Women’s rights, at their very core, are the rights and entitlements afforded to women and girls. These include the right to bodily integrity and autonomy, the right to be free from sexual violence, reproductive rights, the right to vote, freedom of movement, the right to own property, the right to an education, the right to fair wages and equal pay, and many more. Gender-based violence, restrictions on reproductive rights, unequal pay, and the elimination of women’s and girls’ freedom of movement are just a few of the countless restrictions on rights that women and girls face today in the 21st century.
Across the African continent, millions of women and girls face mistreatment, neglect, and abuse during childbirth and while seeking reproductive health care. This form of gender-based violence, known as obstetric violence, violates their rights to dignity, health, and life. It leaves many too afraid to seek the care they need, contributing to high rates of preventable maternal deaths across the continent.
Women and girls in conflict zones face particular threats to their safety and bodily autonomy, as the use of rape as a weapon of war is distressingly common. In Sri Lanka, Tamil women await justice for the sexual violence committed against them sixteen years after the end of the country’s brutal civil war. In Sudan, sexual violence, including child rape, continues unabated as the country’s civil war continues to rage; one-quarter of the country’s population is at risk of gender-based violence.
In Afghanistan, since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, women’s rights have been eliminated in near-totality. Girls and women are banned from education after the age of 12, including universities. This has dramatically impacted even early childhood education, with primary school enrollment rates for girls dropping from 6.8 million in 2019 to 5.7 million in 2022. They have been forced out of most jobs, and have been barred from being seen or heard in public, the most restrictive living conditions for women and girls anywhere in the world.
Introduction: Gendered Governance under Authoritarianism Authoritarian regimes do not affect men and women in the same way. Rather than governing solely through coercion, they frequently exploit existing patriarchal structures to transform women’s social roles, motherhood, professional identities, and citizenship into mechanisms of political control. Using the aftermath of the failed coup attempt of July 15,…
More than three decades have passed since the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. During this period, important legal and political changes occurred. Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who were largely ignored in the immediate post-war years gradually achieved legal recognition through sustained advocacy by survivor groups, women’s organizations and human rights institutions….
There is a particular quality of fire that destroys completely and, in doing so, reveals exactly what must be rebuilt, and by whom. I have spent over three decades fighting for women and girls, often in the world’s most dangerous places. I drafted post-conflict constitutions in Iraq and Kosovo. I worked proudly across five different…
Humanity stands at a crossroads where technological advancements are rigorously used as a tool to escalate violence against women and suppress their civic, political, and social empowerment. While AI-ridden developments are surely closing many disparities in terms of citizens` access to resources, including access to quality education, health, and financial services, we must acknowledge the…
The violations of women’s human rights by the Taliban in Afghanistan are egregious. Imposing economic sanctions alone will not suffice. A change in strategy and better understanding of the Taliban’s mindset is needed to compel them to respect women’s rights The Taliban’s egregious violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan, especially banning women from education and…
The right to abortion is a human rights issue that no government agency, courts, local and state legislators, or anyone else has the right to violate or impede in any shape or form. It is a fundamental right that every woman must be free to exercise with impunity, in consultation with her doctor only, who…
Erdogan’s decision to withdraw Turkey from the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women is by far the most despicable turn he has yet taken against women It is hard to find something more scornful than Erdogan’s sudden decision to withdraw Turkey from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing…