Women as Aliens: A Feminists Critique of the Public Private Distinction in International Human Rights Law
Author(s)
Romany, Celina
Abstract
Human rights discourse is a powerful tool for condemning state acts and omissions that violate basic principles of civility and citizenship. Violence is an egregious affront to the core and basic notions of civility and citizenship. This article critiques the human rights discourse in an attempt to make it responsive to the most basic rights of women. It condemns a human rights framework which construes the civil and political rights of individuals as belonging to public life while neglecting to protect the infringement of those rights in the private sphere of familial relationships. It condemns such a framework for not holding the state accountable for the state’s systematic failure to institute the necessary political and legal protections to ensure the basic rights of life, integrity, and dignity of women.
