Question 1: The international human rights system needs to be reformed to better promote
the just treatment of women and girls at an international and national level. In your answer
you must at least once make reference to Susan Moller Okin ‘Feminism, Women’s Human
Rights, and Cultural Differences’ (1998) 13:2 Hypatia 32 (Day 5 Required Reading).
Increased recognition of women’s rights throughout the human rights system is necessary to
promote the just treatment of women and girls at an international and national level. Females
around the world are subject to abuse, starvation, murder and torture because of their sex.
Such crimes committed against groups other than women are frequently recognised as political and
civil emergencies as well as a gross violation of an individual’s humanity. 1 However, despite a
palpable record of abuse against women, women’s rights are not categorised as human rights. With
an international shift in focus onto human rights,2 the failure to identify women’s rights as human
rights proves problematic, in theory and practice, by negatively impacting societal discourse,
judgement and treatment of women’s issues as something of less significance than human right’s
issues, despite their direct correlation.3 By examining gender bias in the development of human
rights and the failure of international instruments to adequately provide protection to women, the
need for reform can be better understood.
Rethinking and reforming human rights is necessary, given the historical male bias of human rights
thinking,4 to appropriately address women’s rights. Existing theories and philosophies relating to
human rights were developed through a male model and often fail to consider or prioritise issues
1Charlotte Bunch, ‘Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human Rights’ (1990) 12(4) Human
Rights Quarterly, 486-498.
2 Since the formation of the United Nations in 1945.
3 Bunch (n 1).
4 Susan Moller Okin ‘Feminism, Women’s Human Rights, and Cultural Differences’ (1998) 13(2) Hypatia 32, 35.
, that are largely specific to women such as reproductive freedom, unequal opportunity in education,
domestic violence, unequal shares of unpaid care/domestic work, and rape.5 International human
rights laws are often critiqued for ‘gender myopia’ and a failure to identify practices which oppress
women as human rights violations. 6 Historical distinctions between the private and public spheres,
whereby rights within the private sphere were protected from external breaches but were not
internally governed in congruence with the rights of its members,7 contributed to women’s rights
abuses. Civil and political rights were:
Defined by the criterion of what men fear will happen to them.8
Locke’s9 suggestion that a father’s decision about whom his daughter shall wed is a private matter
which should not be interfered with10 demonstrates the manner in which conceptualisations of the
‘rights of the man’ and the distinction between the public and private spheres when developing
human rights does not assist women in accessing human rights today. The impact of historically
excluding women from the public sphere cannot be dismissed as a past issue as this exclusion
continues to be experienced in the underrepresentation of women in the international bodies which
frame human rights. Where women are heard throughout the international forum, they are
understood to be discussing women’s issues rather than human rights issues, leading to the United
Nation’s ‘ghettoisation’ of women’s issues whereby international bodies for women’s issues receive
limited resources and weaker enforcement procedures than that of human rights bodies.11 By this,
the international system requires reform to better promote women’s issues at an international and
national level.
5 Ibid.
6 Ursula O’Hare, ‘Realizing Human Rights for Women’ (1999) 21(2) Human Rights Quarterly, 364-402.
7 Okin (n 4) 34
8 O’Hare (n 6).
9 A contributor to the development of human rights.
10 Okin (n 4) 34.
11 O’Hare (n 6) 368.
the just treatment of women and girls at an international and national level. In your answer
you must at least once make reference to Susan Moller Okin ‘Feminism, Women’s Human
Rights, and Cultural Differences’ (1998) 13:2 Hypatia 32 (Day 5 Required Reading).
Increased recognition of women’s rights throughout the human rights system is necessary to
promote the just treatment of women and girls at an international and national level. Females
around the world are subject to abuse, starvation, murder and torture because of their sex.
Such crimes committed against groups other than women are frequently recognised as political and
civil emergencies as well as a gross violation of an individual’s humanity. 1 However, despite a
palpable record of abuse against women, women’s rights are not categorised as human rights. With
an international shift in focus onto human rights,2 the failure to identify women’s rights as human
rights proves problematic, in theory and practice, by negatively impacting societal discourse,
judgement and treatment of women’s issues as something of less significance than human right’s
issues, despite their direct correlation.3 By examining gender bias in the development of human
rights and the failure of international instruments to adequately provide protection to women, the
need for reform can be better understood.
Rethinking and reforming human rights is necessary, given the historical male bias of human rights
thinking,4 to appropriately address women’s rights. Existing theories and philosophies relating to
human rights were developed through a male model and often fail to consider or prioritise issues
1Charlotte Bunch, ‘Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human Rights’ (1990) 12(4) Human
Rights Quarterly, 486-498.
2 Since the formation of the United Nations in 1945.
3 Bunch (n 1).
4 Susan Moller Okin ‘Feminism, Women’s Human Rights, and Cultural Differences’ (1998) 13(2) Hypatia 32, 35.
, that are largely specific to women such as reproductive freedom, unequal opportunity in education,
domestic violence, unequal shares of unpaid care/domestic work, and rape.5 International human
rights laws are often critiqued for ‘gender myopia’ and a failure to identify practices which oppress
women as human rights violations. 6 Historical distinctions between the private and public spheres,
whereby rights within the private sphere were protected from external breaches but were not
internally governed in congruence with the rights of its members,7 contributed to women’s rights
abuses. Civil and political rights were:
Defined by the criterion of what men fear will happen to them.8
Locke’s9 suggestion that a father’s decision about whom his daughter shall wed is a private matter
which should not be interfered with10 demonstrates the manner in which conceptualisations of the
‘rights of the man’ and the distinction between the public and private spheres when developing
human rights does not assist women in accessing human rights today. The impact of historically
excluding women from the public sphere cannot be dismissed as a past issue as this exclusion
continues to be experienced in the underrepresentation of women in the international bodies which
frame human rights. Where women are heard throughout the international forum, they are
understood to be discussing women’s issues rather than human rights issues, leading to the United
Nation’s ‘ghettoisation’ of women’s issues whereby international bodies for women’s issues receive
limited resources and weaker enforcement procedures than that of human rights bodies.11 By this,
the international system requires reform to better promote women’s issues at an international and
national level.
5 Ibid.
6 Ursula O’Hare, ‘Realizing Human Rights for Women’ (1999) 21(2) Human Rights Quarterly, 364-402.
7 Okin (n 4) 34
8 O’Hare (n 6).
9 A contributor to the development of human rights.
10 Okin (n 4) 34.
11 O’Hare (n 6) 368.
