ABSTRACT
Over the past quarter century there has been increasing incorporation of international law and norms into feminist legal theory. The chapters in this section address the need for more intersection of the international with the feminist. International law establishes a set of principles that should be consistent with and facilitate feminist progress, yet as these authors demonstrate, much rethinking is needed to make international human rights truly feminist friendly. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin addresses the “gendered elements” located in founda-
tional international human rights documents and international law norms. She advises feminists to be guarded about the transformative “promises” made in transitional societies constructing new legal and social frameworks. The international human rights norms often reinforce patriarchy. In particular, instead of “dismantling” the public-private divide, the international human rights regime has reinscribed it. In international law, the “private realm is off limits for regulatory efforts,” and this exclusion leads to the “shoring up of patriarchy.” Thus, in considering why women have been “structurally excluded” from the
internationalized transitional process, Ní Aoláin does recognize that transitional societies are often scrutinized by human rights NGOs and others during the period of conflict/repression and that should provide some safeguards. Yet, this scrutiny cannot suffice. The international human rights norms that inform such scrutiny and have become part of the framework for addressing the society post-conflict themselves frequently reinforce problematic gender distinctions. Even as the social instability wrought by conflict tends to recede, international norms reinforce or even “impose” a public-private divide that produces legal restrictions against the advancement of women’s rights. Fiona de Londras’ chapter focuses on sexual violence and how it should be
dealt with in international humanitarian and criminal law, specifically addressing the “genocidal sexual violence” in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Noting that both were parties to the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, de Londras nonetheless finds that the gendered violence during conflict emerged from deep-seated gender inequalities that existed in both societies before the genocides.
