Women in International Law

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Author: Juliana Santos de Carvalho, Verena Kahl

Required knowledge: Feminism & Queer Theory, Individuals, Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law.

Learning objectives: to understand how women have been included as subjects of international law; how they have contributed to the development of the international legal practice; and to take stock of (some) persisting challenges to gender equality in the field.

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A. Introduction[edit | edit source]

Despite the well documented (white) masculine dominance in international law,[1] women have long been a part of the international legal practice and discipline both as subjects of international legal instruments and as agents within the profession. This chapter aims to briefly cover how women are addressed in international law, as well as their contributions to the field. For that, it first introduces an overview of international legal instruments that recognise and advance women's rights internationally. It subsequently addresses the persisting widespread invisibility of women as active designers and interpreters of international law and casts a spotlight on selected women as key actors and active agents of and within public international law.

B. Women as Subjects of International Law[edit | edit source]

Women have long been the subject of different international legal instruments, either as a central group category for the norm in question or as a specially protected group within a larger framework of rights and protections. International law’s attention to women is mainly indebted to the continuous activism from international and transnational coalitions of different women’s movements and civil society,[2] and, as will be demonstrated below, has encompassed a great variety of sub-fields in the international legal order.

Perhaps one of the most emblematic inclusions of women as subjects of international law is contained in the UN Charter. In its preamble, the Charter introduces among the UN's objectives the equal rights of men and women.[3] Additionally, in article 8, the Charter makes explicit that the UN’s principal and subsidiary organs are to follow the equality between men and women in their functioning.[3]

Similarly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)'s[4] preamble reaffirms the UN Charter’s recognition of the equal rights of men and women and, in its article 2, reiterates the right of all individuals, without distinction as to their sex,[5] to fully enjoy the human rights set out in the Declaration. Further, article 16 of the UDHR recognises the right of men and women of full age to marry and found a family.

Another important international legal instrument, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), establishes that State parties are to respect all individuals' civil and political rights irrespective of their sex.[6] Article 3 indicates explicitly that State Parties need to ensure that men and women will enjoy the rights enshrined in the document equally.[7] Similarly, articles 4(1), 23(2), 24, 25, and 26 contain provisions protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of their sex.[8] Mirroring these provisions, articles 2(2) and 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also establish equality provisions for men and women in relation to the rights established therein.[9] Additionally, article 7(a)(i) requires State to ensure equal pay for equal work,[10] something that is also ensured by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 100 (Equal Remuneration Convention) of 1951.[11]

Going beyond equality clauses, international legal instruments also add special protective provisions for women. In this regard, for instance, article 6(3) of the ICCPR prohibits the execution of capital punishment on pregnant women. Additionally, several ILO conventions establish specific protective measures for women, such as the Maternity Convention (first established in 1919, with the latest revised variant in 2000),[12] night work,[13] plantation work,[14] among others.

However, perhaps one of the most comprehensive legal regimes of special rights and protection accorded to women have been those elaborated by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Established by the UN Economic and Social Council in 1946,[15] the CSW was fundamental for the drafting and adoption of several international conventions on women's rights,[16] including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).[17] CEDAW provisions encompass a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, equality before the law and within cultural practices, access to education, political rights, equal representation in national governments and international bodies, specific rights for rural women, economic and social benefits, among others. Nevertheless, it bears noting that the CEDAW is one of the universal human rights instruments with the most significant number of State reservations.[18]

The CEDAW also has an Optional Protocol with 115 States parties.[19] This document establishes a monitoring Committee, competent to receive and consider communications concerning alleged Convention violations. Moreover, article 8 enables the Committee to conduct an inquiry procedure when it receives 'reliable information indicating grave or systematic violations by a State Party'.

