10.

Abstract:
The asylum request of Fauziya Kasinga of Togo, to be heard before the Board of Immigration Appeals, may eslish gender as an accepted basis for political asylum claims. Kasinga emigrated to the US to avoid female genital mutilation and forced marriage, practices widespread in Togo and other African nations. At present, the five grounds for asylum do not include gender so her attorneys are arguing that the women in her tribe constitute a particular social group subject to persecution.

D

 Defeis, Elizabeth (1991). "An International Human Right: Gender Equality." Journal of Women's History, 3(1):90.

E

 Early, Frances H. New historical perspectives on gendered peace studies. Women's Studies Quarterly v23, n3-4 (Fall-Winter, 1995):22 (10 pages).

Abstract:
Research on women's movement and its locus in Western historical construct has greatly contributed to peace studies. Along with women's and human rights, pacifism had been one of the movement's agenda. Studies by gender scholars have also presented how the social constructs of man/woman images have been central to the perpetuation of militarism and the rationale of war. Women's peace historians and gender scholars whose research and theory have impacted on women's and pea ce studies include Jean Elstain, Louis M. Newman Linda Schott and Gerald Shenck.

Eisler, Riane (1987). "Human Rights: Toward an Integrated Theory for Action." Feminist Issues, Spring 1987: 25.

J

 Jensen, Rita Henley. "Mimi Ramsey. Human rights activist and Woman of the Year." Ms. Magazine v6, n4 (Jan-Feb, 1996): 50 (3 pages).

K

 Kabeer, Naila (1995). "Selective rights, collective wrongs." (The Body Politic) Index on Censorship v24, n4 (July-August, 1995): 32 (11 pages).

Abstract:
Women's human rights have always been violated in almost all countries through political and societal structures, irrespective of the country's economic and political status. Violence against women is a very common feature. There has always been a restriction on their active participation in developmental activities outside their homes. Illiteracy, infanticide, sexual abuse and teenage pregnancies are some of the problems facing women.

Kiss, Elizabeth (1995). "Alchemy or Fool' s Gold? Assessing Feminist Doubts About Rights." Dissent, Summer 1995: 342.

M

 Macklin, Audrey (1995). "Refugee Women and the Imperative of Categories." Human Rights Quarterly, 17:213-277.

Maran, Rita (1996). After the Beijing Women's Conference: what will be done? (Sep. 4-15, 1995) Social Justice v23, n1-2 (Spring-Summer, 1996): 352 (16 pages).

Abstract:
Human rights, education, poverty, violence against women, health, economic structures, armed conflict, mechanisms to promote the advancement of women, decision-making, the environment, the media, and the girl child are the 12 discrete issues discussed in the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women on Sep. 4-15, 1995, in China. The Platform for Action (PFA) contains the conference's foundational principle that 'women's rights are human rights.' The PFA can effectively be implemented by making a major shift in the priorities of governments and individuals and a significant redeployment of human and financial resources.

N

 "No change on the home front. "(The Body Politic) (women's rights, Russia) Index on Censorship v24, n4 (July-August, 1995): 62.

Abstract:
The crime figures of June 1995 show that women's human rights are being violated in Russia. According to the report, about 15,000 women have been murdered by their male partners and 14,000 raped. But these figures do not show the true picture, as 90% of the rape incidents are not reported. Police are indifferent and blame women for domestic violence. Women prefer to go to recently eslished victim support centers.

O

 Oloka-Onyango, J.; Tamale, Sylvia (1995). "'The personal is political,' or why women's rights are indeed human rights: an African perspective on international feminism. "Human Rights Quarterly, v17, n4 (Nov, 1995): 691-731.

Abstract:
The need to equate women's rights with human rights, and vice versa, on an international level is clear in Africa. While human rights standards are supposedly applied by international organizations in aiding developing countries there, it is clear that such 'standards' have done nothing to better the lot of women in these societies. Providing the right to participate in development is not the same thing as ensuring human rights, because it does not take into account the rights of the most oppressed, the women.

Owen, Margaret (1996). A World of Widows. Zed Books, London.

P

 Peters, Julie and Andrea Wolper (1995). "Women' s Rights, Human Rights." International Feminist Perspectives. Routledge, NY. Pollitt, Katha (1996). "Women's rights, human rights." (Subject to Debate) Nation v262, n19 (May 13, 1996): 9.

Abstract:
The US extended political refugee status to almost anyone from the Soviet Union during the cold war, but it has neglected to extend the same status to women who may be escaping from countries in which they run the risk of legal murder or mutilation. One such case is discussed.

Poonacha, Veena (1993). "On the Edge of Silence: Gender Within Human Rights Discourse." Economic and Political Weekly, 9 October: 2192-94.

R

 Reanda, Laura (1991). "Prostitution as a Human Rights Question: Problems and Prospects for United Nations Actions." Human Rights Quarterly, 13(2):202-28.

Reilly, Niamh ed. (1996). Without Reservation. The Beijing Tribunal on Accounility for Women's Human Rights. Center for Women' s Global Leadership.

S

 Sanders, AnnMarie (1995). "Through women's eyes: at the Non-Governmental Forum on Women in Beijing, a silence was broken." (China) America, v173, n21 (Dec 30, 1995):15

Abstract:
The Non-Governmental Forum on Women was held from Sep 4-15, 1995, near Beijing, China, and was attended by 27,000 women from all over the world. Issues discussed included globalization, militarization, access to health care and human rights. Schuler, Margaret ed. (1995). From Basic Needs to Basic Rights. Women's Claim to Human Rights. Women, Law, and Development International paper.

_________________ (1993). Claiming Our Place. Working the Human Rights System to Women' s Advantage. Women, Law and Development International.

_________________ (1986). Empowerment and the Law. Strategies of Third World Women. OEF International, London.

Stetson, Dorothy McBride. "Human rights for women: international compliance with a feminist standard." Women & Politics v15, n3 (Summer, 1995):71 (25 pages).

Stoltzfus, Brenda (1990). "Do Prostitutes Have Human Rights? In And She Said No!" Human Rights, Women's Identities and Struggles. eds. L. Bautida and E. Rifareal, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Quezon City.

T

 Tomasevski, Katarina (1993). Women and Human Rights. Zed Books, London.

V

 Van Bueren, Geraldine. The international protection of family members' rights as the 21st century approaches. Human Rights Quarterly v17, n4 (Nov, 1995): 732-765.

Abstract:
Two distinct trends in human rights laws regarding the family can be identified, but neither offers a sufficient definition of t he family and its rights. The first makes a distinction between public and private family activity, allowing human rights to be violated, especially those of women and children, behind closed doors. The other, more humane approach, gives family members, including children, equal say and protection in the family unit. The notion of family in human rights law is discussed.

Vyver, Johan D. van der (1996). "Religious fundamentalism and human rights." Journal of International Affairs v50, n1 (Summer, 1996): 21 (20 pages).

Abstract:
Worldwide application of basic human rights as outlined in the Vienna Final Act may be met with varying resistance depending on the views of local religious fundamentalists. Radical fundamentalist groups that use violence typically are at odds with basic human rights. Local law or societal pressure may be able to curb these groups' activities. Many religious belief systems specifically deny rights to women, children and minorities. Many cultures will abide by and not compromise on these religious laws. Other fundamentalist groups will balance their religion's views with global values.

W

 White, Martha (1995). "Protecting the human rights of women." Human Rights, 22(4): 5.

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