Women's Human Rights

Susan Deller Ross is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and Founder and Director of the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at Georgetown. RossRights.com is an an online documentary supplement to Women's Human Rights: The International and Comparative Law Casebook.

• PrefaceUsing This BookAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Women's Status and CEDAWI. Women's Human Rights: An IntroductionII. Women's Status Around the WorldIII. The Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against WomenIV. Case Study: AfghanistanChapter 2. Equality Doctrines and Gender Discrimination: The Evolving Jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and the U.S. Supreme CourtI. Early International Sources of Women's Human RightsII. The UN Human Rights Committee: Its Role and FunctionIII. Equality Doctrines, Gender, and the United States Supreme Court: A Comparative StandardChapter 3. The Interrelationship of the ICCPR and the ICESCR; and the Human Rights Committee's Evolving Equal Protection DoctrineI. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)II. Applying Equal Protection to Different Sex-Based StatutesIII. Case Study: Philippine Family LawChapter 4. Conflicting Human Rights Under International Law: Freedom of Religion Versus Women's Equality RightsI. Comparison of Religious Fundamentalist Norms in Five ReligionsII. The UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human RightsIII. Religious Freedom and Women's Rights Under the ICCPR and CEDAWIV. A Comparative View of How the Conflict Between Religious Freedom and Women's Rights Is Resolved Under the U.S. ConstitutionChapter 5. Enforcing Women's International Human Rights Under Regional Treaties: The American Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' RightsI. Introduction to the American Convention on Human RightsII. A Challenge to Costa Rica's Gender-Based Nationality LawIII. Case Study: Costa Rican Nationality Law Revisited in a Costa Rican CourtIV. Other Women's Issues in the American SystemV. Introduction to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' RightsVI. The Relevance to Women of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' RightsChapter 6. Enforcing Women's International Human Rights Under Regional Treaties: The [European] Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental FreedomsI. Introduction to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental FreedomsII. Using the European ConventionChapter 7. Economic Empowerment and Employment Discrimination: Europe and the United States ComparedI. Women's Economic EmpowermentII. The European SystemIII. The United States SystemChapter 8. The Special Treatment Versus Equal Treatment DebateI. The International Labour OrganizationII. Special Treatment Versus Equal Treatment in the Context of Childbirth and ChildcareChapter 9. CEDAW in PracticeI. Egypt as Case Study: CEDAW's Effectiveness in Addressing the Subordination of Women in MarriageII. Strategies for Using CEDAW to Effect Change at HomeChapter 10. Enforcing Women's International Rights at Home: International Law in Domestic CourtsI. The Relationship Between National and International Law: TheoryII. Applying the International Right to Equal Treatment Without Regard to Gender in Domestic CourtsIII. Applying the International Right Against Slavery and Slave-like Practices in a Domestic CourtChapter 11. Strategies to Combat Domestic ViolenceI. Domestic Violence and "Honor Crimes"II. Holding the State Responsible for Private ViolenceIII. International and Regional Law Concerning Domestic ViolenceIV. Examples of Different State Mechanisms in ActionChapter 12. Strategies for Ending Female Genital Mutilation and Footbinding: Western Imperialism or Women's Human Rights?I. Cultural RelativismII. FGM: The Practice, Its Consequences, and Its PrevalenceIII. Footbinding—Comparing Two MovementsIV. Breast Implants: Female Breast Mutilation?V. National Legal Approaches: What Works?Chapter 13. Gender and Polygyny—Religion, Culture, and Equality in MarriageI. An Introduction to the Practice of PolygynyII. Women's VoicesIII. Equal Protection Versus Religious FreedomIV. Perspectives on PolygynyV. A Case Study: UgandaVI. Resolving the Polygyny QuestionChapter 14. Women's Reproductive RightsI. IntroductionII. Abortion: Women's Autonomy Versus Fetal LifeIII. Sex-Selective Abortion: A Conflict of InterestsIV. Child Marriage and Reproductive RightsTable of CasesGlossaryAcronyms and Short FormsCredits and PermissionsIndex

"Susan Deller Ross has provided us with an important addition to existing human rights law teaching materials with her casebook on women's human rights. The book brings the complex array of legal, political, social, and cultural issues involved in protecting women's human rights front and center for students and teachers of international law. The case book demonstrates that, because of their reach and their complexity, women's human rights deserve to be studied in and of themselves not just as one segment of an international human rights course. Providing a holistic picture of the status of women in international law, the casebook offers equal doses of the legal gains we are making and how far there still is to go." (Human Rights Quarterly)