Gender, Society & Development Gender, rights and development A global sourcebook  Gender, Society & Development Gender, rights and development A global sourcebook Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Shamim Meer Editors CRITICAL REVIEWS AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES SERIES Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) Gender, rights and development. A global sourcebook KIT Publishers has been developed by the Royal Tropical Institute P.O. Box 95001 (KIT), The Netherlands. 1090 HA AMSTERDAM The views expressed in documents by named authors The Netherlands are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of Telephone: +31 (0) 20 568 8272 the publishing organizations. Telefax: +31 (0) 20 568 8286 E-mail: publishers@kit.nl Website: www.kit.nl Other titles in the Gender, Society & Development series: • Advancing women’s status: women and men © 2008 Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), together? (1995) Amsterdam M. de Bruyn (ed.) • Gender training. The source book (1998) First published by KIT Publishers 2008 S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (eds.) Editors: Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and • Women’s information services and networks. Shamim Meer A global source book (1999) S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (eds.) Design: Grafisch Ontwerpbureau Agaatsz BNO, • Institutionalizing gender equality. Commitment, Meppel policy and practice. A global source book (2000) Cover: Ad van Helmond, Amsterdam H. van Dam, A. Khadar and M. Valk (eds.) Printing: High Trade, Zwolle • Gender perspectives on property and inheritance. A global source book (2001) ISBN 978 90 6832 742 7 S. Cummings, H. van Dam, A. Khadar and M. Valk Printed and bound in Hungary (eds.) • Natural resources management and gender. A global source book (2002) S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (eds.) • Gender, citizenship and governance. A global source book (2004) S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (eds.) • Gender and ICTs for development. A global sourcebook (2005) S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (series eds.) • Gender and health: policy and practice. A global sourcebook (2006) S. Cummings, H. van Dam and M. Valk (series editors) • Revisiting gender training – the making and remaking of gender knowledge. A global sourcebook (2007) H. van Dam and M. Valk (series editors) Contents Acknowledgements 6 Acronyms 7 Introduction: Gender, rights and development 11 Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Shamim Meer 1 Citizens or mothers? The marginalization of women’s reproductive rights in the struggle for access to health care for HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa 27 Cathi Albertyn and Shamim Meer 2 Talking rights or what is right? Understandings and strategies around sexual, reproductive and abortion rights in Nicaragua 57 Sarah Bradshaw, Ana Criquillion, Vilma Castillo A. and Goya Wilson 3 Leaving our fears behind: women claiming rights after the Bhopal Gas Disaster. A case study 69 Jashodhara Dasgupta 4 The empowerment of women: rights and entitlements in Arab Worlds 85 Hania Sholkamy 5 In search of new images: when feminism meets development 101 Everjoice Win Guide to the annotated bibliography 112 Annotated bibliography 113 Author index 153 Geographical index 155 Web resources 156 About the authors 158  Acknowledgements A major objective of this publication is to document the experiences of practitioners and experts with respect to the varied practices of rights in development and how these have addressed gender equality and women’s autonomy in the South in particular. The Series Editors are delighted that it has been possible to realize this objective. Special thanks go to Shamim Meer and Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, Editors of this publication, for sharing their knowledge and experience. We would like to record our warm and deep appreciation of Cathi Albertyn, Sarah Bradshaw, Vilma Castillo A., Ana Criquillion, Jashodhara Dasgupta, Shamim Meer, Hania Sholkamy, Goya Wilson, and Everjoice Win for their important contribution to this book. Acknowledgements also go to Ilse Egers and Christine Hayes for their input to the bibliography and to Harry Heemskerk for his patience and support. We would also like to thank Nadamo Bos for her assistance in the production of the book. Henk van Dam and Minke Valk Series Editors, Gender, Society & Development g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t 6 Acronyms and abbreviations AAI ActionAid International AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome ALP AIDS Law Project, South Africa ANC African National Congress APF Anti Privatisation Forum, South Africa APWLD Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Thailand ARROW Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women ARVs Anti-retroviral drugs AU African Union AUC The American University in Cairo AWID Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Canada BGP MSKS Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh (Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Stationery Workers Union), India BGP MUS Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan (Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Enterprise Organisation), India BPFA Beijing Platform for Action CALS Centre for Applied Legal Studies, South Africa CBOs Community-based organizations CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CIIR Catholic Institute for International Relations CLADEM Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights) CoSos Conflict ridden societies CRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child CREA Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action acronyms and abbreviations CRIN Child Rights Information Network CRP Child rights programming CSO Civil society organization DAC Development Assistance Committee DAW UN Division for the Advancement of Women DC Development Cooperation DFID Department for International Development, UK EGM Expert Group Meeting ELMPS Eqypt Labor Market Panel Study ESCR Economic, social and cultural rights EWIC Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures FAQ Frequently Asked Questions FGC/M Female genital cutting/mutilation 7  FIDA International Federation of Women Lawyers FOMWAN Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria GAD Gender and Development GOI Government of India GOVNET OECD-DAC Network on Governance GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Germany HIV Human immune deficiency virus HRBA Human rights-based approach HREA Human Rights Education Association HURIDOCS Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee ICA Investment Climate Assessment ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICPD International Conference on Population and Development ICRW International Center for Research on Women, USA IDS Institute of Development Studies, UK INGO International non-governmental organization INTRAC International NGO Training and Research Centre, UK ITDG Intermediate Technology Development Group, UK IWRAW International Women’s Rights Action Watch IWTC International Women’s Tribune Center, USA JASS Just Associates KIT Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands LGBT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people LPM Landless People’s Movement, South Africa MAM Autonomous Women’s Movement, Nicaragua MD Millennium Declaration MDG(s) Millennium Development Goal(s) MENA Middle East and North Africa region MNCs Multinational companies MRS Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista (Sandinista Renovation Movement), Nicaragua MTCT Mother-to-child transmission g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t NGOs Non-governmental organizations ODI Overseas Development Institute, UK OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights PD Paris Declaration PDHRE People’s Movement for Human Rights Education POA Platform of Action PRAMs Participatory rights assessment methodologies PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper ROL Rule of law RBA(s) Rights-based approach(es) RRA Reproductive Rights Alliance, South Africa SHUR Human Rights in Conflict: The Role of Civil Society project SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 8 TAC Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa UC Union Carbide UCC Union Carbide Company UDF United Democratic Front, South Africa UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UMI University of Michigan, USA UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIFEM United Fund for Women UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development WARI Women’s Action & Resource Initiative WEDO Women’s Environment and Development Organization, USA WHO World Health Organization WICCE Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange WICEJ Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice WID Women in Development WWHR Women for Women’s Human Rights acronyms and abbreviations 9 Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Shamim Meer Introduction: Gender, rights and development This publication explores whether the field of development is actually able to deliver on rights in a way that advances a gender equality agenda and treats and sees women as entities in themselves, worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations. In the past two decades global and local social and political movements of marginalized groups have arisen to advance greater inclusion and access to resources and rights in a context of increasing inequality within and between nations (O’Brien et al 2000; Edwards and Gaventa 2001; Molyneux and Razavi 2002). In international development the rise of rights is relatively recent, dating from the late 1990s. However, there is no one rights-based approach (RBA), and different institutional actors such as the UN, multilateral and bilateral agencies, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have brought different conceptual understandings as well as varied practices of rights in development, and not all of these have addressed gender equality goals. A number of critiques of RBAs have emerged in the past years. In the main these question the extent to which development will in fact be able to take on the emanci- patory intention of the architects of rights-based approaches. The fear is that just as the feminist agenda of mainstreaming gender in development lost its political edge and transformatory power and was reduced to mere rhetoric within development institutions, this will be the way of RBAs (Tsikata 2007; Batliwala 2007). While many of these critiques are by feminists, the central thrust of their arguments relate to whether the emancipatory potential of rights discourse and practice will be realized within development without sufficiently interrogating the implication of rights discourse and practice for advancing women’s autonomy. This is an area that needs considerable research, and this publication attempts to explore the difficulties and potential to advance women’s autonomy and freedom within the discourse of rights-based approaches to development The publication also explores how rights thinking and practice is shaped by actual introduction struggles. Batliwala (2007) reminds us that it is important to distinguish between the discourse of rights in development and rights-based movements for equality, develop- ment, and self determination – that were part of anti-colonial struggles as well as of current struggles by movements of marginalized groups. In the first part of this introduction we contextualize why it is that rights were taken up within development by different actors, the common principles that constitute 11  RBAs, the contests over meanings and a critique of current practice. In the second part we explore the opportunities and challenges for advancing women’s autonomy, agency and freedom from oppressive gender relations, bringing in perspectives of the contributors from different regions of the world to explore the problematic in advancing gender equality goals and women’s rights through development work. Contextualizing rights-based approaches in development Why rights? Why now? Rights were taken up by mainstream development actors – the UN, bilateral agencies and international NGOs relatively recently – in the mid 1990s. This was a time of growing acknowledgement that conventional development approaches had failed to eliminate poverty and inequality, and of continued debates on the goal and purpose of development, with increasing evidence from advocates, practitioners and academics, particularly from the south, that neo-liberal policies which privileged markets and gave rise to structural adjustment programmes were in fact widening disparities within and between countries. These critiques noted the failure of development initiatives to involve people in their own development and to promote respect for human rights. In some ways responding to these challenges, a strong lobby emerged within the UN advancing that the goal of development should be human development. Informed by the work of Amartya Sen, the first Human Development Report in 1990 defined the basic purpose of develop- ment as the expansion of choices so that people may live the lives they have reason to value. In this view, economic growth was a means to widen choice; and building human capabilities – the range of things people can do or be – was fundamental to expanding choice. The most basic capabilities of human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to resources that enable one to have a decent standard of living, and to be able to participate in social and political life. Without these capabilities, many other choices are simply not accessible (Mukhopadhyay 2004). g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Sen characterizes rights as ‘freedoms’ and human rights as ensuring freedom of action. Civil and political rights ensure freedom from coercion, while economic and social rights promote the freedom to access resources. Each one is necessary for the full realization of the other. The Human Development Report of 2000 brought together the goals of human development and human rights in expanding freedom, well-being and human dignity for all with the expansion of freedom being the primary end and the principle means of development (UNDP 2000). While human development and human rights share the common purpose of expanding freedoms, they represent different approaches that can add value through integration. Sen shows that the value of a rights-based approach to development lies in the notion of claims that the idea of rights puts forward. To have a right means to have a claim on other people or institutions that they should help or collaborate in ensuring access to some freedom. While the purpose of human development is to expand freedoms, 12 this does not oblige individuals, collectivities and social institutions to bring about human development. A rights-based approach on the other hand links human develop- ment to the idea that others have duties to facilitate and enhance human development. In 1997, the UN Secretary General called on all entities of the UN system to main- stream human rights into their activities and programmes, and several UN agencies developed their own interpretations of RBAs and adopted these within their programmes. NGOs and movements campaigned for a rights-based approach at the World Social Development Summit at Copenhagen in 1995. As Batliwala (2007) notes, the rationale of ‘international activist NGOs’ in advancing RBAs was to replace the notion of benevolent states voluntarily fulfilling basic human needs by the more potent framing of basic needs as basic rights. Framed in this way adequate incomes, health, education and so on are no longer handed out from above as acts of charity, but are basic rights that states are obliged to deliver and which citizens may rightfully claim. Among bilaterals, SIDA and DFID are cited as early leaders in rights-based approaches and several others have since adapted RBAs to fit their international development policy. Among international NGOs, Oxfam, ActionAid International and Care as well as others have taken up rights-based approaches. While there is widespread acceptance of RBAs to development, the manner and extent of their uptake is dependent on the history, institutional culture, politics and governance structure of the specific development actor. For some international donors, rights language was a way of bringing legitimacy to conditionalities in an era which emphasized partnerships and policy dialogue (Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2005). To paraphrase Slim (2002, cited in Uvin 2002), rights talk in Washington may simply be used as new words in which to couch the same neo-liberal actions, while for a woman in a slum-dwellers organization, these words could constitute a demand for redressing resource and power imbalances. Rights have been increasingly taken up by development activists, practitioners and feminists concerned with unequal distribution of power and resources (VeneKlasen et al 2004). For this group, rights seemed to hold the potential to re-politicize develop- ment, to examine unequal relations of power, to promote participation, inclusion, democratic process and citizen agency, and to increase accountability of governments to citizens (Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2005). Common principles While there are several interpretations of rights-based approaches, and while it introduction is true that ‘rights talk can function differently from different mouths’ (Slim 2002, cited in Uvin 2002), and despite differences in emphasis, there are certain common principles across international agencies’ ways of thinking on RBA and putting RBA into action. Generally RBA is seen as enabling people to recognize and claim rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In operational terms, RBA is 13  seen as working with duty bearers (usually states) to enable them to respond, and be accountable; and as working with citizens so as to build their capacity and empower them to claim their rights. Development practitioners are thus called on to make the shift to act in support of the most marginalized. The UN Common Agreement on Human Rights Based Approaches in 2003 seemed to provide a template that international multilateral and some bilateral agencies could base their rights-based work on. The work of OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (http://www.unhchr.ch/development/ approaches.html) has been influential in further clarifying the basic operational principles of RBAs and on pointing out that there was no one rights-based approach, but rather agreement on principles. These principles include a focus on rights, accountability, participation, empowerment and non-discrimination. Rights: Rights-based approaches are comprehensive in their consideration of the full range of indivisible, interdependent and interrelated rights – civil, cultural, economic, political and social – which implies a development framework with sectors that mirror internationally guaranteed rights covering livelihoods, health, education, housing, justice administration, personal security and political participation. Accountability: The conceptualization of rights as legitimate claims sets up duty bearers who are responsible to rights holders. While primary responsibility is seen to lie with the State as the main duty bearer in ensuring rights, there is agreement that non-state actors too have responsibility, including development agencies and the corporate sector. Participation: Participation and ‘voice’ are the flip side of accountability. A rights perspective sees participation both as a right in itself and as a means of ensuring accountability of duty bearers. Thus the design of development projects and programmes should have explicit strategies to construct ‘voice’ of marginalized groups, spaces for participation, and mechanisms to ensure that amplified voice leads to accountability. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Empowerment: The interconnectedness of rights, accountability and substantive participation in RBAs envisions a different relationship between development strategies and people than in other approaches. Rights-based approaches explicitly acknowledge the reality of power relations and the need for development approaches that empower people and do not merely treat them as beneficiaries or clients. RBAs expect the relationship between development agencies to shift further, in that people are perceived as citizens with rights rather than someone receiving welfare or buying services. People become agents and subjects, rather than objects, of their own development. Empowerment like participation has taken on a rather sterile meaning in development policy and practice. A rights approach takes the meaning of empower- ment a step further, in that it draws attention to the power relations involved in asserting claims and having these realized, influencing decision-making institutions and holding them accountable, and having a say in development decisions affecting one’s life. 14 Non-discrimination: Rights-based approaches stress inclusiveness, equity and equality. Attention to the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, minorities, and indigenous people among others is stressed. Development decisions, policies and initiatives have to guard against reinforcing existing power imbalances between, for example, women and men, landowners and peasants, and workers and employers. Naming rights-based approaches: contested meanings Despite the above-mentioned common operational principles, several debates have persisted over the language and meaning of RBAs. Some agencies refer to these approaches as human rights-based approaches and others as simply rights-based approaches. One might ask what’s in a name, as long as the common principles are incorporated into development policy, planning and implementation. However, the contest over the meaning of terms has important consequences for how these concepts will be operationalized and power holders will be held to account. Piron and Watkins (2004: 114) point out for example that naming this approach a human rights- based approach grounds it in international law and UDHR. While for some this might signify that these are moral rights with no enforcement value, grounding rights-based approaches in human rights does have the value of setting standards, standards against which the valuation and treatment of human life and of persons can be measured. This is extremely important for women, as gender relations in different contexts, in customary and as well national laws, can and do fix what women are entitled to in relation to men and their status in society, often bypassing the principle of equality. The term Rights-Based Approaches on the other hand can be used as shorthand to mean human rights-based approaches or to distance it from international and national legal standards and mechanisms towards a preference for a social, community-based or advocacy approach (Piron and Watkins 2004: 114). The resultant tension over meaning is evident in development work and in this publication too. Gender advocates in development and some feminists for example are caught in a dilemma over meaning, and this has consequences for the way they act or do not act. While many in this group rightly point out that the notion of rights arise and are sustained through struggle by those groups that are bereft and excluded, others provide a cautionary note. They suggest that relying entirely on social and community-based approaches can and does overlook women’s right to equality. Even movements with seemingly progressive goals, such as liberation from colonialism or class exploitation, have not taken up women’s liberation from oppressive gender relations. While male leaders of nationalist movements eagerly drew on women’s presence in such struggles, they were as eager to send women back into the home once national liberation from colonial powers was secured, and resisted women’s calls for liberation from introduction oppressive gender relations on the grounds that this will be addressed once other more important issues are resolved (Sen 2005). Rights-based approaches in development also run the risk of over-generalizing about rights and not taking into account the specificity of social relations and how equal rights outcomes can be reached for different social groups. 15  Finally, a rights-based approach refers to a systemic approach and is not the same as integrating a human rights approach into existing work undertaken by a development agency (Piron and Watkins 2004: 114; Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2005). This implies that the organization purporting to adopt a rights-based approach has to work just as hard for institutional change and transformation as in helping groups to raise their voice against injustices. A rights-based approach cannot simply be added on to existing structures and ways of working. Critique of current practice It is almost a decade since RBAs gained currency in international development debates. During this time different development organizations tried to operationalize what they considered to be a rights-based approach to development. The practice of RBA has invited a number of critiques, not least from feminists and gender advocates in development. On the positive side, the coming together of rights and development may be seen as the ‘weaving of two interconnected approaches into a stronger whole’ (VeneKlasen et al 2004). The human rights people bring on board their expertise in working with governments and the human rights system in addressing repression and legal reform. The development people bring expertise in working with communities in participative ways on economic and social programmes. This weaving together of rights and development can at best bring rights and participation together, with the development community being challenged to move beyond treating symptoms. Rights can be drawn on as a political tool as part of a social change process to transform power (VeneKlasen et al 2004). Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi (2005) suggest that the growing popularity of RBAs is partly attributable to its grounding in human rights legislation, making such an approach distinctive, and lending it the promise of re-politicizing areas of develop- ment work that have become domesticated. They suggest that ultimately, however, if it is operationalized, a rights-based approach would mean little if it had no potential to achieve a positive transformation of power relations among the various development g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t actors. Thus, no matter how any agency articulates its vision for a rights-based approach, it must be interrogated as to the extent to which it enables those whose lives are affected the most by development interventions to articulate their priorities and claim genuine accountability from development agencies. It is equally important to interrogate the extent to which the agencies themselves become critically self- aware and address inherent power inequalities in their interaction with people. One of the main difficulties in operationalizing rights-based approaches in develop- ment is how to hold power holders (both state and non state actors) to account for the protection and promotion of rights. For example, there are no mechanisms to hold development organizations, and especially powerful donor organizations, accountable for development outcomes (Piron 2005). Tsikata (2004) suggests that among the many problems raised by RBAs is the role of the nation states in their implementation. Much of the discussion about responsibility and accountability has been in terms of 16 what governments of developing countries need to do differently. Tsikata (2004) argues that, given the dismantling and disabling of the state under structural adjust- ment, the proactive role being given to the state under the RBAs is unrealistic. Another worrying trend is that the rights turn in development is unaccompanied by commitment of resources and in fact is at times used in such a way as to limit resources for programmes to support livelihoods, health and education (VeneKlasen et al 2004; Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2005; Tsikata 2004). ‘Increasingly, many groups seem to be embracing rights and policy advocacy for advancing systemic change, characterizing “traditional” development and service delivery as simply treating symptoms of problems. In some cases this is leading to the isolation and even the delegitimization and defunding of some development programmes and counter- parts.’ (VeneKlasen et al 2004: 3) A third set of problems is the conflation of rights-based approaches with legalistic approaches in development. The Human Rights community in the global North traditionally relied on the legal system and jurisprudence to forward the rights agenda. Emulated in development practice, this tradition has often led to over-reliance on legalistic approaches. While working with laws and legal systems is critical, it has become clear that narrow legal approaches usually fail to expand the scope of rights or appreciably strengthen accountability and capacity to deliver resources and justice (VeneKlasen et al 2004). Furthermore, the over reliance on narrow legalistic approaches in development work is unrealistic for a number of reasons. First, the rights that the development sector seeks to deliver are social and economic, which in most developing country contexts is not justiciable. They are not justiciable for good reasons. The resources necessary to provide universal health care and education for example (and therefore protect and promote rights to education and health) is beyond the capacity of cash-strapped developing country governments. The international economic framework has long disallowed governments from investing in social and economic rights. Second, even if these rights were made justiciable, poor people in most developing countries are unable to hold their governments accountable in a court of law given the overall poor access of marginalized groups to justice institutions. Women and particularly poor women are at a double disadvantage, because many social and economic rights are governed not just by state institutions, but also by familial, kinship and customary institutions which determine access to social and economic resources and opportunities. The response among feminists and advocates of gender equality to the turn to rights in development has been mixed. While some in this community have embraced RBAs on the grounds that other strategies such as mainstreaming gender equality have not been effective (AWID 2002), others remain sceptical. RBA has been critiqued for constituting a top down, donor-driven agenda, its powerful roots lost through its introduction conversion into the latest magic bullet for achieving development (Batliwala 2007) The approach has been critiqued by women’s movements as depoliticizing (Bradshaw 2006). It is seen to represent another installment of contestation within the gender and development approaches, thus further fragmenting the gender and development field (Tsikata 2004). 