Advanced: Women in regional systems of human rights:

Other noteworthy special instruments adopted on women's rights are those concerning the African and the Inter-American regional systems of human rights. Aside provisions on gender equality and special rights for women, they also have dedicated instruments for women. These include but are not limited to, the 2003 Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa[20] and the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará)[21]—both of which can be enforced in these system’s respective human rights courts. As for the European human rights system, women's rights are encompassed mainly by general instruments, such as the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.[22] In 2011, however, the Council of Europe adopted the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).[23]


Aside from international human rights, women have been particularly included in international criminal law. Most notably, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) includes gender as a protected category for the crime of persecution,[24] recognises women as a specific vulnerable group to specific international crimes,[25] and indicates that gender equality and expertise should count in the selection of judges for the ICC.[26]

Despite its contested legal status,[27] the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda of the UN Security Council is also considered an influential set of documents that reinforce existing legal obligations of parties to armed conflicts concerning the rights and specific needs of women and girls. Initiated by the unanimously adopted Resolution 1325(2000),[28] and comprising nine different sister resolutions under the same rubric,[29] the WPS agenda encompasses several issues relating to women and girls during and after conflict settings, such as prevention and protection against conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), increased participation of women in peace processes, and specific measures to ensure the specific needs of women and girls in humanitarian relief.

Advanced: Tropes about women in international law:

Several scholars have noted that, within the subfields of international human rights law and international criminal law, women have often been depicted merely as victims of conflict-related sexual violence, as mothers, or as peacemakers.[30] While CRSV against women and girls is a reality during and in the aftermath of conflict settings, and the role of women in peace activism has been historically powerful, solely focusing on those two roles for women can reinforce gender stereotypes of women being helpless or docile. This not only denies the recognition of the full spectrum of women’s agency,[31] but it can also efface CSRV committed against men, boys, and gender-diverse individuals.[32]


C. Women as Agents of International Law[edit | edit source]

As stated beforehand, the corpus iuris of international law as well as the corresponding policy and law-making processes have to a large extent been construed and dominated by (white) men.[33] Public international law has therefore been built on and permeated by the male norm, thereby constantly overseeing, neglecting and outcasting all of its deviations. This systematic and structural discrimination and marginalisation of women in all their diversity has, for the most part, been addressed through the above-mentioned specialized international and regional (human rights) treaties and protection regimes, focussing on women as right holders and victims of rights' violations.

However, besides the already mentioned one-sided focus on victimhood,[34] systematic and structural discrimination and marginalisation of women in all their diversity has had and still has another effect in the context of international law, which requires further reflection: The invisibility and non-recognition of women as active agents of and within public international law. Overlooked contributions by women to the (further) development of public international law may, besides various factors, such as a lack of representation and resources, also be the result of an overly dominant victim narrative. In the following, the current contribution takes therefore a closer look at the persistent invisibility of women as active contributors to the international legal order in theory and practice, presents scholarly projects that seek to remedy this situation and finally casts a spotlight on - necessarily - selected women actors of and within public international law.

I. Invisibility and Non-Recognition of Women as Actors of and within International Law: An Attempt at Explanation[edit | edit source]

Due to systematic and structural discrimination, women have faced significant hurdles to shape and further develop public international law, a scenario to which various factors, such as the public-private divide,[35] behavioural stereotypical gender roles, power imbalances and corresponding lack of or aggravated access to financial resources, land and property as well as educational institutions and offices,[36] may very well have contributed.

Advanced: The public-private divide

The approach of the public-private divide, following Western political and legal philosophy[37], explains the structural discrimination of women in the context of socio-political spheres: based on stereotyped gender roles women are associated with and relegated to a domestic, private and devalued sphere, while men are rather assigned to a public, political and economic sphere, which, among others, influences the distribution of work and professions within the dominant gender dichotomy.[38] In recourse to the approach of the public-private divide, the function of the State and international law as a gendered system have been associated with the public sphere and therefore described as 'operating in the [...] male world.'[39] While the public-private divide, in combination with discrimination-related lack of or limited access to resources, education and offices, may to a certain extent explain the absence and invisibility of women agents in public international law, the Western character of the concept and its (necessarily) oversimplified categories neglect the discrimination patterns and corresponding struggles of women across spheres along blurred lines, particularly those of the Global South, that also contribute to the complex combination of factors that drive the persisting prevention, invisibility and non-recognition of women agents of international law.[40]


