Introduction

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". Traditional human rights standards categorize violations in ways that exclude women, eliding critical issues. Perceived as part of the women's rights movement and hence of a special-interest agenda, these issues have been considered marginal to international law's more "serious" responsibility for human rights. Conventional international rights instruments may in fact legitimize discrimination against women, as Natalie Hevener Kaufman and Stefanie Lindquist explain. The essays in "Violence and Health" argue for the recognition of these as human rights issues and explore the ways in which the subordination of women's health to historic notions of femininity, sexuality, and reproductive responsibility leads to the violation of women's bodily integrity. The section on "Development and the Socio-Economy" shows the ways in which women are economically marginalized, whether through discriminatory practices, division of labor, or even global development policies.