17  Gender, rights and development: opportunities and challenges Despite the above critique from feminists and gender advocates, the questions that remain unanswered and for which considerable research is necessary is whether the field of development is actually able to deliver on rights in a way that treats and sees women as entities in themselves and worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations. Can rights-based approaches promote the individuation of the female subject of rights, and the autonomy of the person, where other approaches have more or less failed? This is especially significant for women, as it is very difficult to individuate women from their imbrication in social relations, to separate women as subjects of rights from their identities as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. This is despite the fact that human rights inhere in each person by virtue of their being human and are understood as universal, indivisible and inalienable. Thus the UDHR assumes such a person who is a subject who is free and has some autonomy, because otherwise rights as indivisible and inalienable are simply not operative. What does this imply for advancing the gender equality agenda through rights-based approaches in development? Feminist scholars have forwarded two different but related explanations as to how and why women are not necessarily ‘human’ in the sense that the concept of liberal rights expects. The result has been invisibility of the wrongs that women suffer as a subordinate gender and therefore the lack of development programmes to address this lack of rights. First, feminists have for long critiqued the liberal conception of rights which is at the core of our understanding of universal rights per se and which assumes a ‘subject’ of rights who is an undifferentiated individual without gender, without class and other forms of difference, and which serves to invisibilize the norming of the subject of rights and consequent exclusion of different ‘others’, i.e. those who do not fit this norm. Second, they have shown how the public/private divide in conceptualizing rights of the individual vis-a-vis the state has excluded from scrutiny the wrongs that occur in the private arena of family and kinship, thereby ignoring the treatment of women within gender relations. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t In support of the first argument, this body of knowledge demonstrates that while conceptions of universal rights put forward the idea that a person is entitled to the same rights and treatment irrespective of his or her race, class, caste and gender, it does so on the basis that rights are conferred on the individual – an individual conceived of as the human subject who does not have a gender, class, caste, race, ethnic or community status. This universal human subject is not differentiated in any way in terms of resources and power as real people are. Legal personhood is conferred on the basis of this human core, and the law is seen to be a neutral instrument which confers rights based on this essence (Mukhopadhyay 1998). The subject thus created, who is the bearer of rights and who can act politically to secure more entitlements, is considered to be neutral (i.e. sexless, classless, etc). Feminists, race and disability scholars and activists have shown that rights standards 18 – while seemingly neutral in that they are conferred on the human subject who does not have a gender, class, caste, ethnicity or race – are, in reality, standards built with elite males in a given society as the norm. This is manifested in the substance of laws and policies and in their interpretation and implementation. Despite these critiques feminists come closest to the liberal tradition when they speak for equality and equal rights. However, their reservations about this tradition (Molyneux and Razavi 2002) are important, because otherwise rights-based approaches will simply reproduce the exclusions based on gender difference and inequality that has characterized the main development approaches. First, feminism claims that the same standards of equality apply universally, to all women irrespective of where they come from. This might mean that context-specific negotiation and translation must take place in order for different groups of women in very different contexts to benefit, in reality. Second, while stressing that women’s difference must be recognized in order for rights to be real, the goal remains equality. The recognition of difference does not imply accommodation with specific cultural articulations of female roles and entitlements that treat women as inferiors. Finally, and for the reasons discussed, feminism rejects appeals to culture and tradition that legitimize female subjugation. Most importantly, by stressing equality and the rights of the individual over group or cultural rights, it asserts that ascribed relations should not define women’s entitlements. In support of the second argument, feminist scholarship has shown that while the UDHR which serves as the document of consensus and the foundation for most discussions on rights, states that rights apply to all equally whatever one’s race, colour, sex, language etc., women were long excluded from definitions of general human rights and have been relegated to the ‘special interest’ status within human rights considerations, perpetuating and condoning women’s subordinate status (Bunch and Frost 2000). This is a reflection of gender inequality linked with the public/private split. The pervasive division of life into ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres stems from liberal philosophies that with good reason tried to limit the jurisdiction of the state in the life of individual citizens. It was a way to prevent the arbitrary authority of the state impinging on the life and freedom of citizens, albeit citizens who owned property, were ‘free’ individuals and not slaves, and were men. This division became characteristic of state-society relations in modern states. From this arose the under- standing that what individuals do in the ‘public’ sphere is subject to regulation, while activities taking place in the ‘private’ sphere are thought to be exempt from govern- mental scrutiny. The ‘public’ sphere is seen as the focus of interaction between state actors and citizens and therefore abuses of that relationship have been the focus of international human rights advocacy. Thus human rights violations of women that occurred in the private sphere of relations between individuals were for long not acknowledged and were not seen as within the arena of the state’s concerns (Bunch introduction and Frost 2000). Even the abuse of civil and political rights as evidenced in the sexual violence and rape of women in detention went unacknowledged as human rights abuses. Whereas feminists theorizing about the liberal subject of rights has challenged the universality of human rights, Sen (2005) notes that there remains major gaps in our knowledge. She suggests that while feminists have focused on two sites where gender 19  relations are played out – the private site of households and the public site of communities, labour markets, and political and legal systems, they have addressed inadequately, or not at all the third site – the unfreedoms of women as members of oppressed economic classes or castes, on grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or nationality. Women’s oppression/exploitation and subordination in all three sites are linked and constitute women’s reality. Inadequate theorizing of this third site has meant inadequate strategies to address the full impact of unequal gender relations. A question that remains is how to address the subordination of women resulting from unequal gender relations while at the same time being members of oppressed nations, classes, races and so on (Sen 2005). There is no automatic link between these three sites, as evidenced by the fact that within social movements for justice strong anti women beliefs and practices may be present. Fraser (2000) in reviewing social justice movements in today’s world addresses the question as to why there has been inadequate theorizing of this third site and the resulting inadequacy of strategies to address the full impact of unequal gender relations in justice claims. She suggests that social justice movements seem increasingly to be divided into two types – those that make redistributive claims and ask for a fairer distribution of resources and goods, and those that claim recognition for ‘excluded’ groups such as sexual, ethnic and racial minorities, and women. She explains that the two kinds of justice claims are often dissociated from one another. For example, the activist tendencies in social movements such as feminism look to redistribution as the remedy for male domination and are increasingly dissociated from tendencies that look instead to recognition of gender difference (Fraser 2000: 48). The dissociation between rights movements stressing redistribution and those claiming the right to be recognized as different has become a polarization. This situation she finds is a false antithesis, because it does not help us understand and act on rights that represent both arenas of injustice. Claims for redistributive justice are defined as socioeconomic and the arena in which these claims have to be established is in the political and economic realm. The politics of recognition, in contrast, defines its claims in terms of the cultural and sees injustice as rooted in social patterns of representation, interpretation and communication. Increasingly the movements built on these claims are unable to converse with each other and thereby to work together g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t on strategies that actualize rights for real people. The falseness of this antithesis can only be exposed by taking the example of justice claims that fit both political orientations. ‘Claims for gender justice,’ Fraser suggests, ‘fit both these political orientations.’ Gender is a ‘bivalent’ collectivity in that it is neither a class nor simply a status group, but a hybrid category rooted simultaneously in political economy and in culture. ‘Bivalently subordinated groups suffer both maldistribution and misrecognition in forms where neither of these injustices is an indirect effect of the other, but where both are primary and co-original. In their case, accordingly neither a politics of redistribution nor a politics of recognition alone will suffice. Bivalently subordinated groups need both’ (Fraser 2000: 53). Redressing gender injustice, therefore, requires changing both the economic structure and the status order of society. In fact, none of the subordinated groups – racial, ethnic, sexual and other minorities and the working class and the poor – claiming justice are 20 univalent collectivities. They all require both redistribution and recognition in order for them to be the full subject of rights. Fraser’s thesis goes to the heart of the dilemma of gender and rights in development. The first philosophical and practical problem that we encounter in the discourse of rights in development is how to move away from the universalistic definitions of our common humanity, to gaining recognition for the female subject of social relations as individuated and as the subject of rights. The papers in this publication all point in some way to this problem. This problem is manifested most starkly in rights struggles in which the sexual and reproductive autonomy of women is at stake; two of the papers in this volume directly address this issue. Albertyn and Meer (in this publication) explore the trajectory of a campaign and legal challenge by civil society organizations, and most notably the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa to secure the rights of HIV-positive pregnant women to treatment from the public health system so as to prevent the infection of their unborn babies. They note that in this case, women’s right to make choices concerning reproduction was sidelined, and eventually disappeared in the legal challenge that was mounted and as a result of the nature of the political context, the degree of conflict and changing role players and their different interests. In contrast was the claim by the Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA), an organization whose attempt to join the case as an amicus was turned down by the court, but who was invited nonetheless by TAC lawyers to help them make reproductive choice arguments. The RRA argued that if a woman chose to have a baby, she had the right to choose to have a healthy baby. Further a pregnant women’s right to chose included her right to decline treatment, since the decision should at all times be that of the woman alone, based on informed consent. This claim constructed women as agents and decision makers. It also placed sexual and reproductive rights centre stage in dealing with the causes and effects of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. As shown in the paper, this claim could not be sustained. The choice argument was unfamiliar and untested in court. The male lawyers did not understand the argument, some saw it as unstrategic and inconvenient, and as detracting from the clear message of irrational governments or saving children. Bradshaw et al (in this publication) discuss the recent repealing of the law permitting ‘therapeutic’ abortion in Nicaragua which highlighted the growing encroachment on rights by the state and the church and brought the language of rights and competing notions of rights to the fore. The church increasingly used the language of rights and in so doing determined which rights to advance. An alliance between church and political parties in Nicaragua invoked the rights of the unborn child to institute legal reform that did away with therapeutic abortion. introduction The authors show that even the women’s movements taking up the overturning of therapeutic abortion bypassed the argument of women’s rights to choose and relied instead on the argument that the death of the mother resulting from lack of safe abortion fragmented family unity. Furthermore, the campaigns focused on the right to therapeutic abortion and not on asserting rights to abortion as an unconditional right. Thus despite the competing claims by different actors, i.e. state, Church, 21  women’s movements and others, there was coherence in the discourse on sexual and reproductive rights, especially abortion. This coherence was centred on limiting the freedom and autonomy of the female subject of rights in relation to a specific set of rights, i.e. sexual and reproductive. The discourse around abortion deployed by those parties in favour of therapeutic abortion portrayed women ‘as a vulnerable group in need of saving’ and not as ‘rights holders and agents’. A second group of problems that rights-based approaches face within development is the lack of appreciation of the ‘bivalent’ nature of women’s subordination, and there- fore the need to struggle on both fronts – for redistribution and recognition. This ‘bivalent’ nature of women’s subordination is best illustrated in Dasgupta’s account (in this publication) of the struggle of activists of the Bhopal Gas Disaster of 1984 in India, a struggle which over the years became led and sustained by women. Dasgupta explores the perspectives of women survivors and activists of the world’s worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984, when an accident in the storage tanks of the Union Carbide factory caused a leakage of deadly gasses, killing and blinding people in adjacent neighbourhoods and leaving thousands with continued ill health. In all an estimated 150,000 people, mostly impoverished slum dwellers, were affected. While the disaster affected women and men, women have sustained the struggle for their rights over the past twenty four years more consistently than have men, perhaps due to its impact on women’s reproductive health across present and future generations. In the face of the disaster, the struggle was to hold the multinational corporation and the Government of India accountable to provide immediate relief, compensation, livelihood options, social security and medical care, and justice. The claimants demanded that the multinational acknowledge criminal negligence and face trial in India. Given the relative power of the claimants in the face of powerful government and multinational interests, advancing these claims was an uphill battle that continues 24 years later. Reconstructing the history of rights claiming through the testimony of the survivors g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t and activists, Dasgupta shows how this history is in reality the story of recovering dignity and agency, and of reconstructing identities from gas-affected victims to survivors, gaining recognition as citizens of India, claimants and rights holders, and not just as members of a subordinated group defined by class and gender inequalities, The process of rights claiming and demands for redistribution brought about a para- digm shift in self-recognition and recognition by others: from passive acceptance of rights violation as inevitable fate of subordinates, to the realization of the ‘right to have rights’. This self-image as ‘rights holders’ has led to expansion of the sphere of rights claiming, both in public and private spheres. The realization of the ‘right to have rights’ has led to a paradigm shift in the rights claimants, within which the content of what is claimed continually increases: the rights claimants gain the capacity to progressively identify new entitlements and consistently struggle for their attainment. 22 The struggle for rights in the public sphere was not limited to this sphere, but led to radical transformation in the personal lives of the low-income, low-mobility women survivors from urban slums. The claims process helped to define women as agents, to individuate them as subjects of rights, liberating them from being eternally the female subject of social relations. A women leader of the movement said, ‘I too have a goal, I too am someone important (Apna bhi koi muqam hai, hum bhi kuch hain). We women fought with our pennies, our pawned jewels, our contributions, our time, our mobilization and our commitment; if we stop fighting, we will never get justice.’ Third, in order to make women’s rights palatable to constituencies that do not recog- nize women’s difference nor tolerate individuation of the female subject outside of social relations, development agencies argue that empowering women is a good thing for society as a whole and contributes to general well-being. While this strategy has worked to win over hostile but powerful constituencies to the cause of gender equity, it has failed to address structural change in gender relations and promote the rights of women as individuated subjects. Sholkamy (in this publication) distinguishes between a structural approach to empowerment and an increasingly effective functional approach, both of which have consequences for the way women’s empowerment is pursued, practised, and measured. The proponents of the structural approach advocate empowerment for its own sake. A second trend has sought to prove through evidence that women are denied rights and resources and that this deprivation is at the root of a variety of social, health, economic and security ills and ailments. Development-oriented advocates who are the main proponents of this functional approach base their arguments for promoting women’s empowerment as a development goal on the premise that social justice is a desired outcome of intrinsic worth and that it is a means to other ends. This framing of empowerment as a strategic demand has advanced the cause of women’s empowerment in what would otherwise be quite conservative domains such as government and global institutions such as the World Bank. Promoting women’s empowerment as a poverty alleviation strategy is less contentious than posing empowerment within a rights or a basic justice framework. Likewise gender empowerment as a strategy that enhances women’s ability to decide effectively on their own well-being and that of their children is much more attractive and less fractious than calling for the right to sexual autonomy and decision making. However, by not engaging with what Fraser (2000) would call the politics of recog- nition, that is for recognition of women as subjects of rights, this approach has failed to grapple with the political processes which determine how rights in general are defined and made operational in society. The timid approach to gender rights as avenues to well-being has failed to question why these rights have been denied and introduction how this denial has been ideologically legitimized. While there is general acceptance in the Arab and Muslim worlds of gender equity and women’s empowerment as strategies to gain international acceptance resulting in the narrowing of the gender gap in terms of many health and education indicators, there is outright rejection of the elements of this strategy that address structural inequities in the justice system and rights. This has severe consequences for the way women’s rights are claimed and fought for in the Arab Muslim world, where an increasingly unitary and rigid 23  interpretation of religion, culture, and tradition seeks to outlaw any assertion of women’s rights as human rights by labeling it as western and therefore against Islam and the society, culture and history of the peoples of the region. Win (in this publication) in reflecting on the challenges she faces within an inter- national NGO – ActionAid International (AAI) – as a feminist activist with ‘a history of involvement in small feminist organizations’ takes up the theme of instrumen- talization of women’s rights to reach other developmental goals in her paper. Appointed as International Gender Coordinator in 2002, she came into the AAI at a time when the organization was making a shift away from charity work to a more political understanding of development, and was considering the adoption of a rights- based approach in its work. The question of women in this new paradigm remained to be sorted out. In the dominant view, women’s roles are essentialized and conflated with caring for children. For most development organizations and their staff, and AAI is no exception, women care for children, and if mothers are helped, the next generation is helped. Trying to separate women from this perspective and to talk of them as people in their own right with needs and wants as individuals, and with entitlements, is often problematic. Win suggests that in adopting rights-based approaches, organizations like AAI can promote a shift from seeing women as instrumental to wider development objectives such as reducing poverty, or educating children to the notion of women as individuals, people, and citizens in their own right. However, this shift is not automatic. In order to make the shift it is important to name the gender of the person whose rights the programme is trying to promote and defend. She gives the example of a recently launched programme – ‘the Hunger Free Campaign’. This programme named the rights holders and the right as Women’s Rights to Land and Natural Resources. This naming needs to be accompanied by a conscious effort to define the purpose of the campaign which is to campaign for women’s rights to land, not because it is instrumental to women feeding other people, but that land is property that women as citizens must be able to access and control in their own right. By showing that land or property is a source of power – it fosters power within, and power to, (to go back to those feminist concepts of power) – staff are reminded that their role is to raise questions about decision making at community and household levels that deny women access and control over this fundamental g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t resource. The papers in this collection, based on empirical studies, help us to see the problematic of delivering on rights through development work in a way that treats and sees women as entities in themselves and worthy of rights, and not simply in relation to a man and as subordinate within gender relations. In order for rights-based approaches to promote the individuation of the female subject of rights and the autonomy of the person where other approaches have more or less failed, much more is needed than what at present constitutes rights-based practice. The authors remind us that in order to practice rights, we need on the one hand to side with, promote and learn from the awareness of those deprived of rights, because it is their agency that will fuel and drive the struggle for rights. On the other hand, rights-based practice requires a politically engaged research, activist and development community in order for rights- based approaches to promote gender equality. 24 References AWID (2002) ‘A rights-based approach to development’. Women’s Rights and Economic Change. Facts & Issues 1. Batliwala, S. (2007) ‘When rights go wrong’, Seminar 569. Bradshaw, S. (2006) ‘Is the rights focus the right focus? Nicaraguan responses to the rights agenda’, Third World Quarterly 27(7): 1329-1341. Bunch, Charlotte, and Samantha Frost (2000) ‘Women’s human rights: an introduction’. In: Routledge international encyclopedia of women: global women’s issues and knowledge, Routledge, New York. Cornwall A., and C. Nyamu-Musembi (2005) ‘Why rights, why now? Reflections on the rise of rights in international development discourse’. IDS Bulletin 36(1): 9-18. Edwards, M., and J. Gaventa (eds) (2001) Global citizen action, Earthscan, London. Fraser, N. (2000) ‘Redistribution, recognition and participation: towards an integrated concept of justice’. In: Cultural diversity, conflict and pluralism. World Culture Report, 48-57. UNESCO, Paris. IDS (Institute of Development Studies) (2003) ‘The rise of rights’, IDS Policy Briefing 17. www.ids.ac.uk/ids Molyneux, M., and S. Razavi (2002) ‘Introduction’. In: M. Molyneux and S. Razavi (eds) Gender justice, development, and rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Mukhopadhyay, M. (1998) Legally dispossessed: gender, identity and process of law, Stree, Calcutta. Mukhopadhyay, M. (2004) Rights based approaches in development: issue paper, Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam. Unpublished paper. Nyamu-Musembi, C. (2005) ‘An actor-oriented approach to rights in development’, IDS Bulletin 36(1). Nyamu-Musembi, C. (2002) ‘Towards an actor-oriented perspective on human rights’, IDS Working Paper 169. O’Brien, R. et al (2000) Contesting global governance: multilateral economic institutions and global social movements, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) Rights based approaches. http://www.unhchr.ch/development/approaches.html Pettit, J., and J. Wheeler (eds) (2005) ‘Developing rights?’, IDS Bulletin 36(1). Piron, Laure-Hélène (2005) The role of human rights in promoting donor accountability, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London. Piron, Laure-Hélène and F. Watkins (2004) DFID human rights review: a review of how DFID has integrated rights into its work, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London. Sen, A. (1999) Development as freedom, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Sen, G. (2005) ‘Neolibs, neocons and gender justice: lessons from global negotiations’, UNRISD Occasional Paper 9. Tsikata, D. (2007) ‘Announcing a new dawn prematurely? Human rights feminists and the rights-based approaches to development’. In: A. Cornwall, E. Harrison and A. Whitehead (eds), Feminisms in development: contradictions, contestations and challenges, Zed Books, London. Tsikata, D. (2004) ‘The rights-based approach to development: potential for change or more of the same?’, IDS Bulletin 35(4): 130-133. introduction UNDP (2000) Human development report 2000, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Uvin, P. (2002) ‘On high moral ground: the incorporation of human rights by the development enterprise’, PRAXIS: the Fletcher Journal of Development Studies 17: 19-26. VeneKlasen, Lisa, Valerie Miller, Cindy Clark, and Molly Reilly (2004) ‘Rights-based approaches and beyond: challenges of linking rights and participation’, IDS Working Paper 234. 25 Cathi Albertyn* and Shamim Meer** 1 Citizens or mothers? The marginalization of women’s reproductive rights in the struggle for access to health care for HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa This paper explores the genesis and trajectory of a rights campaign by civil society organizations in South Africa to secure the right of HIV-positive pregnant women to treatment within the state-run health system which services the poor, so as to prevent the infection of their unborn babies. These activities started in 1997, and gathered momentum in 1999 after the formation of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which led the campaign in alliance with a range of civil society actors. The campaign included engagement with the state, popular mobilization in protest actions and eventually, the use of the courts to enforce constitutional rights. The TAC has been lauded for its challenge of the state’s dominance in the policy process,1 and for the opportunity it provided to advance active citizenship for poor black people, whose circumstances and lack of access to resources stood in the way of their exercising political influence in the new democracy.2 While recognizing the gains made in securing the right to health care, especially treatment, this paper focuses on the gender sub-text of the campaign and the implications of the way in which rights claims were made for either entrenching or challenging current constructions of gender power relations. Our starting point is the recognition that rights claims and the policies won as a result of rights struggles, even when economically redistributive, can have the unintended consequence of entrenching the marginalized and stigmatized status of groupings in society, such as poor women. Hence although redistributive gains may be advanced, little may be done in advancing the recognition of these marginalized groups.3 In tracing the trajectory of this campaign, we focus on the (at times unconscious) struggles over the meanings of rights, citizenship, and the construction of women by the key actors at various points of the campaign. We consider the early rights claim, based on the rights of women as agents to reproductive choice, we analyse the shifts citizens or mothers? that occurred as the campaign moved into a more contested state-civil society terrain, and finally to litigation. We note that, as the arguments of choice took on particular meanings around motherhood, and became secondary to the broader goal of access to health care and anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for mothers and their children, women’s agency was compromised. We conclude that rights claims can have contra- dictory consequences. In this case the ‘good’ of treatment rights was won, but in a manner that reinforced the position of poor women as subordinate and marginalized. We suggest that, in marginalizing women’s right to choice, key actors failed to prioritize women’s active agency in addressing the AIDS epidemic. As we argue in the 27  next section, to assert women’s choice is to assert and unleash women’s agency. This matters because unequal gender relations, which compromise women’s agency, are a major factor driving the AIDS epidemic. Rights struggles thus need to ensure that women are recognized as agents and not simply reduced to beneficiaries. We describe the various rights activities targeted at achieving programmes to prevent vertical transmission of HIV from mother to child.4 We discuss early civil society advocacy in 1997, and the development of a campaign for preventive treatment for vertical transmission in early 1999, when the TAC was formed. This campaign was part of a broader strategy to get the state system to provide better treatment and anti- retroviral drugs (ARVs) to people living with HIV and AIDS. There were two main struggles within the campaign. The visible site of struggle was the TAC’s battle for health and treatment rights against the government’s increasingly hostile stance towards the use of anti-retroviral drugs. Here, the state’s refusal to provide treatment and the president’s AIDS denialism – that is his refusal to accept the link between HIV and AIDS – gave shape to the development of a civil society movement taking up poor people’s rights to treatment, and ultimately led both parties to court. We also analyse a second site of contestation, less visible to the public eye, namely, a struggle between the various civil society and state actors over meanings. These actors each tackled the question of the prevention of vertical transmission of HIV infection from the vantage point of different interests and rights claims, working with different notions of citizenship, and different ideas about women and women’s agency. We show how the changing political context influenced a shift from the initial claim for ARV treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women, based on women’s reproductive health and choice, to the subsequent claim focused on the irrationality of the state in limiting both access to treatment, and more broadly, the social right of access to health care. Choice formed a limited part of this latter claim, with the interests of women being merged with children’s rights to health and health professionals’ rights to treat their patients. These claims thus constructed women as bearers of children, and as patients, rather then as active agents in their own right. In contrast to this, the explicitly feminist claims of the Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA), based on a more radical notion of women’s right to reproductive choice and g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t the idea of women as agents and decision makers, could not be sustained. We conclude that many civil society actors did not place women’s rights, women’s liberation or gender equality high on their agendas. The reasons for this relate to the political context, the different interests of the rights claimants, and the nature of constitutional and legal processes. Sometimes it was a question of political priorities and strategic choices; at others it exposed the ungendered and/or liberal way in which some actors thought of rights, as well as an inability of key actors to understand or accept arguments put forward by feminist lawyers and the RRA. For their part, the feminist lawyers and the RRA, bereft of a women’s movement taking up women’s rights more broadly, were unable to make their arguments stick and became increasingly marginalized as the campaign unfolded. 