On the next level, the structural discrimination, which manifests itself differently depending on the intersectional situation of the specific woman, continues in the direct or indirect denial of or difficult access to and participation in international institutions, key positions and corresponding law- and decision-making processes, ultimately building on a lack of rights, resources and representation mentioned above. It is also worth mentioning that the struggles caused by and the fight against patriarchal structures also ties up important resources, such as money, time and energy, that could otherwise be invested differently.[41] Invisibility therefore refers to all those women of diverse backgrounds that could not participate in the "game" of international law in the first place.[42] This absence of women in the international sphere is also reflected in their continuous underrepresentation in important and influential international legal institutions, such as the International Law Commission[43] or international courts and tribunals.[44] No woman has been nominated UN Secretary-General so far.[45]

Nonetheless, international law has also fostered patterns of overseeing, ignoring, and denying adequate recognition to those women that have actually been active designers of the international legal order and made significant contributions to the continuous development of international law, often precisely despite the very difficult conditions faced by these women.[46] Invisibility and non-recognition of women agents in the realm of international law is also owed to a patriarchal system that operates in invisibility itself.[47] Still, the mechanism that fuels invisibility of these active women agents of and within international law can particularly be observed where international law is taught, described, analyzed and criticised: within academic institutions. Trailblazing women as active designers of international law and their contributions are largely absent in universities' classrooms in comparison to their men colleagues. The often taught and scholarly discussed 'classics of international law' seldom include contributions of women. These 'classics' go beyond the eponymous series edited by James Scott,[48] as they refer to pre-selected works, which are considered contributions of such significance that they are regularly and repetitively addressed in seminars, lectures as well as articles, books and other forms of academic publications. The resulting invisibility and non-recognition of women agents of international law - besides losing valuable, substantive contributions to the development of the international legal order themselves - also leads to a presumption of their nonexistence and a lack of role models for young students, legal scholars and practitioners, which is why we need continuous research with corresponding data compilation to visualise, analyse and explain the absence of women as active agents of international law.

Yet, some important scholarly projects have tried to break the glass ceiling in favour of the visibility and recognition of women as active agents and designers of international law, such as the recent works of Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch[49] and Immi Talgreen.[50]

II. Trailblazing: Women as Active Designers of International Law[edit | edit source]

Despite the aforementioned hurdles, women have made important contributions to the development of international law in different roles, such as diplomats, judges, scholars, lawyers and active members of civil society. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that white, Western women have notably gained more recognition than their racialised and Global South counterparts. In this section, we aim at modestly correcting this bias by foregrounding the diverse set of women who have contributed to substantial landmarks of contemporary international law.

In this sense, while Eleanor Roosevelt has become much more visible in her efforts to encourage the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dominican Minerva Bernardino was crucial in her promotion of the rights of women in the document.[51] Bernardino, along with other Latin American diplomats, such as the Brazilian Bertha Lutz and Mexican Amalia González Caballero de Castillo Ledón, have also had an important role in the inclusion of women's rights during the negotiations of another landmark international legal document: the UN Charter. Both Bernardino and Lutz were active in the drafting process of the Charter, especially in their work of including crucial wording on the equality of men and women.[52] An equally outstanding international figure of that time is Hansa Mehta from India, the only woman delegate to the UN Commission on Human Rights besides Eleanor Roosevelt in 1947. The change in the wording of Art. 1 of the Universal Declaration from 'All men are born free and equal' to 'All human beings are born free and equal' is to her merit.[53]

