ABSTRACT
Making rights real: legal activism and social accountability examines the dynamic role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in translating, implementing and promoting rights-based approaches in India. In particular, it focuses on the new languages and legal discourse that has emerged in the wake of rights-based forms of development. It investigates why ‘violence’ has been an important legal and activist trope for claiming such rights. The chapter focuses on the practices of legal actors, lawyers and legal aid workers in a range of contexts: high courts, family courts, and in ‘traditional’ as well as non-conventional settings, who are involved in ‘translating’ legal concepts of sexual and reproductive rights and the production of legal subjects.
