Read complete books and articles on: Human Rights and Women

Human Rights - universal rights held to belong to individuals by virtue of their being human, encompassing civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights and freedoms, and based on the notion of personal human dignity and worth. Conceptually derived from the theory of natural law and originating in Greco-Roman doctrines, the idea of human rights appears in some early Christian writers' works and is reflected in the Magna Carta (1215). The concept winds as a philosophical thread through 17th- and 18th-century European and American thought, including the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789). The United Nation's Commission on Human Rights, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair, created the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which reasserted the concept of human rights after the horrors of World War II. Human rights have since become a universally espoused yet widely disregarded concept.

Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch promote human rights and denounce human-rights abuses. In addition, such abuses around the world are monitored and documented by independent investigators ("special rapporteurs") appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission, which, in turn, rebukes cited nations for their human-rights failures. The charging in 1998 by a Spanish court of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet with human-rights violations and the 1999 British ruling that he could be extradited to Spain, as well as the indictment and arrest (2000) in Senegal of former Chadian president Hissène Habré for human-rights violations during his presidency (although charges were later dropped), were regarded as steps forward in the international protection of human rights.

See M. A. Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2001).

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Human Rights and Women

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives » Read Now
by Rebecca J. Cook. 640 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Human Rights of Women University of Pennsylvania Press...appears at the back of this volume Human Rights of Women National and International...Cataloging-in-Publication...
2.

Women's Voices, Women's Rights: Oxford Amnesty Lectures 1996 » Read Now
by Alison Jeffries. 135 pgs.

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Womens Voices, Womens Rights explores a range of themes including liberal political theory, religion and economic theory, equal enjoyment of rights, matrimony, women and fundamentalist religion.
3.

Gender, Planning and Human Rights » Read Now
by Tovi Fenster. 182 pgs.

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This collection challenges the traditional treatment of human rights. The book argues that to truly promote the notion of human rights its scope must be widened to include issues of space, gender and power. The contributors use a wealth of international case studies to lay out a new agenda for...
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This collection challenges the traditional treatment of human rights. The book argues that to truly promote the notion of human rights its scope must be widened to include issues of space, gender and power. The contributors use a wealth of international case studies to lay out a new agenda for successfully integrating human rights issues in planning, development and policy making.
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4.

Reinventing International Law: Women's Rights as Human Rights in the International Community, in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars » Read Now
by Radhika Coomaraswamy. 11 pgs.

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...International Human Rights," in Human Rights of Women: National and International...Private Distinction," in Human Rights of Women , ed. R. J. Cook, p. 94...international...
5.

The Gendering of Human Rights: Women and the Latin American Terrorist State, in Feminist Studies » Read Now
by Nancy Caro Hollander. 40 pgs.

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...THE GENDERING OF HUMAN RIGHTS: WOMEN AND THE LATIN AMERICAN...social circumstances women are often isolated by the human rights violations they suffer...in the Front Line:...
6.

Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights » Read Now
by Harriet Hyman Alonso. 342 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...of womens rights became more...that each human being had...equality for women were necessary...own basic human rights within U...which offered women an...
7.

Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus (Chap. 13 "Considering Gender: Are Human Rights for Women, Too? An Australian Case") » Read Now
by Abdullahi An-Na'Im Ahmed. 480 pgs.

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...Consensus . 1992 Rebecca J. Cook, editor. Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives . 1994...295 13. Considering Gender: Are Human Rights for Women...
8.

Human Rights: The Essential Reference (Chap. 10 "Universal Suffrage and Early Feminism") » Read Now
by Carol Devine, Carol Rae Hansen, Ralph Wilde. 314 pgs.

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Now, for the first time, there is a single reference work that documents the history of human rights worldwide, clearly explains each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and examines the major human rights issues facing the world today. Comprehensive in scope, Human Rights covers a...
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Now, for the first time, there is a single reference work that documents the history of human rights worldwide, clearly explains each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and examines the major human rights issues facing the world today. Comprehensive in scope, Human Rights covers a broad range of human rights issues that are central to an understanding of world history and current affairs.
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9.

The Colonial Heritage of Human Rights in Indonesia: The Case of the Vote for Women, 1916-41, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies » Read Now
by Elsbeth Locher-Scholten. 20 pgs.

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10.

International Human Rights, Decolonisation and Globalisation: Becoming Human (Chap. 3 "Witches, Slaves and Savages") » Read Now
by Shelly Wright. 274 pgs.

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Covering a diverse range of topics, case studies and theories, the author undertakes a critique of the principal assumptions on which the existing international human rights regime has been constructed. She argues that the decolonization of human rights, and the creation of a global community that...
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Covering a diverse range of topics, case studies and theories, the author undertakes a critique of the principal assumptions on which the existing international human rights regime has been constructed. She argues that the decolonization of human rights, and the creation of a global community that is conducive to the well-being of all humans, will require a radical restructuring of our ways of thinking, researching and writing. In contributing to this restructuring she brings together feminist and indigenous approaches as well as postmodern and post-colonial scholarship, engaging directly with some of the prevailing orthodoxies, such as 'universality', 'the individual', 'self-determination', 'cultural relativism', 'globalization' and 'civil society'.
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11.

Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (Chap. 5 "Discrimination against Women and Non-Muslims" and Chap. 6 "Restrictions on the Rights and Freedoms of Women") » Read Now
by Ann Elizabeth Mayer. 258 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Revised and updated, this edition offers critical assessments of recent Islamic human-rights schemes that dilute or eliminate the human-rights protections afforded by international law and compares these with Islamic legal heritage and human-rights law.
12.

Rape as a Weapon of War: Advancing Human Rights for Women at the U.S.-Mexico Border, in Social Justice » Read Now
by Sylvanna Falcon. 20 pgs.

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13.

Women, Democracy and Islam: A Nobel Laureate's Views on Human Rights, in UN Chronicle » Read Now
by Nguyen Tang Le Huy Quoc-Benjamin. 2 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library