Even before the birth of the UN System, as early as 1889, Bertha von Suttner formulated her - at that time - very progressive thoughts on peace and the international legal order in her bestselling anti-war novel 'Die Waffen nieder!'. She envisaged an international legal order with international institutions, international jurisdiction and peaceful cooperation among States. Suttner was the first women to participate as an observer at the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899 and the first women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.[54] Nearly a century before the publication of 'Die Waffen nieder!' another trailblazing woman, a feminist, abolitionist playwright fought against discrimination of women and publicly opposed slavery in the context of the French revolution: Olympe de Gouges. As a response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, she published a 'Declaration of the Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen', advocating for equal rights and challenging male authority and male oppression of women.[55]

Nowadays, outstanding women from the Global South and their important contributions to international law are gaining more and more attention, such as Navanethem Pillay, Hauwa Ibrahim, Xue Hanqin, Unity Dow or Taghreed Hikmat and Cecilia Medina Quiroga, besides many others.

This has only been a very limited selection and therefore much incomplete list of many trailblazing women and their important contributions to international law across different times and cultures. (Re)discovering the contributions of women to international law is still the subject of ongoing scholarly research and discussion.

Conclusion[edit | edit source]

This chapter has demonstrated that, despite the structural gender bias and barriers in the international legal field, women have been a significant part of international law—both as subjects of international legal instruments and as agents contributing to the development of the international legal order. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve full gender equality and meaningful inclusion in the international legal order. Women—especially those positioned within an intersectional background of discrimination and oppression—still face structural marginalisation in the international legal field, despite their continued relevance for the profession. As such, striving for gender equality and the recognition of women’s contribution to international law is still an important and much needed endeavour.

This chapter sought to introduce these themes only briefly. Interested students, researchers, and teachers can further explore the topics, challenges, and contributions of women to international law by using the further readings listed below.

Summary[edit | edit source]

  • Women have been subjects of international law across a variety of international legal instruments ranging from, among others, human rights, international labour law, international criminal law and international security resolutions.
  • Systematic and structural discrimination has led to the persisting and widespread invisibility and non-recognition of women as active agents of international law owed to, inter alia, the public-private divide, behavioural stereotypical gender roles, power imbalances and corresponding lack of or difficulty in access to financial resources, land, property, and institutional positions.
  • Despite longstanding marginalisation, women have been active designers of the international legal order—and whose recognition is a still relevant endeavour.

Further Readings[edit | edit source]

  • Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch, Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights (Routledge 2022).
  • Rebecca Adami, Women and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Routledge 2019).
  • Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The boundaries of international law: A feminist analysis, with a new introduction (Manchester University Press 2022).
  • Immi Tallgren (ed.), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press 2023).

Further Resources[edit | edit source]

Table of Contents[edit source]

Back to home page

Part I - History, Theory, and Methods

Part II - General International Law

Part III - Specialized Fields

Footnotes[edit source]

