Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Interesting new book on women's human rights

Author: Niahm Reilly, University of Limerick, Ireland

Book details from Politybooks.com:

Women's Human Rights: Seeking Gender Justice in a Globalising Age explores the emergence of transnational, UN-oriented, feminist advocacy for women's human rights, especially over the past three decades.

It identifies the main feminist influences that have shaped the movement (liberal, radical, third world and cosmopolitan) and exposes how the Western, legalist, state-centric, and liberal biases of mainstream human rights discourse impede the realisation of human rights in women's lives everywhere.

The book traces the evolution of the women's human rights movement through an examination of its key issues, debates, and practical interventions in international law and policy arenas. This includes efforts to:
Develop global gender equality norms via the UN Women's Convention
Frame violence against women as a human rights issue
Address gender-based crimes in conflict situations, include women in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction, and challenge new forms of militarism
Highlight the gendered human rights dimensions of widening inequalities in a context of neo-liberal globalisation
Develop human rights responses to anti-feminist fundamentalist movements with a focus on reproductive and sexual rights

Ultimately, Women's Human Rights reaffirms a commitment to critically reinterpreted universal human rights principles and demonstrates the vital role that bottom-up, transnational movements play in making them a reality in women's lives.

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