28 Why choice is important in the context of HIV and AIDS Coinciding with the development of democracy in South Africa was a growing HIV and AIDS epidemic. Prevalence rose from less than 1% in the early 1990s to about 11% of the adult population in 2001.5 As is the case in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, it soon became apparent that women were more vulnerable to infection than men, accounting for 56% of HIV-positive people.6 Statistics demonstrated that HIV- prevalence peaks in younger age cohorts for women,7 and at a higher rate. Annual ante-natal surveys at public clinics in South Africa over the past few years found about a quarter of pregnant women to be HIV positive.8 Underlying these figures are the gendered dimensions of the epidemic. It is widely acknowledged that physiology alone affects women’s greater risk of HIV transmission, with women up to four times more susceptible than men. However, it is also accepted that unequal gender relations are a major factor in the epidemic. It is women’s relative lack of power over their bodies and their sexual lives, reinforced by their social and economic inequality, that makes them more vulnerable in contracting and living with HIV and AIDS. Women’s relative vulnerability thus emerges from multiple and intersecting levels of gender inequality that place constraints on their ability to negotiate and engage in safe sex. The nature of women’s agency is thus central to understanding and to stemming the HIV and AIDS epidemic. It is not that women are powerless or lack agency. On the contrary, research suggests the opposite. For example, research on women’s responses to HIV and AIDS in two African communities in South Africa suggests that women are not helpless victims, but ‘active participants in the search to protect themselves sexually’ within the ‘cultural and historical perceptions of the bounds of the human body’.9 However, women often face limited choices, most visibly in the face of high levels of gender-based violence,10 or in the light of desperate poverty,11 but also in the context of gendered norms and stereotypes that shape ‘acceptable’ sexual and social behaviour. Research has also demonstrated how social and cultural responses to the epidemic have reinforced traditional gender roles, whether of sexuality (women must be passive and demure, women can’t say no to sex, women should not enjoy sex),12 of motherhood (women must bear children, women bear the burden of care) or of wifeliness (women must marry and not question their husbands). For men too, the epidemic is located in gendered norms of sexuality (men must be sexually active, citizens or mothers? have many partners, seek out young wives) and masculinity (men must bear children, men must provide for their family and rule the home). Such traditional roles often deny or limit women’s agency, and mean that they must act in a way that maintains their appearance as ‘good women’. Increasingly, the point is made of the futility of stemming the tide of the epidemic with strategies that reinforce these traditional concepts. What is needed is an approach that enhances the choices women and men are able to make, as well as draw attention to the conditions that shape those choices. Enhancing women’s choices in a manner that transcends the traditional norms and stereotypes is a vital strategy in addressing the epidemic. Women should enjoy sexual 29  and reproductive autonomy, they should be free to choose safe sex, to initiate and enjoy sex, free to refuse to be a mother and to decide what is best for them. This has many implications that go beyond the scope of this paper. Importantly, however, it has implications for the kind of rights arguments that we make, or the strategies we use in relation to HIV and AIDS. Rights, democracy and choice Rights are neither inherently progressive nor positively gendered. The acceptance of women’s rights as human rights is a relatively recent development in international human rights policy. While the 1990s saw huge advances in the recognition of women’s rights to equality and dignity, the acceptance of reproductive and sexual rights has been much more tentative. The recent Beijing +10 gathering reminded women just how fragile this was, as much energy was expended defending the small gains of the 1990s, rather than addressing the real barriers to effective implementation. In South Africa, the inclusion of the right to freedom and security of the person, including to bodily and psychological integrity (the right to reproductive decision- making, and to security in and control over their bodies) in the 1996 Constitution13 was widely hailed as a progressive move for women. The explicit statement of rights to moral agency, choice and bodily integrity was an important step in the development of women’s reproductive and sexual rights. While these constitutional norms have shaped important laws for women,14 less has been done to instil these norms into everyday discourse. Indeed, women’s choice has often been promoted in a way that focuses on women’s vulnerability, rather than women’s agency.15 This is part of a wider issue about women’s struggles in South Africa: Generally, what is missing in the women’s movement and the state is an active political engagement with the social and cultural norms that regulate people’s daily lives and subordinate women. Although our Constitution affirms … [women’s equality and agency] …, the cultural norms that shape women’s lives often deny them this. Democracy for women has come to be counted by the achievement of rights and representation in the state (public citizenship), rather than by the capacity g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t of individual women to exercise agency in the ‘private’ sphere (private capabilities). This creates an ongoing disjuncture between the public norms of democracy and the private world of women.16 It is accepted amongst feminists that any strategy to advance women’s rights must focus on power relations in the private sphere – not only because of women’s position in the family, but also because the ‘social relations that are produced in the private sphere are not contained there, but infuse most economic, social and political institutions’.17 The campaign to prevent vertical transmission of HIV described in this paper demonstrates why the assertion of rights that promote women’s agency has been so difficult in South Africa. 30 The campaign for programmes to reduce vertical transmission of HIV: governments’ growing intransigence and civil society responses The emergence of the campaign to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, and the role of TAC as the key player in this, has to be understood within the context of state-civil society relations. As Alvarez18 notes, the political strategies and discourses of movements are responses to state policies. Movements such as TAC are thus shaped by the state at the same time as they impact the state. When TAC was formed in December 1998, no-one anticipated that the ANC-led government would not provide the ARV treatment that was becoming available as a result of clinical trials. TAC was established to ensure broad access to treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS, and expected to work with government in pressuring the pharmaceutical companies to bring down the price of drugs. However, as government’s unwillingness even to provide ARV treatment to pregnant women to reduce vertical transmission of HIV grew, TAC found itself in an increasingly conflictual and contradictory relationship with government. This section explores the trajectory of the campaign and the deteriorating state-civil society relations that resulted in litigation. The science: findings on treatment to prevent vertical transmission The HIV and AIDS epidemic is raced, classed and gendered. One consequence of women’s particular vulnerability is the risk of transmitting HIV to their children, mainly at birth or through breastfeeding. This vertical transmission is deemed to be about 30% in the absence of any intervention. In South Africa, it was estimated that by 1999 about 70,000 babies were infected with HIV in this manner, and there were indications that rising infant mortality was caused by vertical transmission.19 By 2001, this had increased to 83,581 babies. One of the most important scientific findings in the 1990s was that the provision of short courses of ARVs to certain vulnerable groups could prevent transmission of HIV, including health workers exposed to HIV through needle stick injuries, and survivors of sexual assault. It was also found that ARV therapy could significantly reduce transmission from a HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy and at birth. Clinical trials in 1994 showed that AZT (Zidovudine) reduced transmission by about two-thirds in the absence of breastfeeding.20 However, this was not suitable for developing countries which lacked the infrastructure and the funds to provide citizens or mothers? treatment from early stages of pregnancy. In the developed world and in private clinics in South Africa (which approximate first world conditions), such treatment became routine. Further trials addressed these cost and infrastructure obstacles. Firstly, it was shown that reduced dosages of AZT could reduce transmission.21 Then in 1999, trials in Uganda demonstrated that administering Nevirapine to a woman in labour and her new born child was effective as a preventive measure.22 A similar study in South Africa, the SAINT study, found in 2000 that a single dose of Nevirapine to mother and child reduced HIV transmission by 50%.23 These findings meant that treatment could 31  be given at significantly reduced cost and without the infrastructural obstacles of AZT. Women only needed the drug when they presented at the hospital in labour. In theory, by the end of 1999, and certainly by mid-2000, an affordable option was available to the state health sector in South Africa. Government’s changing position and civil society responses Given the ANC’s support for the South African 1992 Charter on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, and its positive relationship with the NGOs working on HIV and AIDS in the early 1990s, it seemed inconceivable that the ANC-led government would not respond positively to developments in scientific research. Indeed, government’s initial responses to the research on preventing vertical transmission implied that, once simpler and cheaper regimens were available, treatment would be provided in the public sector as a matter of course. However, a more defensive approach soon emerged with clear resistance from sections of the state to the provision of this treatment. As preventive measures became simpler and cheaper, the government’s ongoing refusal to roll out treatment in the state-run system became the centre of a battle for the rights of women, children, people living with HIV and AIDS and health workers. It was a battle fought on many fronts, by different interest groups and through different rights claims. This changing approach and the consequent changing relationship between the state and civil society is described below. A positive relationship between civil society and the state During the 1990s, government policies and plans on HIV and AIDS included commit- ments to the reduction and prevention of MTCT.24 In 1997 and 1998, civil society organizations, mainly in the AIDS sector, lobbied the Department of Health to develop more detailed policy and programmes to prevent MTCT, and to implement the commitments in the 1994 National AIDS Plan.25 These activities mainly took place under the rubric of women’s reproductive health rights, the government’s own policy framework for such programmes. Health is a national and provincial competence in South Africa. While broad policies are set at national level, planning and implementation take place within provinces. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Some provinces thus responded to the international developments on MTCT prevention. The Western Cape (significantly not then an ANC-governed province) began to provide a full package of treatment, including anti-retroviral drugs (AZT) to HIV-positive pregnant women in 1999. In 1998, the Gauteng Health Department (an ANC-governed province) announced the establishment of five pilot sites to introduce programmes to reduce MTCT.26 By early 1999, cost seemed to be the major barrier to universal provision. In this context, the recently formed TAC prioritized the claim for ARV therapy to prevent MTCT as its lead campaign within its overall goal of providing affordable treatment to all living with HIV and AIDS. To this end, TAC met with Health Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma in April 1999 and issued a joint statement identifying the price of AZT as the major barrier to an MTCT programme and a promise that: ‘government would name an affordable price for the implementation of AZT to pregnant mothers 32 and report within six weeks on the price and other issues pertaining to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.’27 As the (then) TAC secretary, Mark Heywood, notes: ‘At this point it looked as if TAC’s MTCT campaign would be one primarily targeting the manufacturers of anti- retroviral medicines to reduce their prices.’28 Activities between 1999 and 2001 generally targeted pharmaceutical companies to reduce the prices of essential anti- retroviral medicines29 and particularly GlaxoWellcome’s drug, Zidovudine (AZT).30 The appointment of a new Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, after the 1999 elections also gave cause for optimism, as she welcomed the results of the Ugandan study on Nevirapine. At this stage the barriers to implementation still appeared to be procedural. The drug needed to be registered and the South African study would provide information on local efficacy and implementation. It was widely expected that this would generate a universal roll-out. Contestation emerges31 However, an ‘unanticipated and unfortunate diversion’ appeared32 in President Mbeki’s October 1999 address to Parliament. In this, Mbeki ‘unexpectedly questioned the safety of AZT and warned that the “toxicity of this drug is such that it is, in fact, a danger to health”’.33 He went on to say that he had ‘instructed the Minister of Health to launch a probe into the safety of AZT and until this was complete it would not be used in South Africa’.34 This was the first sign that the President had adopted the views of ‘AIDS dissidents’ on ARVs: [This group] has argued that, rather than helping to restore the immune system, anti- retroviral drugs destroy it by destroying cell replication and causing a range of life- threatening side-effects. Although their arguments vary, the basic contention is that AIDS in Africa is caused by poverty and that a range of poverty-related illnesses (such as tuberculosis) are being misdescribed as HIV-related in order to create markets for first world drugs, particularly anti-retrovirals.35 Even though initially expressed about AZT, these ‘dissident’ views would also affect the use of Nevirapine. Heywood suggests that, while not openly stated, the president’s views were a major cause of the subsequent delays in the state’s acceptance and implementation of ARV treatment to HIV-positive pregnant women.36 In the short term, the new opposition to AZT meant that civil society hopes focused on citizens or mothers? Nevirapine as an acceptable alternative, especially after the presentation of positive preliminary results in the South African trials at the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban. However, instead of the anticipated universal roll-out, a meeting of the Minister of Health and provincial Members of Executive Council’s decided to test the use of Nevirapine (once registered) for a further two years at two ‘pilot sites’ in every province, followed by a phased implementation.37 These pilots were to investigate operational issues, as well as the safety and efficacy of the drug. In sum, although the South African trials had indicated the efficacy of Nevirapine in a South African setting, and international trials had done so in other developing 33  countries, and although international health guidelines (by the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS) stated that any risks of resistance were far outweighed by the benefits of reducing MTCT,38 the South African government insisted on limiting this life-saving measure to a few pilot programmes for two years, and then would only roll out in a phased fashion. As these pilot programmes only commenced in 2002, after inexplicable delays in the registration of Nevirapine for use in reducing MTCT,39 it was probable that ARVs to prevent MTCT would only become available to all HIV-positive pregnant women in 2005 or later. Public sector obstetricians seeking to advise HIV-positive women could not offer them the choice of reducing HIV transmission, even though this was effective and affordable. Paediatricians at public hospitals treating HIV-positive children knew that their lives could have been saved by offering their mothers a choice of treatment at their birth. Most importantly, HIV-positive women were unable to choose to take a drug that could significantly reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their children. It was the apparent irrationality of the state responses, and that fact that this was leading to avoidable illness and death, that drove a concerted rights campaign to force the South African government to accelerate the provision of a full package of measures to prevent MTCT, including ARVs to all women attending public sector hospitals. This campaign eventually ended up in the Constitutional Court. Rights-based advocacy in civil society Coinciding with the changing state responses to the use of ARVs to reduce mother-to- child transmission were the changing rights strategies of civil society. Not only was there a shift in the nature of the strategy (from advocacy to litigation), but there was also a shift in the rights which formed the basis of the claims and in the interests of the groups making these claims. It is important to locate these claims in the context of state-civil society relations after the advent of the ANC-led government in 1994. The next section assesses state- society relations to provide a context for the campaign and its various participants. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t The context of state-civil society relations State-civil society relations before 1994 were conflictual – framed by the hostility of the black majority and democrats of all races to white domination by an illegitimate apartheid state. Civil society organizations engaged in struggles, linking local issues with a national liberation struggle to dismantle the apartheid state. After the 1994 elections, expectations of the new democracy were great. The ANC, the liberation movement that had led the struggle against apartheid and now the ruling party, was expected to redress the wrongs of the past. However, it all too soon became clear that the fault lines of the old South Africa were deeply entrenched and that citizenship and rights claims were affected by apartheid relations of racial, class and gender domination. Some blacks and some women entered the ranks of the elite, thus beginning to de-racialize class divisions to some 34 extent, but the needs and interests of the urban and rural poor masses tended to remain unaddressed.40 Government policies did not place the poor or the eradication of inequalities at the centre of the state’s agendas, or when they did, these did not seem to impact the inequalities of the past. Policies thus tended to favour the historically privileged, and did not introduce a wider social and economic citizenship. The adoption of a tight fiscal policy meant fewer state resources were available to meet the needs of the poor. Talk of the two nations that made up South Africa – one poor and black, the other rich and white – became common rhetoric in presidential addresses to the nation, with President Mbeki noting in 2003 that ‘[t]he things that we do with regard to the upper-story economy, because there is no connecting staircase, won’t impact on the other [ground floor] economy.’41 The gap in all areas of life was stark. In health care, the gap was between two health systems – a private health care system approximating first world conditions, and an under-resourced state health care system for the poor. A key challenge for civil society organizations and movements, post 1994, was how to position themselves in relation to the now legitimate government. The original expectation was that civil society organizations would partner the new government in a development agenda. Many organizations, across sectors, thus engaged in partnerships with the new government, on policy making and on implementation of government programmes. However, as the experience of the TAC highlights, the limits of such partnerships, and indeed the limits of a liberal democracy, soon became clear. Government’s policies and in particular its overarching economic framework were experienced as inimical to the interests of the poor, making clear the need for civil society’s role in constituting a force to hold government accountable for the needs and interests of the poor, working-class majority. The Treatment Action Campaign It was in this context that organizations such as TAC, the Anti Privatisation Forum (APF) and the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) were formed. Emerging in different ways in response to the needs of ‘the poor’, these organizations took different forms and had divergent attitudes towards rights and the Constitution.42 On the one hand, organizations such as the APF and LPM saw the state as betraying the revolution, and demonstrated their dissatisfaction in mass protests and demonstrations. The ANC retaliated through ideological and repressive means – laying claim to the ANC party’s role in ‘defending the gains of the revolution’, and the ANC-led government censured these organizations, even hinting at a ‘third force’ and citizens or mothers? in some cases using the army to quell demonstrations. On the other hand, TAC leaders saw themselves as loyal ANC members even as they called for the democratization of the ANC, organized civil disobedience campaigns, and attempted to charge the minister of health with culpable homicide resulting from failure to provide treatment in state-run health services. TAC thus engaged government through a strategic mixture of cooperation and confrontation. TAC’s starting point is that because government is legitimate, strategies against it must consider how to retain people’s support. Its membership is largely made up of 35  black people who lack the resources and social position which make political influence possible in the normal scheme of a liberal democracy – 80% of the members are unemployed, 70% are women, 90% are African, and 70% are in the age range of 14 to 24 years. Members are organized in branches at local community level and engage in actions to pressure the state as well as in treatment-literacy campaigns, in offering advice to people on treatment, and in grass roots campaigns to de-stigmatize HIV and AIDS.43 TAC assumes that gains can be won from this system and that far-reaching change is possible through constitutional means. Real rights can be won for the poor and marginalized within the post-apartheid system.44 Thus the law, and rights, are not inherently biased against the poor and can offer them some gains. Civil society can act as partners of the state, as well as watchdogs monitoring its performance. Civil society challenges to the dominance of the state in the policy arena can also challenge the way power is conceptualized and exercised. Thus TAC engaged in a range of advocacy strategies to improve access to treatment for poor people living with HIV and AIDS. Central to this was the attempt to bring down the price of drugs and to lobby government to make these available in the public sector. However, in the context of growing state intransigence, the campaign to extend ARVs to HIV-positive pregnant women to reduce the risk of vertical transmission became a major focus of the overall campaign for treatment in 2000 and 2001. The women’s movement The women’s movement in South Africa emerged from national, community and worker struggles with links to the UDF,45 ANC and trade unions – all male-dominated movements. During the years of the struggle, women engaged in political resistance and the male-led movements partly acknowledged the women’s question, but within Marxist and national liberation discourse this was seen as a secondary contradiction. The approach to women’s involvement may thus be described as instrumentalist – that is to ensure additional numbers in the liberation movement. There was little recognition of gender disparities as a fundamental contradiction that needed to be g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t addressed in order to attain a more egalitarian society, and little concern that race and class are gendered. In this context, feminists struggled to create space to bring issues of ‘the body’ to the fore – whether about gender-based violence, reproductive rights, sexuality or choice. These issues remained on the fringes even of women’s organizations at the time. This persisted into the 1990s, as organizations such as the Women’s National Coalition (a coalition of women’s organizations to bring women’s concerns to the constitutional negotiation process) were not able to arrive at an agreed position on reproductive rights and abortion. Indeed, the focus of women’s organizations within the ANC, UDF and trade unions on advancing the numbers of women in leadership continues to be the dominant concern today.46 Along with other civil society organizations, the women’s movement experienced a ‘decline’ after 1994, as the glue that held women’s organizations, such as the Women’s National Coalition, together under the banner of ‘equality’ in the early 1990s 36 disintegrated under new conditions. The movement became vertically and horizontally fragmented, organizing in smaller sectors (gender-based violence, reproductive health etc.) and without binding policy and advocacy NGOs to community-based organizations. Furthermore, it would seem that the claims made by these sectors of the movement failed to prioritize women’s agency and autonomy in post 1994 policy making, since gains won were based on women’s vulnerability, family failures and children’s needs rather than on empowering women. Free health care, for example, considers maternal health, the maintenance act entrenches the notion of private responsibility of children, violence against women and abortion discourses rest on notions of women’s vulnerability and the state’s role as protector.47 Women’s organizations, choice and HIV Several women’s organizations had organized around reproductive rights in the early 1990s, under the ‘umbrella’ of the Reproductive Rights Alliance (RRA), to secure a pro-choice abortion law. This law (the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act) was achieved in partnership with the state in 1996. These organizations continued to focus on reproductive rights in the late 1990s, but with a specific focus on the implementation of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. In the context of a ‘pro-choice’ government, most of the member organizations of the RRA worked in a co-operative relationship with the Department of Health to enhance women’s access to reproductive rights in South Africa. This included policy and programme research, training and monitoring and evaluation work in a variety of areas relating to women’s reproductive health. With the passage of a pro-choice law, the advocacy strength of the RRA had diminished as its role shifted from a vocal advocate for choice to a more low-key role concerned with implementation issues within a formally pro-choice state. In the late 1990s and early 2000’s, there was no real public discourse on choice, and no visible public advocate. The RRA’s public voice tended to be limited to particular, and often reactive, moments around litigation and abortion. As access to termination of pregnancy continued to be the centrifugal point of RRA activities, a wider discourse on choice was also precluded. This was exacerbated by the tendency in civil society to work in discrete and insular sectors, thus activists supporting choice had few formal links with activists in the gender-based violence sector, or the AIDS sector. This meant that there was a limited response by women’s organizations, including the RRA, to the issue of ARVs for pregnant HIV-positive women. citizens or mothers? From about 1998, when government was resisting the use of AZT as too expensive, feminist lawyers and AIDS legal organizations began to introduce the possibilities of advocacy around prevention of MTCT programmes with the RRA. The RRA responded cautiously to a request to participate in a ‘possible challenge to the Minister of Health’ against her decision not to provide AZT to HIV-positive pregnant women.48 Although it was agreed that the RRA’s role might be to ‘ensure that arguments on reproductive rights and choice are protected’, and that the state’s responsibility to provide comprehensive reproductive health care should include access to this treatment,49 the RRA did not resolve to take a ‘public stand’ on the issue, but asked for a memorandum setting out the details of the challenge and the role that the RRA could play. 37  A year later, at the 1999 Annual General Meeting, the AIDS Law Project (ALP) addressed the RRA on the links between HIV&AIDS and reproductive rights, including issues of gender-based violence, the provision of post exposure prophylaxis after rape, and the limits placed on women’s access to reproductive health by the fact that AZT, together with counselling etc., was not provided to HIV-positive pregnant women. A number of campaigns were suggested, again including consideration of legal action against the Department of Health on MTCT.50 In considering its strategic options, the RRA resolved to ‘(c)ontinue focusing on choice by contextualising termination of pregnancy within a framework of HIV/AIDS and violence against women by making the links as to how these factors impact choice.’51 Their target audience in this would be pregnant women, rather than the state, engaging such women in education and information campaigns about the value of determining HIV status in pregnancy and educating