  1. ↑ Charlesworth, Hilary; Chinkin, Christine; Wright, Shelley (1991-10). "Feminist Approaches to International Law". American Journal of International Law. 85 (4): 613–645. doi:10.2307/2203269. ISSN 0002-9300. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ↑ See, among others, Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch and Alice Hamilton, Women at the Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results (Garland Pub 1972); Devaki Jain, Women, Development, and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice (Indiana University Press 2005); Katherine M Marino, Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement (The University of North Carolina Press 2019); Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch (eds), Women and the UN: A New History of Women’s International Human Rights (Routledge 2021); Giusi Russo, Women, Empires, and Body Politics at the United Nations, 1946-1975 (University of Nebraska Press 2023).
  3. ↑ a b Charter of the United Nations 1945 (1 UNTS XVI).
  4. ↑ Although non-binding in character, the UDHR has been understood as having been (partially) solidified as international custom. See, for instance, John Humphrey, ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Its History, Impact and Judicial Character’ in BG Ramcharan (ed), Human Rights. Thirty Years after the Universal Declaration (M Nijhoff 1979) 21–37; Hurst Hannum, ‘The UDHR in National and International Law’ [1998] Health and Human rights 144, 147–149.
  5. ↑ In this article, we understand sex as also being socially constructed (see Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity [1999] 1–32; Brenda Cossman, ‘Gender Performance, Sexual Subjects and International Law’ [2002] 15 Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 281; Dianne Otto, ‘Queering Gender [Identity] in International Law’ [2015] 33 Nordic Journal of Human Rights 299). Hence, our understanding is that human rights protection against discrimination and violence on the basis of sex encompasses all individuals that deviate from the socially constructed roles for sex/gender in society—which includes how bodies should ‘look like’. In simpler terms, our understanding of sex/gender is trans* and queer inclusive.
  6. ↑ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1966 (999 UNTS 171).
  7. ↑ Given ICCPR’s Article 3 central focus on gender equality, it is important to note that some State Parties have explicitly made reservations or interpretative declarations on this regard, namely: Bahrain (reservation), Liechtenstein (declaration), Monaco (declaration), Kuwait (declaration), and Qatar (reservation).
  8. ↑ State Parties have also issued declarations and reservations to these ICCPR Articles. For a full list, see here.
  9. ↑ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966 (999 UNTS 3). The State Parties that have made reservations or interpretative declarations on Article 3 of the ICESCR are Kuwait and Qatar.
  10. ↑ Some States have issued reservations to postpone the application of this provision, namely Barbados and the UK.
  11. ↑ International Labour Conference (34th session), Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100) 1951.
  12. ↑ International Labour Conference (88th session), Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183) 2000.
  13. ↑ International Labour Conference (77th session), Night Work Convention (No. 171) 1990.
  14. ↑ International Labour Conference (42nd session), Plantations Convention (No. 110) 1958.
  15. ↑ UN Economic and Social Council resolution 11(II), Commission on the Status of Women, E/RES/11(II) (21 June 1946).
  16. ↑ Most notably, these include the 1953 Convention on the Political Rights of Women and the 1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women.
  17. ↑ Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1979 (1249 UNTS 13).
  18. ↑ Seo-Young Cho, ‘International Women’s Convention, Democracy, and Gender Equality’ (2014) 95 Social Science Quarterly 719.
  19. ↑ Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women 1999 (2131 UNTS 83).
  20. ↑ Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) (adopted 11 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005).
  21. ↑ Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (adopted 9 June 1994, entered into force 5 March 1995) 33 ILM 1534 (Convention of Belém do Pará).
  22. ↑ Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights, as amended) (ECHR).
  23. ↑ The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
  24. ↑ Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998 (2187 UNTS 3), article 7(3).
  25. ↑ More specifically, these are enslavement and forced pregnancy when committed as a crime against humanity. See Rome Statute (n 20), articles 7(2)(c) and 7(2)(f).
  26. ↑ Rome Statute (n 20) articles 36(8)(a), 36(8)(b).
