Week 5 Feminist Perspectives on Human Rights
Charlotte Bunch (1990) Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human
Rights
“Gender related abuse has been the most neglected and offers the greatest challenge to the field of
human rights today”
Feminists redefine human rights abuses to include the degradation and violation of women – the
experiences of women must be added to traditional approaches to human rights in order to make
women more visible and to transform the concept and practice of human rights in our culture so that it
takes better account of women’s lives
Beyond Rhetoric: Political Implications
Women are rarely a priority to governments and their policy, or to NGO’S, or on December 10th
Human Rights Day
Excuses to avoid women’s issues are among:
Sex discrimination is too trivial, or will come after larger issues receive attention
Abuse of women is cultural and private, not a political issue
Women’s rights are not human rights
Women’s abuse is considered inevitable, or so pervasive that any consideration of it is futile or will
overwhelm other human rights questions
Sexism kills – being a female is in times life-threatening:
Before birth: Sex selection in Bombay leading to 99% of female foetus abortion. In China and India
more males than females are born even though natural birth ratios would produce more females
During childhood: In many countries, girls are fed less, breast fed for a shorter time, taken to the
doctor less frequently, die or are physically/mentally maimed through malnutrition at higher rates than
boys
In adulthood: Denial of women’s rights in reproduction threatens women’s lives especially when
combined with poverty and poor health services. In Latin America, complications from illegal
abortions are the leading death of women between 15-39
When combined with race, class, and other forms of oppression, it constitutes a deadly denial of
women’s right to life and liberty all around the world
“The most pervasive violation of females is violence against women in all its
manifestations, from wife battery, incest, and rape, to dowry deaths, genital mutilation, and
female sexual slavery. These abuses occur in every country and are found in the home and
in the workplace, on streets, on campuses, and in prisons and refugee camps. They cross In
class, race, age, and national lines; and at the same time, the forms this violence takes often the
reinforce other oppressions such as racism, ‘able-bodyism’ and imperialism.” U.S,
battery is the leading cause of injury to adult women, and a rape is committed every 6 minutes
In Peru, 70% of all crimes reported to the police involve women who are beaten by their partners; in
Lima 168,970 rapes were reported in 1987 alone
In India, 8 out of 10 wives are victims of violence, either domestic or battery, dowry-related abuse, or
murder