them on transmission during pregnancy. Lobbying activities in relation to the state would focus on the package of reproductive health rights, including access to information, medical treatment and counselling for HIV-positive pregnant women.52 When the TAC was formed in late 1999, it took on the issue of preventing MTCT and the RRA did not engage in any active campaigning against government until the court case in 2001. The RRA’s cautious approach was due to several intersecting factors, including a pro- choice state, a diverse membership (which included state health workers and policy organizations that enjoyed a good relationship with the state), a segmented civil society with little tradition of taking on ‘cross-cutting’ issues, a limited focus on ‘termination of pregnancy’ and on educating women, rather than confronting the state. These factors also tended to reinforce the organizational and public divisions between AIDS and women’s issues at this time. Rights struggles move to the court The ALP and TAC had considered litigation as a possible strategy to secure ARV g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women for some years, but had continued to advocate for a national programme. However, as it became clear that advocacy and engagement with government were not securing HIV-positive pregnant women’s rights to preventive treatment, litigation became a much more public option. The government’s failure to act decisively in the wake of positive drug trial results in July 2000 galvanized the Treatment Action Campaign into a public announcement that it would litigate to secure a national programme for preventing MTCT. Litigation did not commence immediately, as the fact that Nevirapine was not yet registered for MTCT was, at that stage, a fatal obstacle to a successful legal claim.53 Even as TAC waited and planned for litigation, it also retained the hope that sustained national and international advocacy would still be successful. Eventually the TAC and other parties launched a claim in the Pretoria High Court in 38 August 2001. This is described below. Judgment was handed down in TAC’s favour in December 2001. The Court found that the policy of limiting the provision of Nevirapine to selected sites was unreasonable and a violation of HIV-positive women’s and their children’s rights of access to health care.54 Government appealed to the Constitutional Court. In July 2002, this court handed down judgment which turned on the rights of access to health care for pregnant women and their new born children. The Court found the selective policy to be unreasonable and ordered the extension of the programme where there was capacity to do so. In the next section, we explore how the rights claims were formulated and how women’s rights, especially their rights to reproductive choice, were finally marginalized within the legal process. The formulation of the case: the legal claims In early discussions about litigation, attorneys in the ALP had focused on constitu- tional arguments relating to reproductive health and reproductive choice, drawing on international frameworks and the South African Constitution.55 However, reproduc- tive choice became a secondary claim as the case consolidated itself on paper and in court arguments. In 2001, one of the country’s top public interest lawyers was briefed on the case. In a lengthy discussion with ALP head and TAC secretary, Mark Heywood, the main rights claims for litigation were formulated and put into a letter of demand to the Minister of Health. Speaking of this discussion, Budlender noted that he was concerned to identify rights claims that would ‘work’ in court. He believed that the strongest claims related to the irrationality of the state in allowing ARVs to be freely used in the private sector (if one could pay for them) and to be limited in the public sector; and to the right of access to health care services, for children perhaps more than their mothers.56 Budlender thus felt that the case was best pursued as an equality claim (based on irrational distinctions rather than gender discrimination) and a claim to health care services (based on children’s rights to health rather than a claim to reproductive health care). Budlender admits that he did not understand the choice arguments that were put to him at the time, and felt that if he did not understand them, he would be unable to persuade a judge about them.57 This letter of demand was to set the terms of the arguments in the case, and was followed by the preparation of detailed court papers. Given the extent of the ‘factual’ dispute and the government’s insistence that there was insufficient evidence of the citizens or mothers? safety and efficacy of the drug, as well as operational issues, TAC’s legal team was anxious to document their case in detail. The documents on the factual issues were voluminous. Ultimately, it was the nature of the organizations involved, the experience of the lawyers, the difficult political context and the nature of the legal process that determined the ‘hierarchy of arguments’ that was developed in the case. Although the court papers listed a series of rights, including the right to reproductive decision- making and to reproductive health, these rights were not given priority. TAC’s lawyers felt that the strongest claim lay in the irrationality of a selective programme 39  of life-saving treatment for the prevention of MTCT, one that was confined to a few pilot sites.58 The court papers set out twelve violations of constitutional rights.59 The first claim related to the state’s failure to take reasonable measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of the right of access to health care services (in violation of section 27(1)(a) of the Constitution). The core of this argument related to the unreasonable behaviour of the state in confining access to designated sites; and in thus ‘arbitrarily and unreasonably denying medication even in circumstances where this is medically indicated.’60 The case went on to argue that the confinement of MTCT programmes and the dispensation of Nevirapine to designated sites also entailed a violation of the rights to basic health care services for children; to dignity; equality; life and psychological integrity, including the right to make decisions regarding reproduction.61 The RRA enters the case as amicus curiae to protect choice Within the main case, feminist lawyers increasingly felt there was no space to make choice arguments, and began to lobby potential amici curiae to do so.62 Members of the RRA Legal Working Group took the issue to the RRA Members’ meeting of September 2001, where it agreed to join the legal action by TAC on the basis that the government’s failure to provide Nevirapine constituted a violation of women’s reproductive rights. Thus the decision to enter the case was not as the lead player calling for universal provision of preventive treatment, but as a partner with specific goals of arguing the significance of women’s choice within the broader struggle for ARVs led by TAC. Amicus briefs have a special role in human rights cases. They have to raise new issues and cannot traverse legal arguments that are already being made by the parties in a case.63 They are able to broaden the scope of the case, and as they are not limited by the need to make the best argument for the client, they may raise issues that involve wider questions of principle and precedent. For an organization such as the RRA, an amicus brief was an opportunity to demonstrate to the court why the g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t provision of ARVs to HIV-positive women was a matter of reproductive choice, in addition to implicating other rights. It would also allow the RRA to promote ideas of women’s agency and present reproductive choice arguments to a court, and to lawyers, who were generally not familiar with these arguments. A finding that reproductive choice was one of the bases for winning the case would set some precedent for use in later cases concerning reproductive choice, and might entrench positive images of women in the law. In addition, gender equality legal activists were worried about the consequences of children’s rights arguments for choice more broadly. Although the TAC case did not immediately raise a conflict between the rights of a mother and her foetus, there was concern that if the right to treatment was located in children’s rights, pregnant women could be forced to take the anti-retroviral drug without their consent. The implications of such a holding could go much further, such as forcing pregnant 40 women to submit to an HIV test before giving birth to determine whether treatment was necessary, or to submit to other medical treatment. Ultimately, feminist lawyers were worried about a ‘slippery slope’ argument that would affect women’s choice more generally and their rights to termination over time.64 There was thus a broader objective to the amici that went beyond the immediate case. This related to the idea of promoting transformative ideas of women, so that the rights would be interpreted in line with positive ideas of women and choice. The objective was to centre reproductive and sexual rights of women, and broaden the focus from women as mothers, to women as active moral agents, able to make important decisions about their bodies and the lives of their children. The RRA withdraws from the case Because the TAC had listed reproductive choice within its papers, although not argued it extensively, the RRA’s preliminary application for amicus status was opposed by the state and turned down by the High Court. This meant that it would have to be set down for a verbal hearing. At this stage, the TAC lawyers asked the RRA not to proceed with its application as they were concerned court time allocated to the amicus might mean that arguments could not be completely canvassed and would consequently lead to a postponement of the case.65 They argued that the political context was already problematic, and it had been difficult to obtain a court date. TAC’s lawyers undertook to make the reproductive choice arguments, and invited the RRA legal team to assist in this. The RRA agreed and limited its involvement to some media advocacy around the case. No further collaboration took place on the legal arguments. Some time after judgement had been delivered, RRA lawyers became aware of additional concerns about the RRA arguments. In particular, it became clear that the TAC legal team had not wanted arguments made in court that prioritized women’s choice to the extent that it was suggested that women could refuse to take Nevirapine.66 When interviewed for this report, two TAC lawyers admitted to a deep concern with women’s choice arguments, especially if they raised the issue of women choosing not to take the drug.67 One felt, at the time, that this would damage the force and simplicity of an argument that said ‘children are dying unnecessarily’.68 He also acknowledged that no-one in the legal team was able to demonstrate (at that time or earlier) why arguments for choice were important.69 In retrospect, he felt that that arguments on time constraints were not justified, neither was the reasoning that worried about the consequences of choice arguments. However, he suggested that the politically charged nature of the case had led to a heightened level of anxiety amongst citizens or mothers? the TAC legal team. Their decisions needed to be understood in this context. Political messages of choice Although choice was not prioritized as a legal claim, it did retain some currency as a political claim in advocacy strategies accompanying the case. This was achieved through a partnership between the TAC and the RRA in some of their advocacy strategies around the case. Thus the RRA promoted a strong reproductive choice message: 41  In its continuing efforts to uphold the reproductive rights of South African women and promote better access to reproductive choice, the RRA reiterates its support for the TAC …. The RRA believes it is a woman’s right to make decisions about her pregnancy and future health of her child. This is protected by section 12 (2) (a) of the Constitution which states that women have the right to bodily and psychological integrity, including the right to make decisions concerning reproduction.70 The media release located decisions about access to MTCT of HIV squarely within the idea of reproductive choice. Calls were made for immediate access to a full package of information and resources, including provision of Nevirapine. Together with TAC, the RRA also sponsored a series of posters promoting the issue of Nevirapine as one of choice. TAC also used women’s choice arguments to promote the case. In an appeal for global solidarity, TAC’s slogan was ‘Give women a choice! Give children a chance!’ The media release stated ‘The government has the resources and the opportunity to give women a choice to look after their own health and a chance to prevent their infants from becoming infected with HIV.’71 Thus women’s choice was a more powerful claim in the global arena and in political messages around the case, rather than in the courtroom. This reinforces the argument that rights messages are often highly targeted and contextual. What rights claims were made? The various campaigns for a package of services to prevent vertical transmission of HIV, including ARVs, over a period of about five years, included a variety of rights claims by groups in civil society and by institutions within the state. Among these, only two were explicitly feminist – the RRA and the Parliamentary Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and the Status of Women. HIV-positive women wanting to access ARVs to protect their babies from infection g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t The primary group of rights claimants were HIV-positive women who risked trans- mitting the HI virus to their children while in utero, during labour and birth (the majority of cases) and through breastfeeding. Primarily this group was made up of women accessing the public health care system72 outside of the Western Cape or the pilot sites established in 2001 (where ARVs were available). These women were thus likely to be black and poor, and disproportionately from rural areas. Already disadvantaged by gender, poverty, race and (often) geographic location, these rights claimants were further marginalized by the stigma associated with HIV status. Their voice was largely a represented one, through the health professionals, AIDS organizations (especially the TAC) and women’s organizations who sought to advocate on their behalf. In the court action, the TAC brought the application on behalf of itself and in the public interest, as well as ‘on behalf of pregnant women with HIV/AIDS and women of 42 reproductive age …who cannot act in their own name because of poverty, stigma, discrimination or a lack of knowledge of their HIV status or of the risk to their infants to be born’ or who ‘are or will be unable to obtain treatment with Nevirapine for themselves or, in due course, for their babies in the public health sector.’73 Insofar as TAC acted on their behalf in the litigation, the court papers (and surrounding media coverage) spoke of the motivations and experiences of some of these women. Thus Busisiwe Maqungo was an HIV-positive woman who had not known about AZT at the time of her pregnancy, and whose daughter also tested HIV positive. She had been told that her baby would die and that nothing could be done.74 ‘SH’ knew her HIV status and knew about the use of Nevirapine for reducing the risk of transmission of HIV. She had been referred to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital where she was given a Nevirapine tablet and advised to take drops for the baby when it was born. However, she went into premature labour and was taken to Sebokeng Hospital by ambulance in July 2001, where she requested Nevirapine for herself and her baby. She was told that none was available and was thus unable to take it during labour. She tried to obtain some for her baby, but as he was premature, she was unable to take him to Chris Hani Baragwanath where he could have received the medicine.75 These were chosen as representative stories of women who were not informed about the possibilities of accessing preventive treatment, or who were unable to act on such knowledge because they were users of the public health system, which did not provide universal access. Underlying this is women’s inability to choose, or to act in accordance with their choice. However, as discussed later, the context of these stories is less an affirmation of choice than an emphasis on women’s vulnerability in the absence of state action/provision. These stories were not framed within an explicitly feminist paradigm. Instead women were presented as mothers seeking to protect their babies. The particular focus on children was a strategic choice in the context of the case, and it meant that there was little connection between motherhood and independent agency. The AIDS sector As the epidemic developed in South Africa, the links between unequal gender relations and HIV&AIDS began to emerge. In the context of prevention, AIDS organizations, such as the ALP at CALS, identified two issues: the prevention of vertical transmission during pregnancy and the prevention of infection as a result of rape. When taken on in about 1997, the prevention of MTCT was already identified in citizens or mothers? the National Aids Plan – within the context of reproductive health. As the main ‘gender’ issue that was taken on by these organizations, the emphasis was on the choice of women to become mothers. Thus AIDS organizations located these claims in reproductive rights (choice and access to reproductive health care), but also within accepted government policy. The claims for programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission were not explicitly feminist, nor were they tied to a more widely feminist discourse of reproductive and sexual rights. 43  As the issue became contested, the AIDS sector shifted its arguments for the provision of MTCT from reproductive rights and choice to the irrationality of the state and access to health care. The Treatment Action Campaign With the formation of TAC, advocacy for affordable treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS became a major focus in the AIDS sector. Many of the key founders and leaders of TAC came from the gay rights movement and from among ANC activists. Their strategies drew on experience honed in struggles against apartheid and for gay rights. They cherished a strong belief in human rights and demonstrated particular skills in deploying rights as political and legal tools towards achieving their ends. TAC soon took the lead in advocacy strategies of MTCT in a context where the question of anti-retroviral drugs came to dominate the political landscape on HIV and AIDS. TAC’s treatment focus and its increasingly adversarial relationship with government on ARVs meant that the right of access to treatment as part of a wider health care right gained greater prominence as a rights claim during this time. Here the emphasis was on the denial of a right to treatment, as opposed to the denial of reproductive rights, including the right to have healthy babies. Civil society mobilization increasingly occurred around treatment rather than choice and reproductive rights issues. Thus access to ARVs became part of a wider struggle for treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS, rather than a political struggle for women’s reproductive rights and health. In the end, TAC did not explicitly exclude choice and reproductive rights arguments. Rather, it shifted the emphasis. A ‘hierarchy’ of rights thus became apparent in the way that the case was presented in court. The main emphasis was on irrational and unreasonable behaviour of the state in failing to extend treatment to all women, in order to save the lives of children. The arguments on choice, although not prominent, focused on the manner in which the state prevented the exercise of choice.76 Thus it was argued that the ‘right to “make decisions concerning reproduction” must, at a minimum, include the capacity g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t to take an informed decision about the risks flowing from mother-to-child trans- mission of the HIV.’77 It was argued that HIV-positive pregnant women who give birth at a non-designated site were deliberately prevented from making such decisions because health professionals were precluded by state policy from prescribing and dispensing the crucial drug. It was also suggested that the non-availability of the drug meant that ‘many poor women may effectively be coerced into deciding in favour of termination. This in itself constitutes a significant lack of control in relation to decisions concerning reproduction.’78 This is a negative conception of rights, seeking to prevent the state from interfering with women’s exercise of decision-making. The emphasis is on the vulnerability of these women in the face of state policy. A more positive affirmation of women’s agency would have had a different starting point. It would, firstly, have sought to develop the idea of women as agents and set out an expansive notion of reproductive 44 choice. It would then have argued that the state limited that choice. The women’s sector Women’s organizations Women’s organizations have been slow to take up issues of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Over time, women’s reproductive health and rights organizations embraced the issue of prevention measures for mother-to-child transmission as part of a broader commitment to reproductive rights. However, there was no women’s organization that engaged in sustained advocacy strategies on the issue of MTCT. To some extent, the issue was taken up within the reproductive rights sector within the broad context of reproductive choice by the RRA. The Reproductive Rights Alliance In the late 1990s, the mandate of the RRA was to monitor the implementation of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act and to engage in informative and educational campaigns about women’s right to choice around termination. The RRA was explicitly feminist in promoting women’s reproductive rights and in protecting their choices about pregnancy. The South African government’s commitment to reproductive autonomy was highly valued by organizations advocating for reproductive rights. When lobbied by AIDS organizations to take a public stand against the Minister of Health’s position on anti-retrovirals, the RRA decided to maintain its emphasis on ‘choice’ and to expose the manner in which HIV and AIDS, and violence against women impacted this choice.79 It decided to do so by continuing to educate women and to lobby government, but not to confront it at that stage. When the RRA later decided to join the case in 2001, it was on the explicitly feminist basis of promoting an idea of choice that was not only limited to termination of pregnancy, but was concerned with women’s choice to give birth to healthy children within a wider promotion of women’s agency. The founding affidavit of the RRA’s application to join the case states that it did so to ‘place sexual and reproductive rights at the political centre stage in dealing with the causes and effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.’80 The RRA argued that, although TAC listed at least twelve rights violations in their paper, the primary legal basis was that the failure to make Nevirapine available and to implement a comprehensive nation-wide programme for the prevention of MTCT of HIV was irrational and infringed health care rights of women and babies. Issues relating to the infringement of the rights to reproductive choice and decision-making were raised in bald terms and not extensively developed or relied upon. The RRA citizens or mothers? sought to argue that the ‘foremost rights’ infringements implicated in the application are a woman’s right to freedom and security of the person, including the right to reproductive decision-making and access to reproductive health care.’81 In a statement that came to be viewed as controversial by TAC’s lawyers, the RRA stated: Further, to the extent that the Applicants refer to the rights of children being born, this conception of the right to reproductive decision-making differs from that of the Applicant herein. To acknowledge a right of children being born is in conflict with a conception of reproductive choice which acknowledges that pregnant women have a right to chose whether to access treatment to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS, 45  which includes the right to decline to do so. At all times the decision should be the decision of the woman alone, based on informed consent (para 15). It was this statement that set the RRA apart from the TAC. The RRA argued that choice lay with women alone, and this inevitably included the right to refuse treatment. TAC’s view of choice was different. It promoted the right to obtain Nevirapine in the context of a recalcitrant state. Hence its view of the right was solely a negative one – the state should not infringe the right in this context. TAC’s limited definition was shaped by a political context of hostility between it and the state; the RRA sought a more holistic and woman-centred view that was located in politics that sought to affirm women’s agency. Health workers/the medical profession An important group that advocated for ARV therapy for HIV-positive pregnant women in the public sector consisted of doctors working in public hospitals with pregnant women and with HIV-positive children. Obstetricians were concerned about their ability to prescribe treatment that allowed pregnant women to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to their babies, while paediatric HIV doctors, who witnessed the preventable deaths of children, were predominantly concerned with the children’s right to life. The right of medical practitioners to act in accordance with their ethics and conscience was a key theme of this group. They argued it would be against their constitutional right to freedom of conscience and their ethical duty of clinical independence if they were ‘to deny women the right to use anti-retroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV.’ The policy that restricted provision of ARV therapy to pregnant women to ‘pilot’ and ‘research’ sites denied women this right and undermined the doctor-patient relationship.82 While these arguments accepted the notion of choice, it was – again – in the context of women accessing these drugs based on the professional opinion of a doctor. Thus it was a limited assertion of women’s rights. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t The Minister and Department of Health The state was committed to reproductive choice, and the programmatic issues relating to MTCT were located in reproductive health and AIDS programmes. Although formally a pro-choice state, the Minister and Department did not raise issues of choice at all. Rather, with its focus on ARVs, it raised questions about the safety and efficacy of Nevirapine and an operational capacity to roll out prevention of MTCT programmes. Thus, the Department’s emphasis on ARVs helped to create a context in which women’s claims to choice and agency were marginalized. 46 The Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and the Status of Women The Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and the Status of Women is a joint parliamentary committee established to monitor government progress on gender equality. In the second democratic parliament, this committee decided to investigate issues of poverty, violence and, HIV and AIDS as they related to women’s rights. In October and November 2001, while the case was in the High Court, the committee held hearings on the relationship between gender inequalities and HIV and AIDS.83 One of the matters discussed was the question of MTCT, and the issues surrounding the government’s delay in providing this in public sector hospitals. The committee unequivocally located this within the idea of choice: The Committee believes women must exercise their right to choice in relation to their own health after being informed fully of the benefits and side effects of ARV treatment, TOP, treatment for opportunistic infections, mode of delivery, breastfeeding vs. formula etc. The Committee recommends that this would give effect and help alleviate the plight of poor women. This report was an explicitly feminist voice. However, it was not taken up in civil society. The report was ‘suppressed’ in that it was not tabled in Parliament for debate, hence it did not become a public document and advocacy tended to focus on the fact of its ‘suppression’ rather than its contents. Analysis and conclusion In an article written about the provision of ARVs to pregnant women to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, it was suggested that ‘at the heart of the matter is a woman’s right to make choices concerning reproduction’.84 This paper has shown how an apparently simple and obvious rights claim can be dislodged in particular contexts. It also demonstrates how positive goals, in this case winning treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women and advancing the active citizenship of poor people, even of poor women, can be done in a way that leaves a critical objective unfulfilled – that of full citizenship for women who as a group continue to be subordinate and marginalized. Thus even when the results of a rights struggle are widely welcomed as a ‘good thing’, as was the case here, they carry significant gender implications. The paper suggests citizens or mothers? a number of reasons for this, including the nature of the political context, the degree of conflict, the changing role-players and the different interests each brought to the issue, the nature of the process and site of contestation, the state of civil society and its organizations, and the nature of the claim itself. The changing political context and growing conflict was clearly a major factor in determining which claims and strategies were chosen to secure ARV treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women. As the political context changed, the claim shifted from women’s reproductive health to focus on the irrationality of the state in limiting access, and the social right of access to health care. Indeed, as the issues became 47  more contested, and the behaviour of the state more irrational, the dominant concern seemed to go beyond a question of women’s choice to a political worry about the irrational and unlawful behaviour of the state. Foremost in many people’s minds was the question ‘why?’