  27. ↑ Christine Chinkin, Women, Peace and Security and International Law (Cambridge University Press 2022) ch 2.
  28. ↑ UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), S/RES/1325(2000) (31 October 2000).
  29. ↑ These are resolutions 1820(2008), 1888(2009), 1889(2009), 1960(2010), 2106(2010), 2122(2013), 2242(2015), 2467(2019), 2493(2019).
  30. ↑ Hilary Charlesworth, ‘Feminist Methods in International Law’ (1999) 93 American Journal of International Law 379, 381; Dianne Otto, ‘The Exile of Inclusion: Reflections on Gender Issues in International Law over the Last Decade’ (2009) 10 Melbourne Journal of International Law 11; Dianne Otto, ‘Feminist Approaches to International Law’ in Anne Orford and Florian Hoffmann, The Oxford Handbook of the Theory of International Law (2016) 496; Christine Chinkin, ‘Gender and Armed Conflict’ in Andrew Clapham and Paola Gaeta (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict, vol 1 (Oxford University Press 2014); Nicola Pratt, ‘Reconceptualizing Gender, Reinscribing Racial–Sexual Boundaries in International Security: The Case of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security”’ (2013) 57 International Studies Quarterly 772.
  31. ↑ Laura Sjoberg, Women as Wartime Rapists: Beyond Sensation and Stereotyping (New York University Press 2017).
  32. ↑ Jamie J. Hagen, ‘Queering Women, Peace and Security’ (2016) 92 International Affairs 313; Tamsin Phillipa Paige, ‘The Maintenance of International Peace and Security Heteronormativity’ in Dianne Otto (ed), Queering international law: possibilities, alliances, complicities, risks (Routledge 2018); Marysia Zalewski and others (eds), Sexual Violence against Men in Global Politics (Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2020).
  33. ↑ See Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The boundaries of international law - A feminist analysis (Manchester University Press 2000) ix, 2.
  34. ↑ On this topic see, inter alia, Ratna Kapur, ‘The Tragedy of Victimisation Rhetoric: Resurrecting the “Native” Subject in International/Postcolonial Feminist Legal Politics’ (2002) 15 Harvard Human Rights Journal 1.
  35. ↑ For an emblematic example, however, reflecting to a certain extent a rather Western account of the public-private distinction in international relations, see Cynthia Enloe who underscored that '[g]overnments depend upon certain kinds of allegedly private relationships in order to conduct their foreign affairs. Governments need more than secrecy and intelligence agencies; they need wives who are willing to provide their diplomatic husbands with unpaid services so these men can develop trusting relationships with other diplomatic husbands. They need not only military hardware, but a steady supply of women's sexual services to convince their soldiers that they are manly. To operate in the international arena, governments seek other governments' recognition of their sovereignty; but they also depend on ideas about masculinized dignity and feminized sacrifice to sustain that sense of autonomous nationhood.' Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Pandora Press 1989) 196-197.
  36. ↑ See, inter alia, Caroline O. N. Moser, who described the triple role of women in the Global South and their limited access to (and control over) financial resources, land ownership, education, high income positions and political power. See Caroline O. N. Moser, 'Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs' (1989) 17 (11) World Development 1799, 1801, 1803,1812-1813. Furthermore, Maxine Molyneux considered as strategic gender interests to overcome women's subordination, inter alia, 'the abolition of the sexual division of labor, the alleviation of the burden of domestic labor and childcare, the removal of institutionalized forms of discrimination, the attainment of political equality, the establishment of freedom of choice over childbearing, and the adoption of adequate measures against male violence and control over women.' Maxine Molyneux, 'Mobilization without emancipation? Women’s interests, state and revolution in Nicargua.' (1985) 11 (2) Feminist Studies 227, 232-233. See also V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, ''Global Gender Issues'' (Avalon Publishing 1993) 62, 77, as well as the narration of Virginia Woolf on the restriction of women's (creative) development through lack of (financial) resources, own premises and access to education, leading to 'the safety and prosperity of the one sex and of the poverty and insecurity of the other and of the effect of tradition and of the lack of tradition upon the writer.' Virginia Woolf, A room of one's own (Hogarth Press 1929) 19-21, 72-74, 90. See also Catherine Kessedjian, 'Gender Equality in the Judiciary – with an Emphasis on International Judiciary' in Elisa Fornalé (ed), Gender Equality in the Mirror: Reflecting on Power, Participation and Global Justice (Brill 2022) 195, 202-205.
