Gender and Human Rights

Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko, Associate Professor, Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway, Ireland

'Yahyaoui Krivenko's compelling analysis reveals just how structurally embedded international human rights law's (mis)understanding of gender, as male/female duality and biological fact, is. This not only restricts law's capacity to fully comprehend how gender hierarchies impact on the enjoyment of human rights, but also implicates human rights law itself in perpetuating gendered harms. Yahyaoui Krivenko's call for disrupting this damaging gender script, and the openings she identifies as places to start, present a challenge to us all.'

• Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Gender and its complexities 3. Human rights and gender: the first stage 4. Feminist approaches, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory: their engagement with gender and human rights 5. Human rights and gender: the second stage 6. Successes and challenges: right to be free from violence 7. Successes and challenges: culture and human rights 8. Successes and challenges: family and human rights 9. General conclusions Index