. Why would the state refuse to provide globally accepted treatment? Political attention thus focused on the motives of the state, rather than the subjects of the right. In a climate of growing hostility, women’s rights became secondary and then almost irrelevant. Added to this was the fact that as government delayed, the number of people whose rights were visibly violated increased – that is more children were born with HIV who could not be ‘saved’. This meant that the violation of children’s rights became a stronger political and legal claim. Generally, the ongoing delay deepened and widened the nature and degree of rights violations and possible rights claims. As a result, the lawyers focused on legal questions of irrationality and children’s rights, rather than reproductive choice. Indeed, choice was seen as a ‘dangerous’ argument for the legal case, as it might imply the right of women to refuse the life- saving treatment for their children. The legal process thus further shaped public claims and relegated reproductive choice to the sidelines. In contrast, choice arguments retained some currency in the political arena, slightly removed from the central forum of the courtroom. The emergence of a treatment-based rights movement within the AIDS sector was important in shaping the rights claims. It provided a driving force behind the case. However, this was not a feminist movement and its roots lay in other struggles (gay rights, anti-apartheid) that had not integrated feminist issues. At the same time, treatment and access to health care provided an ‘umbrella’ claim that potentially allowed different interest groups to insert their claims – women, people living with HIV and AIDS, health workers, child rights advocates. The focus on these generalized rights diluted the specifics of women’s choice claims. In contrast to this, the explicitly feminist claims of the RRA were based on a more radical notion of women’s right to reproductive choice – that a woman choosing to g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t have a baby had the right to choose to have a healthy baby. This claim constructed women as agents and decision makers. It also meant that the decision to take ARVs was solely that of the women on the basis of informed consent, and that women were also able to refuse such treatment. As shown in this paper, this claim could not be sustained. Instead, where choice formed part of this claim, it was a limited notion that only looked to women’s choice for motherhood. The primary claims advanced by the legal team (and the parties to the case) merged the interests of women with those of safeguarding children’s rights to health and of health professionals’ rights to treat their patients. These claims constructed women as bearers of children, and as patients, rather then as active agents in their own right. There were also reasons that lay within the women’s movement and its level of strategy and organization. Firstly, this movement focused politically on equality rather than choice. Although it probably took choice for granted as the morally correct 48 argument, there has been little work (after the passing on the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act in 1996) on building a political discourse of choice. This was expressed by the RRA in minutes of its members’ meeting of 2003, where it still identified the need ‘to build a stronger profile around choice as a human rights issue.’85 It went on to say that ‘reproductive health and rights … are integrally linked to the fight against HIV/AIDS and the RRA must position itself strategically within the broader movement to combat the disease at every level.’86 However, this was not done by 2001, meaning that the claim by RRA was not widely supported by the women’s movements in civil society. In addition, poor black women using the public health system were not organized on this issue. Had this been the case, a stronger assertion of choice might have been sustained. As it was, if these women were organized, it was around a broader treatment claim by TAC in which the provision of ARVs to reduce MTCT was only one aspect. The choice argument was also unfamiliar and largely untested in court. (Male) lawyers did not understand the argument, and some actively discouraged the argument, citing it as unstrategic and inconvenient, detracting from the simple message of irrational governments or saving children. This was the case even though the RRA was merely making a supplementary argument at this time, not seeking to replace the main rights arguments with one based on women’s choice. Choice arguments remained in the papers in a limited form. However, the marginalization of substantive choice arguments and of women’s rights advocates from the case signifies the road that must still be travelled to instil women’s rights claims into everyday life, and to see women as equal citizens, rather than trapped within their gender roles. ** Director, Centre for Applied legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. * Writer and Researcher, Johannesburg, South Africa. Notes 1 Ran Greenstein ‘State, civil society and the reconfiguration of power in post apartheid South Africa’, Wiser Seminar 28 August 2003, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2 Steven Friedman and Shauna Mottiar, Rewarding engagement? The Treatment Action Campaign and the politics of HIV/AIDS, Centre for Policy Studies, 2004. 3 Pam Alldred ‘Not making a virtue of necessity: Nancy Fraser on postcolonial politics”. In: Storming the Millennium: the new politics of change edited by Tin Jordan and Adam Lent, Lawrence and Whishart, London, 1999. 4 Many feminist commentators have argued that the term ‘parent to child’ rather than ‘mother to child’ should be used to describe vertical transmission of HIV. This avoids the stigmatization of citizens or mothers? mothers as vectors, and acknowledges that fathers may contribute to such transmission by infecting the mother. We use the latter term as it is the one that is most widely used, although we also use the term ‘vertical transmission’. 5 It was estimated that 4.74 million South Africans between 15 and 49 years of age had become infected with the HI virus by 2001, the year in which the case first went to court. National HIVand syphilis sero-prevalence survey in South Africa Summary Report (2001) (Pretoria, Department of Health, Directorate: Health Systems Research, Research Co-ordination and Epidemiology 2002). 6 Ibid. 2.65 million women and 2.09 million men. 7 See National HIV and syphilis sero-prevalence survey, (Pretoria, Department of Health, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001). 49  8 24.5% of all pregnant women using public health facilities in 2000. National HIV and syphilis sero- prevalence survey of women attending public antenatal clinics in South Africa 2000, (Pretoria, Department of Health, 2001). 9 Ida Susser & Zena Stein ‘Culture, sexuality and women’s agency in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa’ American Journal of Public Health 90 (7:2000) 1048. This research was carried out in the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal where HIV prevalence rate is over 35%. 10 Kirsten Dunkle, Rachel Jewkes, Heather Brown, James McIntyre, Glenda Gray and Siohan Harlow Gender Based Violence and HIV Infection among Pregnant Women in Soweto. A technical report to the Australian Agency for International Development (2003) Gender and Health Group, Medical Research Council, 2. 11 Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala ‘“We do sex to have money”: modernity and meaning in contemporary relationships’, Paper presented at the South African AIDS Conference, Durban, 3-6 August 2003. 12 Barbara Klugman ‘Sexual Rights in Southern Africa: A Beijing discourse or a strategic necessity’ Health and Human Rights 4 (2000) 146; Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala ‘Virginity testing: managing Sexuality in a maturing HIV/AIDS epidemic’ Medical Anthropology Quarterly 15 (2001) 541. 13 Section 12 (2). 14 The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 92 of 1996; the Domestic Violence Act, 116 of 1998. 15 Catherine Albertyn ‘Contesting democracy– HIV/AIDS and the achievement of gender equality in South Africa’ (2003) 29 Feminist Studies 595. 16 Catherine Albertyn and Shireen Hassim (2003) ‘The boundaries of democracy: gender HIV/AIDS and culture’ in D Everatt and V Maphai The real state of the nation (2003) Interfund. 17 Annemarie Goetz ConceptualpPaper on applied research for gender justice (2003) 3. 18 Sonia Alvarez (1989) Engendering democracy in Brazil: women’s movements in transition politics: NJ: Princeton University Press. 19 Ministry of Health SA Demographic and Health Survey 1998 (Pretoria:1999). 20 EM O’Connor et al ‘Reduction of maternal infant transmission of Human Immuno Deficiency Virus Type 1 with Zidovudine treatment’ (1994) 331 New England Journal of Medicine 1173. 21 NA Wade et al ‘Abbreviated regimens of Zidovudine prophylaxis and perinatal transmission of the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus’ (1998) 339 New England Journal of Medicine 1409; N Shaffer et al ‘Short course Zidovudine for peri-natal HIV-1 transmission in Bangkok, Thailand: a randomised controlled trial’ (1999) 353 The Lancet 795. 22 The first results of a trial known as HIVNET 012 which tested the efficacy of a single dose of Nevirapine in reducing MTCT were released by the National Institutes for Health (NIH). L Guay et g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t al ‘Intra-partum and neonatal single dose Nevirapine compared with Zidovudine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission on HIV-1 in Kampala, Uganda: HIVNET 012 randomised trial’ (1999) 354 The Lancet 795. 23 Glenda Gray et al ‘Preliminary efficacy, safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of short course regimens of nucleoside analogs for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV’. Paper presented to the XIII International AIDS Conference, Durban, July 2000. 24 South Africa’s Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS/STD 1995-2000 included the goal of reducing mother-to- child transmission under the priority area ‘Prevention’, (National AIDS Convention of South Africa A National AIDS Plan for South Africa (1994)); the 1998 Report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in South Africa recommended, inter alia, ‘the selective use of antiviral therapy to prevent vertical transmission of the virus’. (Saving Mothers Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in South Africa 1998 (Department of Health, 1999). 25 National AIDS Convention of South Africa A national AIDS plan for South Africa (1994) 66, 120-124. See also Founding Affidavit, 184, papers for Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (2002) 50 5 SA 721 (CC). 26 M Heywood ‘Preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in South Africa: background, strategies and outcomes of the Treatment Action Campaign case against the Minister of Health’ (2002) 18 SAJHR 278, 281 27 Joint Statement of the Minister of Health and TAC, 30 April 1999. 28 M Heywood ‘Preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in South Africa: background, strategies and outcomes of the Treatment Action Campaign case against the Minister of Health’ (2002) 18 SAJHR 278, 281. 29 The details of this campaign were set out in a ‘Memorandum Calling for Commitment, Action and Implementation of a Prevention and Treatment Plan’ handed to the Minister of Health on 11 June 2001 (available at www.tac.org.za). 30 Heywood, 281. 31 For an ‘insider’ view of the contestations around the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV positive women in South Africa to reduce MTCT, see M Heywood (2002). 32 Heywood 282. 33 Heywood (2002) citing Thabo Mbeki ‘Address to the National Council of the Provinces’ 28 October 2001 (available at www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1999). 34 Ibid. This report was issued by the Medicines Control Council in late 2000. Its internationally supported review of AZT concluded that benefits of its use outweighed risks. According to Heywood, this report was initially rejected and sent back to the MCC for further work, and then later ignored (283). 35 Heywood 281-282. 36 Ibid 282. 37 Ibid 286-287. 38 For example, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Technical Update ‘Mother- to-child transmission of HIV’ (September 2000); UNAIDS press release ‘Preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission: technical Experts recommend use of Antiretroviral Regimens Beyd Pilot Projects’ (25 October 2000). 39 Heywood, 289. 40 Shamim Meer, Which workers, which women, what interests? Race, class and gender in post apartheid South Africa, paper presented at conferences on Reinventing Social Emancipation Portugal 2001. 41 Thabo Mbeki, 9 October 2003, address to the Black Management Forum. 42 Steven Friedman & Shauna Mottiar, ‘Rewarding engagement? The Treatment Action Campaign and the politics of HIV/AIDS. Centre for Policy Studies 2004. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 The internal mass movement struggling against apartheid in the 1980s. 46 Friedman for example in his review of TAC is preoccupied with numbers of women in leadership citizens or mothers? and implies that this is TAC’s concern as well. The failure of any of the commentaries on the PMTCT campaign either from within TAC or outside to problematize the gendered implications of the campaign seem to confirm this. 47 Shireen Hassim ‘A virtuous circle? Gender equality and representation in South Africa’. In: John Daniel, Roger Southall and Jessica Lutchman (editors) State of the Nation: South Africa 2004-2005 (2005) 336. Also at www.hsrcpress.ac.za. 48 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 30 October 1998. On file with C Albertyn. 49 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 30 October 1998. On file with C Albertyn. 51  50 Minutes of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 6 August 1999. On file with C Albertyn. 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid. 53 Heywood, 290. 54 Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (2002) 5 SA 721 (CC). 55 Interviews Liesl Gerntholtz and Anita Kleinsmidt (lawyers with the Aids Law Project during the case); CALS Annual Report, 1999, p 14 56 Thus Budlender thought s 28 was more important than s 27. 57 Interview, Geoff Budlender, 27 October 2004. 58 Budlender, Senior Counsel, Gilbert Marcus, 28 June 2005. 59 Paras 1.2-1.7. 60 Related claims included a violation of section 195 of the Constitution which requires that public administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution including, inter alia, “a high standard of professional ethics” and the requirement that “peoples’ needs must be responded to”. Also, a violation of Government Notice 657 which mandates the rendering of “all available health services” to pregnant women and children under the age of 6 years. 61 Sections 28(1)(c); 10; 9; 11 and 12(2)(a). 62 Interview L Gerntholtz and A Kleinsmidt, previously of the ALP. 63 Rule 16, Rules of the High Court. 64 Hallie Ludsin, memo ‘A Pregnant Woman’s Right to Refuse Medical Treatment’ 23 October 2001. 65 Interview, Coriaan de Villiers, RRA attorney. 66 C Albertyn, personal knowledge. 67 Geoff Budlender’s views were confirmed by senior counsel, Gilbert Marcus, 29 June 2005. 68 Budlender, interview, 27 October 2004. 69 Ibid. 70 RRA, Media Release, 21 November 2001 “Reproductive Rights Alliance supports Treatment Action Campaign in Court action’. 71 Message sent out on reproductive health list serve: (19 November 2001). 72 About 25% of women presenting for ante-natal treatment and/or delivering babies in public hospitals were testing HIV positive by 2000. 73 Heads of argument, Treatment Action Campaign, para 2.2 (Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (2002) 5 SA 721 (CC). g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t 74 Heads of argument, para 4.17. 75 Ibid para 4.20. 76 Ibid para 4.4.1-4.45. 77 Ibid. 78 Ibid. 79 Ibid. 80 Founding affidavit, application of Reproductive Rights Alliance to enter case of Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign. 81 Ibid para 15. 82 Heads of argument, para 9.8; Founding Affidavit: Saloojee, Vol 3 pp 531-532 para 31. 83 L Denny ‘How best can South Africa address the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls?’, presentation to the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life & Status of Women. 84 Jonathon Berger ‘Taking responsibilities seriously: the role of the state in preventing transmission of 52 HIV from mothers to their unborn children’ (2001) 5 Law, Democracy and Development 163 at 165. 85 Minutes, RRA General Meeting held on Friday 14 March 2003 at the Holiday Inn, Johannesburg International. 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O’Connor, E.M. et al (1994) ‘Reduction of maternal-infant transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 with zidovudine treatment’, New England Journal of Medicine 331(18): 1173-1180. Reproductive Rights Alliance - Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 30 October 1998. - Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 6 g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t August 1999. - Media Release, 21 November 2001, ‘Reproductive Rights Alliance supports Treatment Action Campaign in court action’. - Minutes of a General Meeting of the Reproductive Rights Alliance, Johannesburg, 14 March 2003. Shaffer N et al (1999) ‘Short-course zidovudine for perinatal HIV-1 transmission in Bangkok, Thailand: a randomised controlled trial’, The Lancet 353(9155): 795. Susser, Ida and Zena Stein (2000) ‘Culture, sexuality and women’s agency in the prevention of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa’, American Journal of Public Health 90(7): 1048. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) - Joint Statement of the Minister of Health and TAC, 30 April 1999. - ‘Memorandum calling for commitment, action and implementation of a prevention and treatment plan’ handed to the Minister of Health on 11 June 2001 (available at www.tac.org.za). Wade, NA et al (1998) ‘Abbreviated regimens of zidovudine prophylaxis and perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus’, New England Journal of Medicine 339(20): 1409-1414. 54 Legislation: - The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 93 of 1996. - The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 92 of 1996. - The Domestic Violence Act, 116 of 1998. Interviews: Geoff Budlender, counsel for TAC; Coriaan de Villiers, RRA attorney; Liesl Gerntholtz, AIDS Law Project lawyer; Anita Kleinsmidt, AIDS Law Project lawyer; Gilbert Marcus, Senior Counsel for TAC. citizens or mothers? 55 Sarah Bradshaw, Ana Criquillion, Vilma Castillo A., Goya Wilson 2 Talking rights or what is right? Understandings and strategies around sexual, reproductive and abortion rights in Nicaragua The 1990s witnessed the ‘rise of rights’ (Eyben 2003) as many organizations and international development agencies adopted some form of ‘rights-based approach’ to development (Molyneux and Lazar 2003; Piron 2005). While the rights-based approach has not been without its critics (IDS 2005; Molyneux and Cornwall 2008; Tsikata 2004) the potential of rights for increasing recognition of women’s demands as legitimate claims has made it particularly attractive to women’s movements, and some of the most effective organizing over the past twenty-five years has been around rights- related claims (Antrobus 2004; Ruppert 2002). In line with this, new ‘rights’, such as the rights of the child or a woman’s right to live without violence, have become enshrined in international agreements. However, these rights remain contested and recent events at global and local level are witness to an encroachment on the gains made. In particular the lack of gendered rights, rights related to gender inequality and women’s autonomy, within the Millennium Development Goals has caused concern among feminists and gender activists (WICEJ 2004). In Nicaragua, the recent repealing of the law permitting ‘therapeutic’ abortion has highlighted the growing encroachment on rights by the state and the church and brought the language of rights and competing notions of rights once again to the fore. This paper explores how women’s rights are being produced and reproduced in the Nicaraguan context and in the light of the recent change to the abortion law. It highlights differences in understandings of rights, not just between the state and/or its associated actors on the one hand and the women’s movements on the other, but also within the women’s movements. At the same time the paper notes similarities in the discourses of apparently very diverse actors, in that they have limited engagement with ideas of women’s autonomy and freedom to choose as a ‘right’. The talking rights or what is right? paper suggests that a common understanding of what constitutes gendered rights, even between women activists, cannot be assumed. The paper draws on a number of research projects conducted by the authors for the Nicaraguan feminist NGO, Puntos de Encuentro, around rights. In particular it draws on a series of interviews with women leaders and an internal reflection process undertaken in Puntos in 2005 (Bradshaw 2006; Bradshaw and Criquillion 2007) and on more recent semi-structured interviews with Nicaraguan women and focus group discussions with NGOs working for gender equality, undertaken during the summer of 2007 (Castillo and Wilson 2007; Wilson and Castillo 2007). 57  Women’s rights as contested rights The concepts of reproductive health, reproductive rights and sexual rights were popularized during the 1980s and 1990s especially in United Nations conferences (Petchesky 2000). Reproductive health as promoted by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Platform of Action (POA) focuses on ensuring ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’ in all matters related to the reproductive system, including a satisfying and safe sex life, the capacity to have children and freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Reproductive rights are generally discussed in relation to the ability and knowledge of couples and individuals to decide ‘freely and responsibly’ the number, spacing and timing of children. While there is a less universally agreed definition of ‘sexual rights’, this generally relates to freedom to express sexuality, enjoy sexual relations and enjoy sexual health. Those who see the purpose of sexual relations as procreation rather than pleasure may, of course, contest the idea that the ability to ‘pursue a satisfying, safe and pleasurable sexual life’ (WHO 2007) is a ‘right’. Perhaps the most contested of all women’s rights are those rights associated with abortion. Discussion around when life begins has been a key element of the debate particularly in the West (Copelon et al 2005; Hessini 2005). Those who have adopted the label ‘pro-life’ focus their energy on presenting the foetus as a living being from the point of conception with all the individual rights that ‘life’ brings, thus constructing those who do not support them as ‘anti-life’, or even anti-baby or anti- child (Tan 2004). This is a strong discourse that finds resonance with many, and the rights of the ‘unborn’ are increasingly being recognized in both moral and legal terms. In legal terms, in 2004 President Bush signed the ‘Unborn Victims of Violence Act’, which allowed for a person who inflicts violence on a pregnant woman to be tried separately for injuries caused to the woman and the foetus, and in effect gave the foetus independent legal status. Similarly, Article 148 of the Nicaraguan Penal Code suggests a prison sentence of 2 to 5 years for those who cause injury to an unborn foetus. In moral terms the movement to recognize the ‘Day of the Unborn Child’ has grown in recent years to include a large number of Latin American countries, including Nicaragua. It began in El Salvador in 1993, when March 25th, the g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Catholic feast of the Annunciation when angels were said to have announced to the Virgin Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus, was pronounced the ‘Day for the Right to be Born’. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) begins in Article 1 by noting that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. For some this is taken to mean that human rights begin from birth and that, therefore, the foetus has no ‘human’ rights. While an unborn foetus is not covered by human rights conventions, nor is a woman’s right to abort an unwanted foetus enshrined in any international agreement, including the ICPD. For this reason ‘pro-choice’ campaigners often seek to construct abortion rights as part of a broader reproductive health agenda, resting on a woman’s right to make choices over her own body or bodily integrity. However, as Kulczycki (2007) notes of Mexico, the realization of this right is hindered by the fact that the majority of the population or even many health care providers are not aware 58 of the concept of reproductive health. Abortion is also not always an indicator of women’s ability to exercise sexual and reproductive rights. For example, a study from India, where abortion was legalized in 1971, found that women who sought abortions were more often those who were not allowed by their partners to use contraception and/or those coerced into sexual relations by their partners (Ravindran and Balasubramanian 2004). Abortion was then ‘chosen’ when an inability to exercise sexual rights, to choose not to have sex, or reproductive rights, to choose contraception, led to an unwanted pregnancy. The discourse of pro-choice groups is often an apologetic discourse, promoting contraception as always preferable to abortion. Abortion is presented as a last resort, a tragedy that women regret, rather than a positive choice a woman may make. As Løkeland (2004: 172) notes, even when the legal right to abortion is won, the moral right is often still not accepted and a woman has to ‘say sorry’ and have doubts about her decision to have an abortion to be regarded as a ‘moral person’. Understandings of women’s rights in Nicaragua Interviews with representatives from women’s groups and organizations in Nicaragua in 2005 highlighted the importance of rights and a rights discourse for their work. However, the interviews also highlighted a reluctance to be labelled as a rights-based organization and demonstrated a healthy cynicism for the transformative capacity of rights based approaches alone, stressing the need for a continued explicit focus on power, and challenging unequal relations of power (Bradshaw 2006). Sexual rights and reproductive rights were seldom mentioned spontaneously or articulated explicitly during the interviews. The right most often mentioned was a woman’s right to live without violence. This may reflect the fact that the Network of Women Against Violence is one of the most well established and well respected networks in the country. It may also reflect the fact that this right is a readily understandable and concrete right backed by an international human rights framework and by national law. Recent focus groups with a number of women’s organizations looked specifically at reproductive and sexual rights (Wilson and Castillo 2007). The discussions suggest that reproductive rights are not always articulated in terms of reproductive health and the right to ‘complete physical, mental and social well-being’, but rather that a more narrow focus is adopted. The discourse around reproductive rights often focuses on the right to decide how many children to have and when to have them, and the right to talking rights or what is right? limit sexual activity with a male partner and to use contraception. However, a woman’s ability to limit sexual intercourse or to use contraception when her partner did not want to was recognized as something that was difficult to achieve, even for those women working on the issues. While a woman was seen to have the right to make these choices, if making such a choice resulted in conflict with her male partner, then exercising this reproductive right was actually seen to limit her wider well-being, if not rights. The ability to fulfil reproductive rights and what fulfilment means was also questioned in relation to material well-being and poverty. While poverty was seen to be a factor that limited a woman’s ability to fulfil reproductive rights, women’s economic condition was not discussed within a rights discourse, but rather a discourse of need. Economic rights in particular were generally not recognized as ‘rights’ but rather discussed within a basic needs framework. 59  This competing discourse of needs and rights is evident in a number of areas. The right to live without violence is a hard won legal right in the country. A law against violence against women exists, Law 230, and the liaison work of local police and women’s groups is seen as an important achievement in the country (Clulow 2002). However, questions over the extent to which achieving a legal right actually allows rights fulfilment were raised. The representative of one organization interviewed in 2005 noted the importance of women in situations of violence using the judicial system to claim protection and justice (Bradshaw 2006). However, at the same time limitations to making a claim on the legal system were noted, both in terms of the belief that the system could protect the woman and in terms of what this ‘protection’ means. In order to escape violence women need more than a law, they need to be able to live independently, and more importantly to believe they can live independently. This, she suggested, means the need for a complementary focus on psychosocial services and economic skills training. The suggestion was that it was better to provide the conditions that allow a woman to avoid the violation of the right, rather than to try to claim the ‘right’ once violated. The conditions that allow women to avoid rights violations were presented more as needs than rights, such as the need for employment that would allow economic self-sufficiency. The lack of an explicit rights discourse is also apparent when young women are being discussed. The discourse of the women’s organizations involved in the focus groups often centred on the risks related to and the responsibilities associated with young women’s sexual activity, rather than their right to enjoy sexual relations. One organization noted how society in general did not see sex outside of procreation as socially acceptable, particularly for the young, meaning that motherhood provides the only legitimate context for youthful sexual relations (Castillo and Wilson 2007). There is a continued idealization of motherhood by the church and the state in Nicaragua (Bradshaw 2008) and the exercise of rights needs to be understood in this context and linked to local cultural ideas about being a woman, a wife and mother. The women interviewed by Castillo and Wilson appeared to privilege the rights of the man to become a father over the right of a woman to decide not to be a mother. Women spoke of the need for a woman to give a man a child and saw decisions (of g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t others) around seeing a pregnancy through to term or not being influenced by the presence or absence of the future father. The inherent desire to have the child in a context when women are only valued as mothers may mean that doubts over a late period is imagined as a pregnancy, and pregnancy is automatically understood in terms of motherhood. This results not only in a related construction of fatherhood and the granting of rights to the would-be father from an early stage, but also the very early personification of the foetus. This is a phenomenon noted in other strongly Catholic countries (Tan 2004) and one not limited to women, but promoted also by the medical profession and doctors whose first reaction is to suggest a new ‘mother’ listen to the heartbeat of the new ‘life’, for example. The issue of when life begins is key in the West for establishing the hierarchy of the rights of the woman and the foetus. However, women’s organizations in Nicaragua appeared reluctant to enter into the debate, suggesting that in doing so they would have ‘already lost the battle’ (Castillo and Wilson 2007: 20). In this context, when it comes to understanding of when 60 life begins, moral and religious arguments are recognized as stronger than legal precedent and scientific fact. The threat to women’s rights The influence of religion, not only on national governments but also international policy making, has been an issue of concern for feminists in recent years (Kerr, Sprenger and Symington 2004). Htun (2003) notes, while conflict between govern- mental and hegemonic religious institutions may facilitate reform in the direction of gender equality, cooperation between the two works to limit such change. Nicaragua provides a good example of how cooperation between governmental and religious institutions may not only limit gender equality, but may also reverse advances made. The church is increasingly assuming the language of rights. Backed by the moral authority that organized religion brings, the rights they promote are presented as based in ‘tradition’, and therefore as ‘natural’ and ‘right’, making it a difficult discourse to challenge. The discourse not only promotes some rights over others, but also seeks to negate the existence of other rights, such as sexual and reproductive rights. So for example in Nicaragua, a state-sponsored sex education manual was withdrawn from schools after the church objected to its use