  37. ↑ For the distinction made between polis (public sphere) and oikos (private sphere) in Ancient Greece see Margaret Thornton, 'The cartography of public and private' in Margaret Thornton Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates (Oxford University Press 1995) 2-4.
  38. ↑ Margaret Thornton has described gender roles and their assignment to specific spheres in Ancient Greece as follows: within the private sphere as a space of production and reproduction the master ruled over his wife, children and slaves, the work of whom allowed him to engage in matters of public affairs, a sphere inaccessible for women and slaves. Cf. Margaret Thornton, 'The cartography of public and private' in Margaret Thornton Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates (Oxford University Press 1995) 2-3. With regard to similar definitions of the public-private divide in feminist theory see, inter alia, Rebecca Grant, 'The sources of gender bias in international relations theory' in Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (eds), Gender and International Relations (Indiana University Press 1991) 8, 11-12; Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The boundaries of international law - A feminist analysis (Manchester University Press 2000) 56; V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, Global Gender Issues (Avalon Publishing 1993) 34, 92.
  39. ↑ Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The boundaries of international law - A feminist analysis (Manchester University Press 2000) 56. See also the connection between sovereign men and sovereign States in V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, Global Gender Issues (Avalon Publishing 1993) 34.
  40. ↑ See, inter alia, Susan B. Boyd, Challenging the Public/Private Divide: Feminism, Law, and Public Policy (University of Toronto Press 1997). A description of critical arguments brought forward against the approach of the public-private divide with further sources can be found in Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, The boundaries of international law - A feminist analysis (Manchester University Press 2000) 56; V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, Global Gender Issues (Avalon Publishing 1993) 57-59.
  41. ↑ As Rebecca Solnit underscored: 'Think of how much more time and enery we would have to focus on other things that matter if we weren't so busy surviving.' Men Explain Things To Me (HAymarket Books 2014) 35.
  42. ↑ See, by way of illustration, the tragic story of Shakespeare's fictional sister described by Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf, A room of one's own (Hogarth Press 1929) 39-41.
  43. ↑ From 1947 until 2022, there were seven women at the International Law Commission, which is 3% compared to 229 or 97% men. See Priya Pillai, 'Symposium on Gender Representation: Representation of Women at the International Law Commission' (Opinio Juris, 7 October 2021) <http://opiniojuris.org/2021/10/07/symposium-on-gender-representation-representation-of-women-at-the-international-law-commission/. See also Lorenzo Gradoni, 'Still Losing: A Short History of Women in Elections (and By-Elections) for the UN International Law Commission' (EJIL:Talk!, 25 November 2021) <https://www.ejiltalk.org/still-losing-a-short-history-of-women-in-elections-and-by-elections-for-the-un-international-law-commission/.
  44. ↑ See the description of female representation in international courts with further sources of Catherine Kessedjian in 2022: 'Concerning the ICJ despite a complete renewal of the judges between 1945 and 1969, no woman was elected until 1995 (Dame Rosalyn Higgins). In 2021, three women out of a total of 15 are on the bench: (by order of election) Joan E. Donoghue (2010), [...] Xue Hanqin (2010), and Julia Sebutinde (2012). There are almost no women ad hoc judges at the ICJ. The Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Hamburg) is composed of 21 judges, five of whom are women. At the International Criminal Court, the situation has worsened: at the initiation of the court there was an equal number of women and men. However, in 2019 women accounted for only one-third of the bench. A decrease has also been seen at the European Court of Human Rights despite the policy announced by the Council that it would not be acceptable for Member States to propose a list that does not include at least one woman. The World Trade Organization (WTO) panel members did not include a woman until 2003.' Catherine Kessedjian, 'Gender Equality in the Judiciary – with an Emphasis on International Judiciary' in Elisa Fornalé (ed), Gender Equality in the Mirror: Reflecting on Power, Participation and Global Justice (Brill 2022) 195, 201. See also, by mode of example, Nienke Grossman, 'Sex on the Bench: Do Women Judges Matter to the Legitimacy of International Courts?' (2012) Chi. J. Int'l L. 647; Nienke Grossman, 'Shattering the Glass Ceiling in International Adjudication' (2016) 56 Va. J. Int'l L. 1; Leigh Swigart and Daniel Terris, “Who are International Judges?” in Cesare P. R. Romano, Karen J. Alter, and Yuval Shany (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication (Oxford University Press 2014) 619.
