ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on the role of the right to equality and non-discrimination guaranteed in the Constitution of India 1950 in article 14 and article 15 in the advancement of women’s human rights. The chapter explains how CEDAW expanded human rights understandings of equality to include substantive equality; how it expanded human rights understandings of non-discrimination to include both direct and indirect discrimination, positing sex and gender as alternate sources of discrimination and inequality and, finally, how it identified the compounding effect of multiple discriminations. It then examines the context in which article 14 and article 15 were drafted, explores their interpretation in the courts and the extent to which those articles comply, both in their plain language and their interpretation, with the obligations created by the human rights framework, in particular CEDAW. Finally, it evaluates, with the use of case and legislative examples, the extent to which women’s human rights principles and theories have or could be utilised to broaden the scope and impact of article 14 and article 15.