of the phrase ‘sexual and reproductive rights’ in the introduction, since these are not rights recognized by the church. Similarly, the Ministry for Education, when justifying prohibition of the promotion of condoms in secondary schools as a practice that would encourage promiscuity among young people, noted how sex finds its ‘best expression’ only within marriage and suggested that sex outside marriage produces only ‘street children and AIDS’ (cited in Pizarro 2004, author’s translation). This effectively negated the ‘right’ to pursue a satisfying, safe and pleasurable sexual life. Perhaps the best example of how religion is influencing government policy in Nicaragua is the recent change to the law on abortion, overturning the right to therapeutic abortion established since 1893 (Lopez-Vigil 2007). The law as it existed allowed abortion in the case of approval from a committee of three doctors and with the consent of the spouse or nearest relative of the woman in cases where the pregnancy endangered a woman’s life. In all other cases abortion carried a sentence of 1-16 years in prison. Those against abortion asserted that the provision for talking rights or what is right? therapeutic abortion enables pro-choice groups to broaden the interpretation of ‘therapeutic’ and to abuse the system. However, McNaughton et al (2002: 112) highlight how therapeutic abortion had practically ceased to exist in Nicaragua after 1990, with only 5 requests a month being received for authorization at the largest maternity hospital. A review of hospital records in 2000 showed that not one authorization had been given since 1997. The attack on therapeutic abortion was not limited to arguments over numbers, it questioned the concept itself. In 2000 the Nicaraguan Medical Association distributed a statement to legislators in the National Assembly asserting that there were currently no medical conditions that required abortion as a life saving measure for a pregnant woman. In a subsequent newspaper article, the president of the Association is quoted as saying ‘abortion does not cure any illness, what it does is kill a human 61  being’, a thought echoed by the Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo when stating that ‘…the elimination of a child, in order to protect a woman’s health, is never justified’ (cited in McNaughton et al 2002: 114). The then president of Nicaragua added to this discourse through drawing explicitly on rights when announcing his intention to recognize the Day of the Unborn Child, noting that ‘the right to life is the first of the human rights’ (cited in White 2006). That a bill to change the law on abortion should be proposed is perhaps not surprising in this context. What is of greater interest is the timing of the bill. The bill was fast- tracked through the assembly during the run-up to the elections at the end of 2006. Before the vote in the assembly, the churches of the country united and were able to mobilize large numbers of people to publicly support the bill. The largest rally saw 200,000 participants gather in front of the Cathedral in the capital Managua. When the vote came in it was backed by four of the five main parties contesting the elections, including the party in power and the ‘revolutionary’ opposition party that gained power. The only party to vote against the bill, the reformist Sandanista party MRS, suffered an electoral backlash as religious and moral messages became mixed with political campaigning. That the church could force the bill through at this time shows their strength. That the key political actors would allow them to do so shows their reliance on the church and their willingness to use women’s rights as a political bargaining tool for electoral success (Bradshaw and Criquillion 2007). Defending women’s rights The aim here is not to detail the actions of the women’s movements and the issues their actions raise around their ability to promote women’s rights, as this has been discussed elsewhere (Bradshaw 2006; Bradshaw and Criquillion 2007). Rather, the focus here is on the type of response adopted in the face of the change in the abortion law and the use of rights discourse within this response. One of the leading and most vocal groups around the issue of abortion has been the relatively new grouping the Autonomous Women’s Movement (MAM). One important tactic adopted by MAM since its constitution has been to question who promoted the g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t change in the law, and more explicitly to question the role of the church in politics. In particular they, and others in the women’s movements, have questioned whether Nicaragua can still be called a secular state. While this is a valid question, as Lopez- Vigil (2007) notes, the people of Nicaragua have not been educated by the church nor successive governments to understand what ‘secular’ means and as such to think about what should be the role of God in society. CSR Austria (2004) also questions the utility of focusing on ideas of ‘non-establishment’ (of a state religion) and separation (of the church and the state) when challenging state restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. Her analysis of the Philippines, where some interesting parallels with Nicaragua can be drawn, suggests that framing the issues in these terms may sideline the real issue, mistaking the separation of the church and the state as an end in itself rather than a means to an end – the end being to further women’s rights. The women’s movements have utilized the language of rights when stating their case 62 in and to the public. The MAM, for example, utilized the national press to state that in countermanding therapeutic abortion, the Nicaraguan government would become a ‘violator of rights’ (El Nuevo Diario 2004, authors’ translation). In this piece, readers were asked to reflect on ‘where are women’s and children’s rights in this country? It concluded with a demand that government fulfil national and international agreements focused on the protection of the human rights of women, children and adolescents. A more recent campaign by those protesting the ban sought to link abortion to the right to wider health care or the right to treatment when life is threatened. A parallel campaign highlights the consequences of the lack of safe abortion for the wider family, and the consequences for the family and family unity when lack of access to legal therapeutic abortion results in the death of a mother. At the same time, more personalized campaigns have targeted the newly elected president Ortega, with the MAM web page suggesting that he is a violator of rights and ‘an emblem of sexual abuse and masculine impunity’ and as such an affront to ‘national dignity’ (authors’ translation). While the call to recognize internationally agreed human rights conventions might provide some legal support for the case, such rights are little known by the general population in the country and little heeded by successive governments. Moreover, the actions presented as rights violations by women’s groups, such as violence in the home, are often not perceived as such and instead are justified as being a character- istic of male behaviour and as something women have to put up with. This suggests that the tactic used elsewhere, to promote reproductive rights through asserting a woman’s right to non-interference or the right of citizens to privacy and bodily sovereignty (Teklehaimanot 2002), may find little resonance with the general public. However, the focus on the fragmentation of the family that may arise when therapeutic abortion is not available may have greater resonance, as it draws on the same discourse as the church around family values. Similarly, presenting abortion as a treatment rather than a choice allows the groups to draw on the wider discourse of the duty of the state to protect the lives of its citizens, including women who are vulnerable to the fatal consequences of no or unsafe abortions. However, while these two tactics may ‘work’, they may do so precisely because they by-pass discussions of women’s rights to choose and issues of power and power relations within these choices. The assertion of the need to protect women’s lives also only works in a context where talking rights or what is right? lives are seen to be under threat, and as noted above, the Nicaraguan Medical Association has questioned this. Despite this, the women’s movement found perhaps their greatest allies among the medical profession. Focus groups with physicians highlighted that the majority believed there were situations where a woman’s life could be in immediate danger from a pregnancy and saw this as medical grounds for an abortion, although many stated they would not perform an abortion themselves (McNaughton et al 2002). The Society for Obstetrics and Gynaecology suggested a change in terminology to defuse the arguments that there were no conditions where abortion should be prescribed as curative or therapeutic, and suggested the use of ‘abortion for medical reasons’ as a clearer term. They also suggested an amendment to the article regulating therapeutic abortion to begin with the words ‘abortion for medical causes will be determined scientifically by three medical specialists…’ (cited in McNaughton et al 2002). This puts the focus firmly on medical rationales for 63  abortion and scientific proof or professional judgement, and once again moves away from a discourse of women’s rights. Joffe et al (2004) analysing the alliance between medical professionals and feminist activists campaigning for legalization of abortion in the US, note the tensions that emerged between the feminist view of abortion as a women-centred service and a further medicalize or professionalize abortion services. The final ruling in the Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion in the US made clear how the court saw the situation; ‘…the abortion decision in all its aspects is inherently, and primarily, a medical decision, and basic responsibility for it must rest with the physician’ (cited in Joffe et al 2004: 781). As Joffe et al note, women do not have the actual right to get an abortion, only the right to choose to seek an abortion. Similarly, with therapeutic abortion the ‘rights’ granted to women to make choices over their own bodies are limited. A woman’s rights are limited to seeking an abortion, while the right to decide over executing an abortion lies with the medical profession. As such, focusing on therapeutic abortion may be seen to be a step back for women’s movements, a return to a focus on women’s needs rather than their rights, as demands focus on women as victims with needs to be dealt with, rather than on claims to women’s right to control over their own bodies. Therapeutic abortion – the wrong right? Since the change in the law, collective actions of women’s groups and movements have been directed toward re-establishing access to therapeutic abortion. Kulczycki (2007) notes how in Mexico also women’s groups and movements have taken a ‘less direct path’ when asserting rights around abortion and in this case, for example, rather than demand the liberalization of abortion per se, they concentrated on negotiating the decriminalization of abortion. However, this led to debate within the movement around the extent to which this is the best course of action. Similarly, one question that has been asked by some women’s groups in Nicaragua is the extent to which energies are being misdirected or the extent to which the ‘right’ to therapeutic abortion is the wrong right to be promoting. The intention here is not to question the valiant actions of individual women and women’s organizations, often in the face of g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t personal and collective danger, but to raise some issues around rights and the extent to which the discourse is a rights discourse in this context. The rationale for the focus on therapeutic abortion, other than the immediate need to address the issue if women’s lives are not to be lost, is that there is greater agreement around the issue than around abortion per se. It is suggested that therapeutic abortion provides an entry point to discuss the topic with the general population, with medical professionals, NGOs, and also within the women’s movements. For example, The Women’s Health Agenda of 2004 included support for (then still legal) therapeutic abortion. Endorsed by a large number and a diverse range of women’s groups, it demonstrated general agreement on therapeutic abortion and its potential as a rallying point for collective action. Ultimately however, large-scale collective action could not be achieved and there was further fragmentation of the women’s movements with new groupings emerging. This could be due to the tactics adopted by MAM in particular to 64 further women’s claims, most notably their overt support for the MRS during the recent electoral campaign (Bradshaw and Criquillion 2007). It could also, however, reflect differing views on abortion within the women’s movements and how far each group and individual is prepared to support claims to therapeutic abortion as a ‘right’. Abortion remains a taboo topic in Nicaragua, as in many countries, and one that is rarely discussed openly. The study by Castillo and Wilson (2007) found that women did not feel the topic to be one for even intimate discussion. One interviewee noted she would not talk to her daughter about abortion; contraception yes, avoiding pregnancy also, but not abortion. She saw abortion as something to be raised only if someone becomes pregnant and does not want the child. Moreover, the study found that this silence around the topic applied also to women who work with women, and within women’s organizations there was a lack of engagement with the topic in their day-to-day work, especially work with young women. This is interesting, since all the women interviewed in the study could recall the first time they had heard mention of abortion and all were young at the time. The context in which abortion was mentioned was also always negative. The lack of subsequent discussion meant that a more balanced view was never obtained and abortion continues into later life to be constructed as something negative, even among those who work within or are part of women’s organizations. The silence, as much as the discourse around abortion, shows the unease felt by many about ‘supporting’ women’s right to abort. To some extent the points raised in the focus group discussion echoed those of the conservative right, to the extent that some questioned the necessity for abortion. This questioning related to the increasing availability of other family planning alternatives that should, it was suggested, mean less need for abortion. Concerns were expressed that abortion may be seen as an alternative to other forms of family planning, and of abortion becoming ‘normal’, particularly among the young. This echoes apparent concerns in the ICPD POA, where the only explicit mention of abortion says that abortion should not be seen as a replacement for contraception, and raises questions around the extent to which there is acceptance of women’s ‘right’ to have access to all information and services that allow them to make informed decisions on the timing and spacing of children. More generally, the need for reproductive decisions to be made ‘responsibly’, particularly among the young, appears to have been stressed talking rights or what is right? more than the idea these should be made ‘freely’. Abortion as an unconditional right is not the dominant discourse even within some women’s organizations and rather acceptance of the right to abort was dependent on other conditions being fulfilled. One organization highlighted that to talk about the right to abortion in isolation may be of little value, suggesting abortion can only be raised with women once an understanding of a woman’s right to make choices over their own bodies has been achieved, and the conditions for this established. If these conditions do not exist any discussion of abortion may be meaningless. More generally, however, the ‘conditions’ necessary for discussion of abortion were not rights related but rather related to the specific conditions of the potential mother’s situation. Abortion when a ‘child’ becomes pregnant and when a woman’s life was at threat have greater acceptance than other cases, even rape, since having the child in 65  the latter case does not mean the woman would die but does mean she would ‘kill’ a child (Castillo and Wilson 2007: 11). In the West the point at which life begins has been a key issue in the debate around abortion and in determining the relative strength of the ‘rights’ afforded to the mother over the foetus and vice versa. In contrast in Nicaragua discussion around abortion has tended to focus on the conditions that allow abortion to be tolerated. Such an approach fits much more comfortably with the scientific discourse of therapeutic abortion as a medical need, compared to the feminist discourse of abortion as a woman’s right. However, as Løkeland (2004) notes, ‘if the moral right is not won, it is easier for the anti-choice movement to undermine the legal right.’ The discussion presented here suggests that even among some women activists, the ‘moral’ right to abortion may not have been won in Nicaragua and this may help to explain the limited capacity to resist encroachment of legal rights to abortion. Conclusion The potential of rights for increasing recognition of women’s demands as legitimate claims has made it particularly attractive to women’s movements. However, while there have been some major advancements, such as the recognition of violence against women as a rights violation, gendered rights remain contested rights. The extent to which reproductive, sexual and abortion rights are recognized and how they are understood differs among actors, including those within women’s movements. How these ‘rights’ are understood also appears to differ according to the group potentially claiming the rights. The discourse around young women appears to focus more on the reproductive than the sexual, and is a discourse of responsibility and risk rather than rights. In terms of abortion the specific condition of the woman involved is what determines the extent to which abortion is seen to be the ‘right’ thing to do. The recent focus on therapeutic abortion means that the discourse of abortion is not so much a discourse of rights but rather what makes abortion alright, and the focus has shifted from rights to need. However, this is not entirely due to the medicalization of the debate and may rather reflect the fact that this needs focus sits more comfort- g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t ably within women’s groups and movements given that, even here, the right to abortion is not accepted by all to be the right of all women. The focus has been on establishing the legal right to therapeutic abortion under specific mitigating circum- stances rather than attempting to establish a woman’s moral claim to make choices over her own body. There is some coherence in the discourses of the apparently very different actors in the debate over therapeutic abortion, as individual women are not constructed as the autonomous subject of rights, but rather this discourse is centred on collective social responsibility and gendered social norms. The therapeutic abortion discourse includes women judging other women to establish what is seen to be the right circumstances for abortion, as well as doctors making judgements on individual women seeking abortion. This raises issues over power and unequal relations of power that need to be addressed if women’s autonomy is to be promoted. 66 Acknowledgements Many thanks to all the women interviewed in the two studies and those that took part in the focus groups for sharing their time and their thoughts. Thanks also to all at Puntos de Encuentro and Progressio/ICD Nicaragua for their continued support. Special thanks to Amy Bank (Puntos de Encuentro) and Brian Linneker for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of the paper. The views expressed in the paper are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations with which they work. References Antrobus, P. (2004) The global women’s movement: origins, issues and strategies, Zed Books, London. Bradshaw, S. (2008) ‘From structural adjustment to social adjustment: a gendered analysis of conditional cash transfer programmes in Mexico and Nicaragua’, forthcoming in Global Social Policy 8:1, forthcoming April 2008. Bradshaw, S. (2006) ‘Is the rights focus the right focus? Nicaraguan responses to the rights agenda’, Third World Quarterly 27(7): 1329-1341. Bradshaw, S., and A. Criquillion (2007) ‘The challenge of the church-state alliance for women mobilising for change: the case of Nicaragua’, Paper prepared for Reclaiming feminism: gender and neo-liberalism, 9th and 10th of July 2007, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. Castillo, V.A., and G. Wilson (2007) ‘Explorando nudos y contradicciones en torno a los derechos de las mujeres: informe de investigacion’, Draft version, for Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua, October 2007. Clulow, M. (2002) The Central American women’s movement and public policy: analysis by five feminist organizations. Building women’s citizenship and governance, European Commission and the UK Lottery Fund. Copelon, R., C. Zampas, E. Brusie, and J. deVore (2005) ‘Human rights begin at birth: international law and the claim of fetal rights’, Reproductive Health Matters 13(26): 120-129. CSR Austria (2004) ‘The church, the state and women’s bodies in the context of religious fundamentalism in the Philippines’, Reproductive Health Matters 12(24): 96-103. El Nuevo Diario (2004) Managua, Nicaragua, 9th July 2004 (author’s translation). Eyben, R. (2003) ‘The rise of rights: rights-based approaches to international development’, IDS Policy Briefing 17. Hessini, L. (2005) ‘Global progress in abortion advocacy and policy: an assessment of the decade since ICPD’, Reproductive Health Matters 13(25): 88-100. talking rights or what is right? Htun, M. (2003) Sex and the state: abortion, divorce, and the family under Latin American dictatorships and democracies, Cambridge University Press, New York. IDS (2005) ‘Developing Rights’, IDS Bulletin 36(1). Joffe, C.E., T.A. Weitz, and C.L. Stacey (2004) ‘Uneasy allies: pro-choice physicians, feminist health activists and the struggle for abortion rights’, Sociology of Health and Illness 26(6): 775-796. Kerr, J., E. Sprenger, and A. Symington (2004) The future of women’s rights: global visions and strategies, Zed Books, London. Kulczycki, A. (2007) ‘The abortion debate in Mexico: realities and stalled policy reform’, Bulletin of Latin American Research 26(1): 50-68. Løkeland, M. (2004) ‘Abortion: the legal right has been won but not the moral right’, Reproductive Health Matters 12(24 supplement): 167-173. Lopez-Vigil, M. (2007) ‘Nicaragua: Notas sobre un escándalo’, Envio 307, October 2007. http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3660 (last accessed 03/03/08). 67  McNaughton, H.L., M.M. Blandon, and L. Altamira (2002) ‘Should therapeutic abortion be legal in Nicaragua: the response of Nicaraguan obstetrician-gynaecologists’, Reproductive Health Matters 10(19): 111-119. Molyneux, M., and A. Cornwall (eds) (2008) The politics of rights: dilemmas for feminist praxis, Routledge, London. Molyneux, M., and S. Lazar, S (2003) Doing the rights thing: rights-based development and Latin American NGOs, Intermediate Technology Development Group Publishing, London. Petchesky, R.P. (2000) ‘Reproductive and sexual rights: charting the course of transnational women’s NGOs’, Geneva 2000 Occasional Paper 8, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, June 2000. Piron, L. (2005) ‘Rights-based approaches and bilateral aid agencies: more than metaphor?’, IDS Bulletin 36(1): 19-30. Pizarro, A.M. (2004) ‘Accionar del fundamentalismo y estado de situación del movimiento de Mujeres: Nicaragua’, Campaña ‘Contra Los Fundamentalismos, Lo Fundamental Es La Gente’ http://www.mujeresdelsur.org.uy/campana/camp_mabril4.htm#_edn1 (accessed 03/03/08) Ravindran, T.K.S., and P. Balasubramanian (2004) ‘“Yes” to abortion but “No” to sexual rights: the paradoxical reality of married women in rural Tamil Nadu, India’, Reproductive Health Matters 12(23): 88-99. Ruppert, U. (2002) ‘Global women’s politics: towards the “globalising” of women’s human rights’. In: M. Braig, and S. Wölte (eds) Common Ground Or Mutual Exclusion: Women’s Movements And International Relations, Zed Books, London and New York, 147-159. Tan, M.L. (2004) ‘Foetal discourse and the politics of the womb’, Reproductive Health Matters 12(24 supplement): 157-166. Teklehaimanot, K.I. (2002) ‘Using the right to life to confront unsafe abortion in Africa’, Reproductive Health Matters 10(19): 43-150. Tsikata, D. (2004) ‘The rights based approach to development: potential for change or more of the same?’, IDS Bulletin 35(4): 130-133. White, H. (2006) ‘Pro-life governments around world declaring March 25 ‘Day for the Unborn Child’’. In: Life Site News, Tuesday March 28, 2006. http://www.lifesite.net/aboutlifesite/ (accessed 03/03/08). WHO (2007) World Health Organisation web page http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/gender/ sexualhealth.html (accessed 03/03/08) WICEJ (2004) Seeking accountability on women’s human rights: women debate the Millennium Development Goals, Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice (WICEJ), New York. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Wilson, G., and V.A. Castillo (2007) Explorando nudos y contradicciones en torno a los derechos de las mujeres – sondeo con organizaciones, Draft version, for Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua, October 2007. 68 Jashodhara Dasgupta* 3 Leaving our fears behind: women claiming rights after the Bhopal Gas Disaster. A case study1 There is a popular assumption among development agencies that rights-based approaches imply the mechanical application of a static and normative set of already defined principles to development interventions (OHCHR 2006). What usually get missed out are an analysis of ‘development needs’ in terms of ‘rights deprivations and rights violations’, and the interrogation of the unequal power relations that lead to such deprivations and violations. The power dynamics between duty bearers and rights holders often make rights-claiming a process of contestation. The realization of rights is thus not a linear process, as often imagined by those who work with the normative and legal aspect of rights (VeneKlasen 2004). The ascending spiral of struggle may lead to the definition and realization of newer rights than those originally claimed, belying assumptions regarding static norms. These conclusions are borne out by the process and outcomes of the struggles of women survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 (India). While the campaign for justice of the survivors and their allies has been considerably documented, the focus has usually been on the rights violation and not so much on the claims process. Nor has sufficient attention been paid to the gender dynamics of the disaster. This paper explores actor-oriented perspectives on the claims process, through the narratives of the women survivors and activists of Bhopal who engaged in a struggle for entitlements over twenty years. Although both women and men were affected by the disaster, women were able to sustain the struggle for their rights for longer than the men, perhaps due to a deeper sense of outrage, since the gas leak affected women’s reproductive health, generation after generation, through miscarriages and deformity in newborns. leaving our fears behind This paper also describes some of the processes by which the women survivors strengthened their ‘voice’ and demanded accountability, both from their government and the world’s largest multinational chemical corporation. It shows how the struggle for rights in the public sphere led to radical transformation in the personal lives of the low-income, low-mobility women survivors from urban slums. The claims process helped to define their rights, influence their interpretation and contributed to legitimizing the identity of the claimants as citizens, despite their inherent disadvantages of class and gender. The paper argues that people’s movements for rights stem largely from strongly felt experiences of rights violations. In this case, increased information about the causes 69  of the disaster and enhanced political awareness of the collusions involved, led to a deepened awareness of rights violation. Women’s experiences of the claims process, and especially of the barriers caused by the way public institutions work, led to the claiming process itself becoming an object of struggle. The realization of the ‘right to have rights’ led to a paradigm shift for the rights claimants, so that the content of what was claimed continually increased: the rights claimants gained the capacity to progressively identify new entitlements and consistently struggled for their attainment. The Bhopal gas leak disaster The Bhopal Gas Disaster of December, 1984 is perhaps the most horrific industrial disaster anywhere in the world, more so since it was caused by corporate criminal negligence. Just after midnight on 2nd December 1984, an accident in the storage tanks of the Union Carbide (UC) factory at Bhopal caused a massive leakage of a deadly cocktail of MIC (Methyl Iso Cyanate), hydrogen cyanide, phosgene and other toxic gases. The white cloud of gases crept out over a sleeping neighbourhood of the poorer quarters of the city near the railway station. In the absence of any warning system, many died in their sleep; others awoke – choking, breathless and blinded. People fled in a stampede, trying to escape or to reach hospitals, some dying on the way. Pregnant women aborted on the streets as the poison seeped into their bodies. Thousands died on that night; the local administration piled bodies into trucks and dumped them into mass graves or threw them into the river. Some recovered consciousness after hitting the cold water; it is unknown if some were buried alive. Since then, tens of thousands more have died: it is estimated that over a hundred and fifty thousand people, mostly an impoverished group of slum dwellers, were affected (Alvares 1986). The disaster became global news, since the toxic leak had occurred in a disused factory belonging to a multinational corporation. The Chief Executive of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, never faced trial in India. UC handed over the Bhopal factory to the Government of Madhya Pradesh with thousands of ton of toxic waste lying around in the open, in violation of its original contract. Research in the 1990s g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t showed severe ground water contamination due to toxics from the factory. The municipality declared the water from more than 100 hand-pumps unfit for drinking. Yet the communities who used the contaminated water were not entitled to health care available for the gas-affected population (Eckermann 2005). In 2001, UC was merged with DOW Chemical and became the world’s largest chemical company. However, DOW refused to accept any responsibility for Bhopal. The movement for claiming rights For the poor slum-dwellers of Bhopal, the nightmare had only begun in 1984. Apart from the loss of family members, some of whom brought home the family income, the survivors had to deal with a lifetime of multiple chronic illnesses related to the gas- exposure. For many of the men who did physical labour, this meant loss of livelihood. The poisons affected people’s eyes, lungs and bloodstream, nerves and muscles, 70 digestive and reproductive systems. Women continue to have spontaneous abortions, stillbirths and menstrual problems. The toxins were damaging to the body’s immune system, yet there was no research information available on the long-term effects of the gases. UC never published information on what the leaking gases actually contained and what were the antidotes that had been researched. Medical treatment remained symptomatic and often expensive; families continued losing even more members to gas exposure related causes. Gas-affected families needed immediate relief; later they needed compensation that would be equitably distributed, access to skill-building and alternative livelihood options, employment and social security for the especially vulnerable, and most of all, appropriate and effective medical care. Apart from this, they also demanded information regarding transparent utilization of public resources, and last but not least, justice: that Union Carbide (later DOW Chemical) should acknowledge their criminal negligence in allowing the gas leak to happen and face trial in India for the death of thousands of Indians. But within the maze of complex procedures compounded by state corruption and inefficiency, none of these entitlements could be taken for granted, and survivors were caught up in an endless struggle for a life of dignity. The collusion between the state and the globally powerful perpetrator pitted against an impoverished, ignorant, physically devastated, largely female or minority community of survivors of the most backward sections of a city made this a very unequal contest. The widespread corruption and state apathy towards the survivors made every step a continuous uphill struggle: in offices, legislative assemblies, municipalities, hospitals, on the streets, and in the courts. The government challenged court orders in favour of the survivors on numerous occasions; the administration refused to implement court orders, or delayed implementation, hoping that the slum-dwellers would eventually give up. That this prolonged struggle has continued to this day reflects extraordinary tenacity and courage in the face of poverty, crippling ill health, and the disadvantages of class, creed and gender. Initially, the survivors themselves formed mass-based organizations around struggles for livelihoods, compensation, social security and healthcare. Later, smaller grassroots women’s organizations were formed, mostly led by survivors themselves, to continue the demands for their rights. According to one of the leaders, Rashida Bi, ‘in the beginning men became leaders, because they were leaving our fears behind articulate and educated, with experience of being in other campaigns. But ... the men lost interest very soon. It was the women who persisted … in (our organisation), it is the women who take political decisions.’ The women transformed The killer gases creeping into the lanes of old Bhopal on the night of 3 December 1984 were to have other unexpected effects – they changed the personal lives of many women beyond recognition. For example, Rashida Bi was a woman from the minority Muslim community without formal education who had been married at 13. She rolled hand-made cigarettes (beedis), working at home in purdah (veiled). Shabana (name changed) was a young Muslim widow living in Ward 36, in the worst affected area, 71  with her two very small children at the time of the gas leak. Until December 1984, none of them had gone out beyond the lane they lived in. Today, each of these women is a strong activist who is leading or has led the most powerful survivor organizations like the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog (BGP MUS, the Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Enterprise Organization) and the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Sangh (BGP MSKS, the Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Stationery Workers Union), able to challenge the Government of India as well as the might of a transnational corporation. Immediately after the disaster, women from the gas-affected communities were faced with the choice between economic hardship and venturing out to seek a livelihood. Once they stepped out of their homes, they became involved in multiple struggles to claim rights while trying to cling to their livelihood. At the professional level, these women demanded their rights as workers; at the public level they were part of widespread protests against lack of relief, rehabilitation, compensation and justice. At the same time, the women became strong campaigners for environmental issues, since they were worst affected by the gases: girls and women continued to suffer across generations with menstrual irregularities, miscarriages, malformed babies and poisoned breast-milk. The women initially had very little idea what the factory was producing. After the horrific gas disaster they realized it was some kind of toxic substance that could have fatal consequences. Gradually they received information that their exposure to these chemicals would have wide-ranging effects, which would not only last their entire lives but also affect children yet unborn, and their children’s children. The toxic wastes dumped outside the factory also turned out to have visible consequences for the surrounding communities: their children, their soil and their water. After the gas leak, the slogan was: ‘Union Carbide has committed a crime against us’, but later the women began to understand that ‘all multinational companies have spread so much poison in our country: they are making us die a slow death, without using any weapons.’ With time they understood that the state was also responsible for inviting a company g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t producing toxic gases and hazardous materials into their city, for allowing them to build a factory so close to human habitation against all norms; and that they would have to fight against the state. When the women understood the politics and economics of multinational corporations involved in the production of pesticides, they became determined to resist the entry of such corporations into the country. Women activists protested locally, nationally, in courtrooms and in corporate offices at the international level. Women survivors stormed the Mumbai DOW office brandishing brooms and chanting the slogan ‘jhaadu maro DOW ko’ (brush off DOW with a broom). Women survivors travelled to DOW offices across the world, meeting DOW executives in Europe and US, handing over a broom to each of them, saying ‘Clean up our soil and water, for our mothers’ milk is contaminated and we will give birth to monsters eighteen years later.’ 2 The increasing sense of being ‘wronged’ appears to have released energies among the 72 outraged population to identify and ally against other forms of social injustice occurring elsewhere in India. At the same time, they were constantly combating notions of what was culturally appropriate for them as women in the personal sphere. They were dealing simultaneously with their own personal crises in life and relationships. This complex intertwining of the personal and the political in the process of claiming women’s rights enabled them to move far beyond their ascribed gender roles, as the stories below indicate. The long march of the BGP MSKS – the Stationery Union women3 As part of economic rehabilitation programmes after the gas leak, the government started work-sheds in 1985 to train people in various income-generating skills. Two sheds trained women, including 50 Hindu women and 50 Muslim women from severely gas-exposed communities, in the production of office stationery. After the training was over the government asked them to leave, but the women felt that the state ‘owed them some regular employment, since they had been exposed to the gas and so many had died through no fault of theirs.’ They decided to form a workers’ union called the BGP MSKS, and began an unending struggle to get recognition as workers, and to get regular employment. This evolved into asking for better wages, more work, regular leave, and protection under the Factories Act. From April 1989 the women started a dharna (sit-in) demanding from the Government of Madhya Pradesh ‘Equal wages for equal work.’ After a three month-long demonstration in front of the Chief Minister’s office, in June 1989 the women of the BGP MSKS decided to put their demands before the Prime Minister of the country. Having no money to pay for train fares, they started a march on foot towards New Delhi, carrying their children. This was a 750 km long trek through forests, bandit- infested valleys and tough terrain in the height of summer. The women had no food and had to depend on the kindness of villagers, officials and local leaders for rations or milk. They slept on the ground or in shelters provided by people moved by the story of Bhopal. The women had no clue where Delhi was, but they walked doggedly for five weeks, until their slippers wore out and they had to wrap their blistered feet with leaves. Sometimes they walked all night with children sleeping in their arms: ‘We thought since we have set out, we would certainly attain something.’ When they did reach Delhi, the Prime Minister was too busy to give them an audience.4 leaving our fears behind But they were not daunted by this. Since then, the women have picketed before the legislative Assembly, demonstrated before all the Chief Ministers of the state and before all the Prime Ministers for 20 years, although they were never given a hearing. ‘We moved from youth to old age (jawan se budhey ban gaye), but we didn’t get anything,’ they say. The women who are part of the BGP MSKS were mostly illiterate in the beginning, inexperienced in the ways of governments and unaware of their entitlements. Champa Devi Shukla, one of the leaders of the group, reminisces, ‘We did not even know our rights at that stage; that we could actually be entitled to compensation, or that the company could be held accountable.’ 73  The BGP MSKS women’s rights-claiming process shows an evolution of their understanding of what constitutes rights. ‘As we move ahead, we begin to understand issues more clearly,’ say the women, ‘the issues for struggle keep increasing.’ The women have also actively been part of the broader movement of the gas-leak survivors for justice and compensation. They were struggling for better health care as gas-leak survivors and at the same time against rampant corruption in the health care system. They also became part of the movement to ensure safe water for those living near the toxic waste disposal sites. They took part in other struggles in the state against environmental damage caused by big dams. But the women see the unending process as of their rights-claiming as a story of growth: ‘You only get what you fight for; and we gain strength from our struggles. If women realized the extent of their strength, they could move the whole world. There’s no need to be discouraged and depressed.’ (Ladne se hi milta hai, ladai mein taqat hai. Aurat agar apni taqat pehchan le to puri duniya ko hila sakti hai. Mayusi se kuch nahin hoga). Rashida Bi, one of the leaders of the BGP MSKS, recalls: ‘Women who were once tongue-tied can today declare a challenge before the whole world.’ Rashida Bi has been at the forefront of women survivors’ struggles for justice, health care, compensation and livelihood for almost two decades. When Rashida Bi was asked, what gave them strength to carry on the struggle to claim their rights for twenty years, she said: ‘We ourselves cannot understand where we get our energy from – but we do remember that fateful night…’.5 The horrific image of violent death is indelibly seared into the collective memory of the survivors, much like the Holocaust or Hiroshima, and this drives their struggles for justice. Today Rashida Bi is the co-recipient of two international awards as an environmental activist, is invited to be on state committees to facilitate distribution of compensation, and has represented the cause of Bhopal in many countries across the world. She and co-recipient Champa Devi Shukla head the CHINGARI Trust organization that works for medical support of the gas-affected population. Rashida Bi says, ‘There is no power like people power (insaani taaqat ke aagey koi taaqat nahi) – we have to struggle, power comes from struggles (ladai se taaqat milta hai).’ g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Shabana’s story: ‘the veil cannot feed us’ The story of Shabana6 and the Sewing Centre follows a similar trajectory of rights claiming, and has an important personal dimension. Shabana was a young widow living at the time of the gas leak in Ward 36, in the worst affected area, with her two very small children. Her family members were very ill and she was desperate to earn an income, but had never gone beyond the streets where she lived. She registered at a sewing centre that was started by a woman government official, and also managed to get others like her to join. Over 2000 women were employed there, and she earned Rs. 350 each month. In 1986 the government suddenly shut down the Sewing Centre, so Shabana and her neighbours, wearing their burqas (veils) and carrying banners, joined a rally led by a 74 political front. The Centre was re-opened and the women’s organization survived and grew. In 1987, the women joined a male activist in making compensation claims. Shabana and others walked around the city in a procession with banners, recruiting more women to join their organization so that 10,000 women could put in their claims together. Once again in 1989, the state shut down their Centre. The women continued to meet in a public park every week. Shabana recalls going hungry in extreme poverty: ‘We nurtured our organization with our sweat and our blood’ (khoon pasiney se seencha hai). Their organization7 petitioned the Supreme Court for a survival allowance, but the struggle to demand assured livelihood for each affected family was long and hard: ‘You can’t get anything from the government without a fight, whether it is employment, health care or compensation,’ says Shabana. ’We had to fight with each successive government, hit them with our shoes. None of the governments did anything on their own for the gas-affected. No ministers ever kept their promises.’ She is enraged by the failure of the Government of India to ensure justice, and suspects money was exchanged so that Warren Anderson does not face trial in Bhopal: ‘He is guilty, he must be brought here and punished.’ In the meantime, a representation of survivors was due to make a tour of other countries to meet survivors of similar chemical industry accidents. Shabana was selected, but her family was alarmed at the thought of her travel and refused to let her go. Despite this, the support of her organization ensured that she was able to go, and she visited Thailand, England, and the US for two months and shared experiences of the Bhopal gas-affected with the media, students and other survivor groups, including those affected by UCC factories. Shabana was surprised that survivors in other countries had much better treatment than the poor of Bhopal, their lives had not been devastated by ill-health. She recalled seeing women in Bhopal with tumours, menstrual problems and breathing problems that doctors refused to even examine, let alone certify as gas-induced. Her sense of injustice grew at this evidence of blatant discrimination: ‘That struggle is always in my mind (woh sangharsh mere man mein jaari hai), it’s like a habit now. I became alert about my own rights; I knew that I had to fight my own battles. I am not afraid of the police, if needed, I can go right up to the Chief Minister.’ Shabana feels the struggles made her realize her self-worth: ‘I too have a goal, I too leaving our fears behind am someone important (Apna bhi koi muqam hai, hum bhi kuch hain). We women fought with our pennies, our pawned jewels, our contributions, our time, our mobilization and our commitment; if we stop fighting, we will never get justice.’ She realizes that the struggles have also led to overcoming all inhibitions: ‘We women learnt that we could do anything, once we came out on the streets. Even though we had cases registered against us, we knew the police would not touch us. We fought them, even grabbed the collar of the Police Chief – we behaved like real hoodlums! (puri badtamizi ki).’ The rights-claiming process has led Shabana through a journey of personal liberation as a woman. Shabana recalls that the early marches were full of veiled women, but now it is different: ‘The days of being oppressed are over, we threw away our veils. 75  When we fight for our food, the veil cannot feed us. (Apne pet ki ladai mein burqa khaney ko nahin deti) ... We have such a fire within us that if someone dares to even attempt something, we would grab his collar. Circumstances made me like this – always ready to fight (Haalat ne mujhe itna jujharu banaya). I am not afraid anymore, of anything.’ Shabana married one of her male colleagues, but the marriage finally ended in a divorce. Shattered by the experience, she left her organization. But she put in a case against him in the court claiming alimony, ‘to show that I was not cowed by anything, just to teach him a lesson.’ At a deeper, more personal level, Shabana’s claim to alimony in a court case against her ex-husband shows a claim for equality within intimate relationships. She states emphatically, ‘women don’t need to stay home and bear everything, now that we know we can walk into a police station. …I refuse to tolerate any injustice, whether it is by the state or at home.’ Issues emerging After the disastrous gas leak, there was a complete failure of the administrative machinery to respond adequately, and there was collusion, lack of transparency and inexplicable lapses. Survivors, impoverished women fighting with little or no resources or political back-up, were faced with multiple challenges: - the reluctance and refusal of the Government of India to take action and accept responsibility; - the silence of doctors and researchers and their collusion with the state and the multinational corporation; - deliberate misinformation and refusal to accept criminal liability by UC; - lack of information on the content of the leakage, or protocols for treatment and management. Despite these challenges, the vigorous efforts of the Bhopal survivors to realize their rights brings out several dimensions of contextual state-society relations: contestations around identity, the content and process of claims, and the role of state with non-state actors. In addition, the gendered process of rights claiming also g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t highlights the dimension of personal empowerment. Contestation around identity From the case study it emerges that rights contestation occurs at multiple levels and begins at the fundamental level of being identified as a rights holder. The political and legal process constructed the agency of rights holders as ‘children’ under the doctrine of parens patriae (the ruler as the parent) by immediately abrogating to the state the sole authority to litigate on behalf of the survivors or represent them in any process of claims (Bhopal Claims Act 1985). On the other hand, the Bhopal Claims Act made the survivors into a ‘class’ which had claims arising out of the disaster. Yet in practice, the state de-legitimized the identity of individual claimants by putting the onus of identification on the survivors, and reserving the right to challenge the 76 survivors’ claims by disqualifying their applications. The entire administrative process constructs the rights holder as an ‘applicant’ of dubious integrity, who aspires to become a certified ‘beneficiary’ in order to access resources meant for public welfare. The state further attempted to deny legitimacy to the rights claimants by constructing their identity as disempowered ‘victims’ without any agency, as suppliant beneficiaries, and also as a group of potential frauds. Conditionalities govern boundaries of identification, such as the age-bar for widows, or de-recognition of those below 18 years as gas-affected claimants. The political institution, the Government of Madhya Pradesh, categorized gas-affected people into 15 categories of possible claimants. Further, the legal institution of the Supreme Court classified the gas-affected population into eight categories. Government doctors and other petty functionaries controlled the mechanisms for ‘categorization’ of the affected population. They had already been instrumental in the state collusion to cover up evidence of the rights violation. Through complex procedures, corrupt functionaries and an inefficient system, the state put innumerable obstacles in the way of those seeking recognition as gas-affected. The story of rights-claiming is the story of resisting this appellation: of recovering dignity and agency, and of reconstituting their identity from gas-affected victims who would be beneficiaries of dole, to survivors, citizens, claimants and rights holders. A significant part of the rights-claiming movement was to bring in the ‘voice’ of the survivors as a legitimate claimant, able to make informed decisions regarding litigation and negotiate with the perpetrator. This was successfully achieved after two decades through collective petitions in the Supreme Court and the Class Action Suit at the US court. Personal empowerment What strongly emerges from the Bhopal case study is that struggles are not just about suffering, but also about gaining power. Working in adversity can actually empower and create claimants. Women survivors have now become campaigners for broader and more global issues. The discovery of their strength derived from struggle and the potential they had in shaking and moving the world. On a personal level, the rights- claiming process appears to have led to a shift in political consciousness. It has also powerfully transformed the self-image of the women, a consciousness of themselves as ‘rights holders’. leaving our fears behind The gas-affected women were initially inexperienced, naïve, housebound and mostly veiled. Women survivors actually suffered more through the toxic exposure, through reproductive malfunction, miscarriages and deformities in children born. It is said that families are reluctant to bring in gas-affected girls as brides. Women’s unending quest for justice is fuelled by the ominous knowledge that the toxic compounds of the gas-leak are firmly lodged within their own bodies, that of their daughters, and of yet unborn generations. Yet despite their longdrawn-out struggles for livelihood, compounded with caring for ailing family members and their own multiple illnesses, they came heroically to the forefront of the movement for justice and rights. 77  Women’s key role in the movement appears to have sparked off a challenge to existing gender power relationships at social and personal levels. This occurred, not only within the home, but also vis-a-vis religious diktat (fatwa). When they threw off their veils, there was a fatwa against them, but they were undaunted. As Shabana said, ‘When we fight for our food, the veil cannot feed us.’ The very act of coming out on the streets, of having unrestricted mobility, was a significant transformation, which additionally led to the lowering of inhibitions in demanding their rights: ‘We women learnt that we could do anything, once we came out on the streets.’ They are conscious of a new strength of purpose, to hold anyone in power to account. As Shanti Devi of BGP MUS says,8 ‘Once you have stepped out, leaving your fears behind, life cannot hold you back; it can only take you forward.’ Daring to claim at the interpersonal level is often the most difficult of all, especially for women; yet the injustice within an intimate relationship is challenged when Shabana refuses ‘to tolerate any injustice, whether it is by the state or at home.’ When women of the BGP MSKS were asked how they had the courage to step out of the house and fight for their rights, they replied, ‘Yes, we were slapped, we were thrown against the wall; our clothes would be flung out of the house; but that did not scare us.’ Conscious of herself as a rights holder, having left her fears behind, Shabana has moved to personal empowerment, the loss of inhibition, the freedom to be ill mannered. This indicates that the claiming process itself can be an empowering experience for women. The stories of the women show that the process of making claims released determination, energy and a sharp political understanding that led to a shift in gender power relations. The narratives of the women activists also suggest that the organizations have played a key role in mediating the claims of individuals, providing space for a shared articulation of rights violation and alleviating women’s sense of loss and isolation. Through mutual support and solidarity, women were not only able to gain greater ‘voice’ in the larger decisions that affected their lives, but also to overcome personal losses and trauma. Rights among the wronged g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t It emerges from the narratives of the affected slum-dwellers that their struggles to claim their rights were sustained by a collective memory of the disaster and a cumulative sense of injustice. There was an evolving realization that state institutions had failed them, that they had been deprived of what was due to them, and that someone was accountable. The horror of the gas disaster was also the one thing that fuelled their endless struggles: it was something the women could never forget. The increasing awareness of continued rights violations expanded women’s understanding of the role of the state and non-state actors, and led to a realization that there was ‘someone answerable’. In the years of being with the movement, the women seem to have internalized the multiple dimensions of the ‘wrongs’ to the extent that they have a much sharper analysis of the politics around these issues. Shabana’s exposure to survivors of similar disasters in other parts of the world brought a strong 78 sense of injustice in the difference she observed between the situation in Bhopal and those of survivors in developed countries. It was as though dealing with each rights violation brought new insights and experiences that fed into struggles with the next round of rights violation, in an ascending spiral. At the time of this case study, there appeared to be a ‘critical stage’ of consciousness of rights among the women, when they could strongly resist rights violation even within the private sphere. The tyranny of a fatwa or the injustice within an intimate relationship does not escape their analysis. This appears to be a kind of paradigm shift, within which the rights claimants become aware of the ‘right to have rights’, and gain the capacity to continually identify violations and carve out new entitlements. While not all experiences of injustice lead to developing a sense of rights, the question that emerges for exploration is whether a strong claim for rights can be made without an escalating sense of being ‘wronged.’ It may also be worthwhile to explore the paradigm shift between the ‘victim’ who accepts rights violation as fate, and the ‘rights holder’, who analyses it to identify entitlements that have been betrayed by someone accountable. ‘Content’ and ‘process’ of claims Claims help define rights, influence interpretation and contribute to legitimizing the claimant, especially where the identity of the rights claimants is itself contested. The case study shows that the contestation is not only about claiming entitlements such as increased resources, services, or social security from the state; it is also about enforcing accountability and transforming the process of rights claiming itself. Regarding the content of claims, the contest revolved around what could be claimed with legitimacy. Survivors put forward an ever-expanding cluster of claims as their awareness of rights violation increased through increased information about what had actually happened, and enhanced political awareness of the collusions involved. Consequently, the claiming process itself was an object of struggle: the movement began to demand the recognition of rights holders’ agency; for access to information, opportunities for participation, and agency, as well as increased transparency and more effective functioning of the state institutions. leaving our fears behind This ‘democratization’ implied a shift in power relations: the state retaliated by invoking the Official Secrets Act, violent repression and even actually arresting activists. Undaunted, the movement reminded the state of its obligation to ensure justice: through petitions in court and protests against the closure of criminal proceedings against UC or the delaying of the notice for Anderson’s extradition. Criminal proceedings were finally re-instated, and despite an eleven-year delay, the Government of India finally had to serve the notice to the US government. In this, the movement successfully held the state to account and compelled duty bearers to justify their decisions. These various efforts expanded space for future claiming by making institutional mechanisms more responsive and accountable. 79  Normative frameworks and claiming In order to make a claim for entitlements with some degree of legitimacy, rights holders need normative frameworks that set standards and justify their claims. When the rights holders do not have access to information due to reasons of poverty and illiteracy, the existence of normative frameworks is insufficient. Thus the state has to ensure that those who face rights violation have prior (or post facto) information about the nature and extent of their entitlements and procedures for claiming them. However, in reality, access to information remains contested, and state agencies tend to withhold complete information from rights holders. The initial struggles of the survivors’ groups revolved around accessing adequate information to know their entitlements. Later, the survivors also attempted to influence the definition of their rights through petitions in court and addressing claims to the political level. Some of these attempts met with success, and there was an additional normative framework to justify their rights claiming. Yet despite court orders passed in favour of the survivors, the government has repeatedly refused to implement them and they had to go back to court. Thus the state can continue to deny entitlements despite the formulation of norms: this may be due to active collusion with the perpetrator or due to class and gender biases against the rights holders. This challenges the assumption that rights apply equally to all ‘human subjects’ regardless of the power differentials of class, caste, creed, race and gender. In the Bhopal case study it becomes clear that accountability is not linear: the extreme measures needed to compel the state to take action reflect the extent of contestation involved in granting rights to the claimants. The role of state with non-state actors The case study is also representative of an increasing record of incidents in India (and other developing countries) in which the direct perpetrator of rights violation is a non-state actor. The changing global scenario with the increasing presence of multinational companies (MNCs) requires a redefinition and expansion of duty g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t bearers to be held accountable, since the actions of the MNCs may cause erosion of rights, yet they do not remain accountable to local courts. A large number of multinational companies function in the country in collaboration with local partners and the government. The conditions of operation are mediated by those who are in positions of power and authority within the state, whose lives will remain unaffected by the companies. Local communities whose lives and livelihoods may be affected are not consulted; however, local land, water and other resources may be taken by the state and given for the use of the companies. Despite several violations of existing legal provisions regarding factories, no action was taken by the state against the Union Carbide India Limited from 1969 to 1984: this complicity was never investigated even after the disaster. The state has an obligation to its citizens, and it has the power to regulate the entry and functioning of the non- 80 state actor. The Bhopal movement emerges as a powerful assertion of citizen rights: to claim constitutional guarantees from the state as well as to enforce the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens through rule of law. However, the claim for the state to effectively perform this role remains an area of contestation.9 In the absence of state regulation of the non-state actor, innovations in citizen action against the company’s criminal negligence and continuing callousness emerge as a significant ‘anti-corporate’ strategy. This includes not only symbolic action by the rights holders to focus attention on the issue, but also concrete action by civil society, like raising the question at shareholders’ meetings, and students or parliamentarians enforcing corporate answerability to ethics. However, to do this with a multinational company requires support from wider civil society bodies, including powerful international alliances and the international media. Conversely, the media relies on voices of the affected to portray authenticity, so the survivors’ movement retains its central significance. Conclusions There was no precedence for state-citizen relations in the aftermath of such a disaster in India: it required a step-by-step working out of strategies, learning and discovering the possibilities for claims. The content of the claims expanded with the discovery of more information on the causes of the disaster, with increased political understanding of the issues involved, and with new dimensions of the emerging consequences. The experience of the claims process itself and the different obstacles encountered deepened women’s knowledge about the functioning of different institutions, including how some were colluding to suppress information, which then also became an object of struggle. The process of opening up institutional space and recognition for survivors’ organizations to claim rights became part of the claim, and changed the nature of institutions and state-society relations. The paper explored actor-oriented perspectives on rights approaches, through the narratives of the women survivors and activists, in which the growing sense of being ‘wronged’ released energies among the outraged population to struggle for a growing cluster of rights. Women were able to sustain the struggles for their rights for longer, perhaps due to a deeper sense of outrage, since the gas leak continues to affect them generation after generation. This paper argues that women’s movements for rights- claiming stems largely from strongly felt experiences of rights violations. With leaving our fears behind deepening awareness of their rights, women may develop the ability to demand new entitlements with increasing effectiveness. The implementation of rights-based approaches also entails a legitimate space for the participation of rights holders in decision-making processes. This includes the legitimacy to monitor state institutions as well as the freedom to demand answerability regarding actions, and greater responsiveness to the concerns of the marginalized. It is also the role of the state to protect the rights of its citizens and to regulate the ‘entry’ and functioning of non-state actors. The experiences of the claims process, especially the barriers caused by the way public institutions work, made the claiming process itself an object of struggle. 