  45. ↑ On the topic, see Heather Barr, 'Time for a Female UN Secretary-General? Guterres Reelection Run Shouldn’t Deter Nominations of Qualified Women' (Human Rights Watch, 2 March 2021) <https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/02/time-female-un-secretary-general>.
  46. ↑ Nancy Fraser has described such cultural injustice as being rooted 'in social patterns of representation, interpretation, and communication. Examples include cultural domination (being subjected to patterns of interpretation and communication that are associated with another culture and are alien and/or hostile to one's own); nonrecognition (being rendered invisible by means of the authoritative representational, communicative, and interpretative practices of one's culture); and disrespect (being routinely maligned or disparaged in stereotypic public cultural representations and/or in everyday life interactions).' Nancy Fraser, Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist Condition" (Routledge 1997) 14.
  47. ↑ Mary Becker emphasized that 'patriarchy as a social system within which rules operate - a social system that is male-centered, male-identified, male-dominated, and obsessed with power over and control of others - remains entirely invisible. Patriarchy can be challenged, but only by those who see it.' Mary Becker, 'Patriarchy and Inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism' (1999) University of Chicago Legal Forum 21, 83. See also Catherine Kessedjian who in her explanation for the underrepresentation of women in international courts stated: 'Power is still the prerogative of white men aged over 50 years. They have no reason to give up a system that has worked to their advantage for decades. In other words, white men are privileged but they are privilege-blind. Most of them would be the proper vehicle for change.' Catherine Kessedjian, 'Gender Equality in the Judiciary – with an Emphasis on International Judiciary' in Elisa Fornalé (ed), Gender Equality in the Mirror: Reflecting on Power, Participation and Global Justice (Brill 2022) 195, 205.
  48. ↑ James Brown Scott, Classics of International Law, Volumes I and II (Carnegie Institution 1912).
  49. ↑ Rebecca Adami and Dan Plesch, Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights (Routledge 2022).
  50. ↑ Immi Tallgren (ed), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press 2023).
  51. ↑ Morsink, Johannes (1991-05). "Women's Rights in the Universal Declaration". Human Rights Quarterly. 13 (2): 229. doi:10.2307/762661. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  52. ↑ Elise Dietrichson and Fatima Sator, ‘The Latin American Women: How They Shaped the UN Charter and Why Southern Agency Is Forgotten’ in Rebecca Adami and Daniel Plesch (eds), Women and the UN: a new history of women’s international human rights (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2022).
  53. ↑ Khushi Singh Rathore, ‘Excavating hidden histories: Indian women in the early history of the United Nations’ in Rebecca Adami and Daniel Plesch (eds), Women and the UN: a new history of women’s international human rights (Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2022).
  54. ↑ On the life, work and contributions to international law of Bertha von Suttner see, inter alia, Jane Elisabeth Nijman, 'Bertha von Suttner: Locating International Law in Novel and Salon' in Immi Tallgren (ed), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press 2023) 87; Simone Peter, 'Bertha von Suttner' (1843–1914)' in Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford University Press 2012) 1142; Anne Dienelt and Isabelle-Catherine Nebe, 'Bertha von Suttner' in Verena Kahl (ed), Calendar on Outstanding Women of International, European and Constitutional Law (University of Hamburg 2022), digital portrait <https://www.jura.uni-hamburg.de/forschung/institute-forschungsstellen-und-zentren/iia/kooperationen-projekte/womencalendar.html>.
  55. ↑ With regard to the life and important contributions of Olympe de Gouges to international (human rights) law see, inter alia, Anne Lagerwall and Agatha Verdebout, 'Olympe de Gouges: Beyond the Symbol' in Immi Tallgren (ed), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press 2023) 56; Sandrine Bergès, Olympe de Gouges (Cambridge University Press 2022); Sophie Mousset, Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe De Gouges (Transaction Publishers 2007).
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