Documenting Women's Rights Violations by Non-State Actors
SummaryText
This manual aims to provide tools to help further the work of activists - particularly those investigating and addressing violence against women perpetrated by non-state actors. It is especially designed for activists without legal backgrounds, with the aim of directing them towards legal definitions and human rights mechanisms that may help them in their efforts to ensure that states fully meet their obligation to protect.
Excerpted from the Introduction:
"The manual has two main aims: (a) to facilitate the understanding of formal legal approaches by explaining the steps involved in documenting human rights violations by non-state actors within the international human rights system; (b) to explore non-legal approaches, i.e., activist work that is carried on outside the formal law-based human rights system but that uses human rights concepts and principles.
It also describes documentation work related to the kinds of abuses to which women fall victim. It highlights the process of evidence collection, the use of different methodologies to gather such evidence, and information on what to do with it. Attention is also given to some of the questions activists must ask themselves beforehand. The scope of this manual does not allow for a detailed explanation of the requirements for legal documentation, since legal remedies and procedures are based on the domestic legal framework of a given country. Information is included, however, on how activists use evidence based on documentation work in non-legal ways...
The manual offers examples of how women have used human rights in their local context while providing information that can help them become more familiar with - and possibly engage in - the international human rights system.
The manual offers concrete examples of specific kinds of violence against women perpetrated by non-state actors and identifies strategies that have been used in various regions to address them. The emphasis is on strategies that have proved successful. Arguments that challenge the work of women’s advocates and the issue of possible backlash are also addressed."
Excerpted from the Introduction:
"The manual has two main aims: (a) to facilitate the understanding of formal legal approaches by explaining the steps involved in documenting human rights violations by non-state actors within the international human rights system; (b) to explore non-legal approaches, i.e., activist work that is carried on outside the formal law-based human rights system but that uses human rights concepts and principles.
It also describes documentation work related to the kinds of abuses to which women fall victim. It highlights the process of evidence collection, the use of different methodologies to gather such evidence, and information on what to do with it. Attention is also given to some of the questions activists must ask themselves beforehand. The scope of this manual does not allow for a detailed explanation of the requirements for legal documentation, since legal remedies and procedures are based on the domestic legal framework of a given country. Information is included, however, on how activists use evidence based on documentation work in non-legal ways...
The manual offers examples of how women have used human rights in their local context while providing information that can help them become more familiar with - and possibly engage in - the international human rights system.
The manual offers concrete examples of specific kinds of violence against women perpetrated by non-state actors and identifies strategies that have been used in various regions to address them. The emphasis is on strategies that have proved successful. Arguments that challenge the work of women’s advocates and the issue of possible backlash are also addressed."
Publishers
Number of Pages
93
Source
Bocongo - Weekly Brief #19, 2006.
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