81  The history of rights-claiming is the story of recovering dignity and agency, and of reconstructing identities from gas-affected victims to survivors, from beneficiaries to citizens, claimants and rights holders. The process of rights-claiming has brought about a paradigm shift: from passive acceptance of rights violation as inevitable misfortune or fate, to the realization of the ‘right to have rights’. This self-image as ‘rights holders’ has led to the expansion of the sphere of rights-claiming, both in public and private spheres. The realization of the ‘right to have rights’ has led to a paradigm shift in the rights claimants, within which the content of what is claimed continually increases: the rights claimants gain the capacity to progressively identify new entitlements and consistently struggle for their attainment. * Jashodhara Dasgupta, with contributions from Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, Satinath Sarangi and other colleagues. This paper is based on interviews with members of the organizations BGPMUS, GPNBSM, BGPMSKS, BGIA and MKSS in Bhopal and with Satinath Sarangi, Managing Trustee of the Sambhavna Trust and member of BGIA. Notes 1 Acknowledgement: This article draws on the report ‘Leaving our fears behind’- women’s rights claiming after the Bhopal gas disaster. India case study developed as part of the 2004-05 KIT project: developing methodologies for rights based approaches from an actor oriented perspective. 2 Rashida Bi quoted in Mukherjee, 2002. 3 As described by the women themselves on 18 August 2004. 4 In February 2006, 55 survivors repeated that historic foot march to Delhi. This time the Prime Minister gave them a one-minute audience after a week-long hunger strike, and made many promises none of which have actually materialized so far. 5 Rashida Bi, in interview, 18 August 2004. 6 As told by herself, interview 19 August 2004. 7 BGP MUS (Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Enterprise Organisation). 8 Shanti Devi at interview. 9 To date the government is trying to grant DOW immunity so that they can continue investing in India. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t References Alvares, Claude (1986) ‘A walk through Bhopal’. In: David Weir The Bhopal Syndrome: pesticide manufacturing in the Third World, International Organization of Consumers’ Unions (IOCU), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Penang, Malaysia. Chouhan, T.R. et al (2004) Bhopal: the inside story, The Apex Press and The Other India Press, Goa and New York. Updated 2nd edition. Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (2002) ‘Human rights principles and responsibilities for transnational corporations and other business enterprises’, WG.2/WP.1. Eckerman, Ingrid (2005) The Bhopal saga: causes and consequences of the world’s largest industrial disaster, Universities Press, Hyderabad. ‘Elusive justice: a symposium on the Bhopal gas disaster after twenty years’ (2004) Seminar 544. Mukherjee, Suroopa and Rai Raghu (2002) Bhopal gas tragedy: the worst industrial disaster in human 82 history, a book for young people, Tulika Publishers, Chennai. Mukherjee, Suroopa (2002) ‘Dancing in the streets: narratives of resistance in Bhopal’, India International Centre Quarterly. Mukhopadhyay, M. (2004) Rights based approaches in development: issue paper, Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam. Unpublished paper. Nyamu-Musembi, Celestine (2002) ‘Towards an actor-oriented perspective on human rights’, IDS Working Paper 169. OHCHR (Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights) (2006) ‘Frequently asked questions on a human rights-based approach to development cooperation’, United Nations, New York and Geneva. Prajapati, H.L. (2003) Gas tragedy: an eye witness, Mittal Publications, New Delhi. Sarangi, Satinath (1995) ‘The movement in Bhopal and its lessons’, Social Justice 23(4). VeneKlasen, L. et al (2004) ‘Rights-based approaches and beyond: challenges of linking rights and participation’, IDS Working Paper 235. Internet sources AFP article, 29 Nov. 2004 – Victims of Bhopal gas leak still struggling to mend their lives at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/119581/1/.htm Emails of the listserv Remember-Bhopal@lists.essential.org Website www.bhopal.net leaving our fears behind 83 Hania Sholkamy 4 The empowerment of women: rights and entitlements in Arab Worlds Womens’ just power The notion of benign and just power evolved from calls to empower the powerless, give voice to those who have no say, and recognize the strength of the weak. Within this framework, women’s empowerment is conditional on women’s powerlessness. If taken out from this ethical foundation the concept of women’s empowerment becomes problematic, since it is the condition of being powerless that justifies the justice of empowerment. Some scholars have chosen to project women’s powerlessness as a cultural universal dictated by ‘sexual reason’ (Nussbaum 1999). The power of women’s reproductive and sexual selves, they argue, has explicitly or implicitly oppressed women and empowered their oppressors. This essential oppression can take various cultural forms such as seclusion, victimization and violence, social, economic and political deprivation and dependency. It also denies access to rights and privileges freely and abundantly allowed to men. For this school of thought there is an essential gender disequilibrium rooted in sexual relationships which can be redressed through social justice. A second trend has sought to prove, by providing empirical evidence, that women are denied rights and resources and that this deprivation is at the root of a variety of social, health, economic and security ills and ailments. This approach has sought to garner support and gain momentum through proving that women’s powerlessness is a root cause of overpopulation, increasing health burdens, poverty, environmental degradation, and global insecurity. The empowerment of women thus becomes a strategic demand around which a variety of actors and stakeholders can coalesce (Kabeer 2001). the empowerment of women This seemingly crude distinction between a structural approach to empowerment and an increasingly effective functional approach has serious consequences for how women’s empowerment is pursued, practiced, and measured. Three important observations can be derived from the duality of these frameworks. First, both renditions of empowerment have informed one another. The gender justice writers advocating empowerment for its own sake have found the testimonies and experiences of poor and powerless women from the ‘third world’ immensely valuable. The plight of disenfranchised women suffering from multiple burdens placed upon them by virtue of their reproductive, productive and gender roles has helped the world visualize injustice as a poor (often dark skinned!) woman. On the other hand, the development-oriented advocates of women’s empowerment as a strategic goal 85  have been aided by the theoretical and historical insights and conceptualization of feminist thinkers. The promotion of women’s empowerment as a development goal is based on the dual argument that social justice is a desired outcome of intrinsic worth and that it is a means to other ends (Malhotra et al 2002). Second, each provenance of empowerment has, however, a slightly different audience. Empowerment as a strategic demand has been advanced in what would otherwise be quite conservative domains such as government, and global institutions such as the World Bank. Promoting women’s empowerment as a poverty alleviation strategy is less contentious than posing empowerment within a rights or a basic justice framework. Likewise, gender empowerment as a strategy that enhances women’s ability to decide effectively on their own well-being and that of their children is much more attractive and less fractious than calling for the right to sexual autonomy and decision-making. The continuum from rights to needs plotted by these two strands of women’s empowerment advocates has in fact some discontinuities. The schisms become evident when the degree and quality of empowerment are at issue. The fractures become dangerous when the right to empowerment is pitted against national and collective causes. Third, observers have noted that behind the above-mentioned discontinuities lie contradictions. The landscape of women’s empowerment is subject to current global discourses that are themselves subject to politics (Sen 2005). For example, abortion as a component of a reproductive health package is under a revision that is greatly influenced by US domestic politics. Reproductive and sexual rights are promoted in so far as they advance the cause of lower fertility in over-populated countries in the South. But these rights come under attack by pro-life politicians when they invoke women’s right to choose. There is a contradiction of purposes that exposes the paradox of empowerment as proposed by the instrumentalist approach. Similarly, many Muslim countries have accepted gender equity and women’s empowerment as strategies to gain international acceptance. They have managed to close the gender gap in terms of many health and education indicators, but have rejected the elements of this strategy that address structural inequities in the justice g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t system and rights (UNIFEM 2004). The different paradigms of women’s empowerment have clear implications for policies and programmes on the ground. The strategic approach has yielded great gains and has challenged some taboos by making women’s empowerment a public good that can deliver welfare and development. This operational definition of empowerment has limited utility, however, in addressing questions of basic injustices and inequities. On the other hand, the more politicized and to some extent westernized and purist meaning of empowerment as a right for women has created distances, misunderstanding and animosities, and in many parts of the world has failed to convert the sceptics and create popular support. 86 Development and rights-based approaches to empowerment When considering Arab countries as the site for development initiatives, writers have often accepted the importance of patriarchy and of Islam as significant ideological forces that shape the discourses of entitlement and of development (for review specific to health and population, see Sholkamy in EWIC 2003). The rights of women to health, dignity, security, and property are enshrined in the Quran and the hadith, but so are the clear distinctions between men and women, most of which are predicated on gender roles. Different renditions of rights derive from interpretations that privilege either the lens of equity or the lens of differentiations. The choice of interpretive frameworks relies almost totally on the historical context. Muslims have chosen to investigate the progressive tenets of religion when polity and society were open to change and when the Umma (the nation) was less threatened. It follows that withdrawal into a conservative and unquestioning ‘safe-mode’ of thinking happens in times of uncertainty and crisis. This is not meant as a crude apology on behalf of a religion or a people. Rather it is meant to clarify that the relationship between religious ideology and gender rights are structured by historical events. The influence and impact of Muslim religious jurisprudence and moral tenets are variable, and contingent on the conditions that are shaping individual lives and locating/concentrating power in certain hands. This paper argues that the instrumentalist approach to women’s empowerment detailed above has created a broad near consensus around some rights, but has failed to engage with the political processes which determine how rights in general are defined and made operational in society. The timid approach to gender rights as an avenue to well-being has failed to question why these rights have been denied, and how this denial has been ideologically legitimized. Unitary and rigid interpretations of religion, culture, and tradition have been doled out as reasons why the structural meanings of empowerment are unsuited to and unpopular in Arab Muslim countries. The contest between the basic needs approach to empowerment and the more radical rights-based approach defines current approaches to gender and empowerment. This paper will argue for analytical clarity as a path to a more politically engaged project of gender and rights. Using empirical evidence and observations mostly from Egypt, the paper presents an argument why basic needs approaches may have served the the empowerment of women goal of gender equity by building popular consensus around goals of gender equity. However, the basic needs approach has also undermined the right to equity by making it seem like a radical one, that according to many a western project removes women from the contexts of their culture, tradition, religion and history. Definition Both theoretical and operational definitions of women’s empowerment are often prefaced by disclaimers or qualifiers which stress the contextual, tentative, and on the whole rather tenuous and timid essence of the definition. Women’s empowerment rests on the assumption that women as a group are constrained by structural factors which include biased legislations, values, ideologies, markets and social institutions. To overcome these constraints and to exert agency to realize goals that enhance their 87  own chances of survival and well-being, women are in need of positive efforts to remove these constraints and enable them to act to achieve their goals. Mohanty (1991) has voiced criticism to this seemingly obvious definition by pointing out that women do not exist outside history, and that the meaning of empowerment depends on definitions of power and powerlessness which cannot be detached from the spatial and historical context that gives it meaning. Kabeer (2001) has divided women’s empowerment into three interlocking domains of resources, agency and achievements. She defines women’s empowerment as the ability to make choices in situations and contexts that had previously denied women this right/ability to choose. Kabeer’s definition has gained wide acceptance for its analytical clarity and differentiation between the resources that women access, their ability or agency to access or act upon them, and achievements which are the outcomes of these actions. This framework has enabled researchers to inject some methodological rigour into their research, measurement and evaluative frameworks (Malhotra et al 2002). In terms of operational definitions of empowerment, different studies have measured or described different things. Women’s autonomy, agency, status, land rights, domestic economic power, bargaining and decision-making power, and public participation are some of the operational definitions listed by Malhotra et al in their review article on the measurement of women’s empowerment (2002). Some have conflated empower- ment with participation, and suggest that participatory bottom-up approaches and the engagement of civil society are avenues to empowerment (Gaventa 2006; Chambers 1997; Malhotra et al 2002). It would seem that there is agreement on what empowerment is, but not on what its outcomes and implications are. It is active agency (ability to act, choose, decide, work, move, spend, earn, vote and other acts of assertion) and the processes that enable women to act. One broad and less than satisfying generic outcome has been described as ‘well-being’. The idea of well-being may make sense, but it has less than adequate analytical value. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t However, there is broad agreement that women’s empowerment necessitates systemic transformations in the structures of patriarchy. But even this assumption has been questioned by scholars who argue for diverse meanings to empowerment and ones which accommodate faith-based feminism such as that of Islamic feminists, who argue that patriarchy defines clear rights for women and places obligations on men (Barazangi 2002). Development projects designed to empower women suffer from a fundamental problem. They are small-scale with limited impact and scope similar to those designed to alleviate poverty at village level. Both ignore the systemic factors that produce poverty and which undermine women. The question is, can some women be empowered at the micro level without addressing systemic constraints and oppression? But how does one approach such revolutionary projects? How can research and projects and programmes transform the structures of patriarchy which 88 are ingrained in policies, economies, markets, homes, psyches, sexual and social relationships? Measurement The need to measure the empowerment of women becomes an imperative for projects and programmes which aim to realize empowerment. Citizens are empowered by their charters, constitutions, and other enabling and binding covenants, and the evidence of how these empower citizens is often undertaken by monitoring legal, human rights, and social citizenship frameworks. Women stand apart, in that their empowerment is achieved through pro-active measures which seek to realize a measurable difference in the lives of individuals. Empowerment is thus approximated through the measurement of other indicators that imply empowerment. These indicators are derived from prevalent theories that define women’s empowerment in terms of human development and security indicators. For example, education is a proxy measure for empowerment as far as women are concerned, but is it a measure when applied to men? There is no theory to associate male education with male status. But gender theory assumes that status is enhanced by education and that higher status women are more empowered. Similarly, gender theory assumes that the younger a woman gets married, the less will be her ability to negotiate an equitable power relationship with her spouse. So delaying the age of marriage has come to be associated with ‘modern’ egalitarian relationships between spouses, which in turn assumes an empowered wife. Kabeer’s framework (2000) has helped distinguish the resources of empowerment from its outcomes and showed that equating the means to empowerment with its outcomes is problematic (Malhotra et al 2002). Thus employment and education are enabling factors that empower women, and not proof that women are empowered. Besides accounting for the complexities of measuring empowerment, studies have also pointed to the importance of meaning and values assigned to empowerment indicators and the inter-relationship of different variables. Simply put, indicators may have universal significance, but they rely for their meaning on the context, culture and moment in which they are used. This is a dilemma that is typical of all social sciences. There are now attempts to arrive at a consistent conceptual framework for the empowerment of women measuring empowerment and its effects while allowing for variations in the indicators that are used to describe the components of that framework across different settings (Malhotra et al 2002). The conceptual clarity that has emerged from the deliberations of individuals and institutions has not yet created methodological rigour or understanding. The definition favoured by this author as well as others in the field, which stresses action to make real choices when previously this right had been denied, implies that studies of women’s empowerment need to transcend the methodological confines dictated by development research and venture into fields such as history, philosophy, law, and politics. Methods from these disciplines could help researchers better understand context, the parameters that define the possible and the impossible, the dynamics of change and the meaning of empowerment as action and as potential. Such an 89  interdisciplinary approach can enable researchers to integrate and make operational the variety of emic perceptions and definitions of empowerment. It can also introduce a life-cycle approach that links experiences to empowerment over a life span, and offers ideas of how to ensure that the investments women make at one point in their lives are not lost at another. The following section of this paper will look at some of the commonly recognized areas of empowerment that have received much attention in the literature. The examples of work, body, and voice will be used to illustrate the distinctions between needs and rights and the dilemma that gains for women can be realized without asserting rights. Work The United Nations definition of women’s economic empowerment is that women have ‘… access to and control over the means to make a living on a sustainable and long term basis, and [are] receiving the material benefits of this access and control’ (quoted in Mosedale 2005: 247). Women need access to income and to the benefits that accrue to breadwinners and their dependents. This implies not only access to jobs and markets, but also to finance, social security coverage, savings and insurance. It also means changing structural conditions that disable women from accessing these resources at the household, community and market levels, including laws and policies which favour men in labour markets. Women’s work is still highly contested as an empowerment strategy. It is contingent on macro level conditions and on the ideological underpinnings of policies that seek to facilitate or promote women’s economic participation. Women entering the labour market can be a sign of oppression or evidence of empowerment. The meaning of work is dependant on the markets that create it and the regulatory frameworks that supervise it. Minimum wages, worker rights and social, health, and contingency benefits help to enhance the empowering potential of work. But in situations where the state has withdrawn its role as an arbitrator of social justice, the notion of economic activity and of work may carry with it some rather sinister shades of g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t exploitation and of what is sometimes called ‘a race to the bottom’, whereby workers are willing to compete for scarce opportunities and therefore willing to give up basic rights to decent wages and benefits. In this case, women’s work and earnings may lead to heavier burdens as the main breadwinners, if men rely on women’s work while maintaining their own gendered privileges. Micro-finance and other mechanisms that give women access to cash without adequate support networks can also lead to the feminization of debt (Bisnath 2001; Mayoux 2002). Perhaps because women’s duties and choices as caregivers and homemakers have been associated with their disempowerment, they have not been sufficiently framed in the discourse of empowerment. The ideological valorization of women’s work at home as daughters, mothers and wives is the mainstay of patriarchal ideologies and policies (whether of individuals or of the state). It is this ‘work’, it is claimed, which enables women to claim rights, dignity, recognition and influence. But home making 90 and care giving roles are least prized by the cultures that theoretically venerate stay- at-home women. This is evident in legal codes which do not compensate women for these gender roles, and which provide social security coverage only through markets and families and not as an integral right of citizenship, even for stay-at-home mothers and wives (UNIFEM 2004). Decades of cultural scrutiny have shown that women have not claimed the benefits of the patriarchal bargain. Women in Egypt, as several recent empirical studies have found, privilege reproduc- tive over productive roles. The Egypt Labor Market Panel Study notes that women exit labour markets almost automatically upon marriage (and not, as is noted in other parts of the world, due to motherhood) (ELMPS 2006). Not only is this the practice, it is also the expectation. Another survey of labourers found that the vast majority of young women workers expect to leave work once married (ICA 2005). Despite the entry of millions into the labour market as a strategy to provide basic needs and enable young women to save up for marriage, paid work outside the home is not pursued or promoted for women. Work is not only a necessity for the present and a protection in the future, it is also a right and can be an empowering experience. Many feminists have noted how going out to work has failed to realize earlier theories that claimed that paid work would be the route to women’s liberation (Elson 1979; Engels as quoted in Elson). The issue now surely should be how to make work empowering, and not whether the right to work is a right worth having! The area of work encompasses the right and conditions of paid work, the resources and opportunities to which the self-employed and other entrepreneurs have access, the right not to work, the ability to realize the full benefits of work including economic and social security, and the right to protection from risk, disability, and the lack of old age provision. Body Body issues describe physical burdens shouldered by women, including morbidities, confinements and physical constraints, physical and mental abuse or fear of either or both, and work-related pressures and hazards as well as the risks, outcomes, and responsibilities pertaining to reproduction and motherhood. Notions of ‘body’ and bodily integrity are generated through regionally specific social experiences. Thus the empowerment of women female genital cutting/mutilation (FGC/M) is the lens through which the Sudanese and gyptian body is perceived; sexual violence and the burden of AIDS evokes images of the South African body; abortion becomes emblematic of the Catholic woman; domestic violence speaks to us of the West and the veil of the East; and the heavy burdens of work and malnutrition characterize the female body of the Indian sub- continent. The concept that sums up the field of body for women is ‘inequity’ and ‘excess burden’. Reproduction is a biological fact, but its burden and detrimental impact on women’s well-being can be excessive. Similarly, women’s sexuality unfairly penalizes them and is controlled through criminal practices such as FGC/M, mores of modesty, segregation and confinement, and violence. Scholars have engaged with these areas of excess and inequity more than they have shown an interest with the status of women’s health and bodies. For example, women’s 91  mental health, their occupational well-being, their non-reproductive morbidities and their risk due to the hazards of migration, urbanization, environmental degradation/ pollution and poverty have not attracted as much attention as the more gender- specific aspects of the body and its experiences. In other words, there has been more interest in aspects of the body that are specifically female than those which are not, but which could be a deep source of disempowerment and distress for women. Sexuality and fertility (or their control) are by far the areas of research and action with widest currency. Since the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, reproductive health has become an avenue of empowerment and a paradigm that links women’s reproduction, health, sexuality and empowerment. The focus on women’s sexuality and its socially constructed oppression is an essential action programme that incorporates the experiences and troubles of women globally. But it also leads to ignoring the non-sexual oppressions that the body endures. Of particular concern is the occupational and mental health of women, and the gendered aspects of non-reproductive morbidities. Health inequities are socially constructed, and gender is an important social determinant of health. Yet we still do not understand how gender operates outside the realm of sexuality and reproduction and the relationships that determine both gendered and non-gendered inequities. In the Arab Muslim world for example, marriage is regarded as a religious obligation and is invested with many ethical injunctions. This can be attributed primarily to the fact that any sexual contact outside marriage is considered fornication and is subject to severe punishment. Furthermore, Islam condemns and discourages celibacy. In this manner, marriage acquires a religious dimension: it becomes the way of preserving morals and chastity through the satisfaction of sexual desires within the limits set by God. Muslim jurists have gone so far as to elevate marriage to the level of a religious duty. A common hadith that is still often quoted, particularly among men, states, ‘The prayer of a married man is equal to seventy prayers of a single man.’ Thus, all individuals are encouraged to marry, and societal pressures, such as the importance of family reputation, discourage being single. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t There can be no denial of the importance of strong family relationships, particularly relationships generated through marriage, in providing women with emotional and moral security. Most women want marriage and motherhood, and feel rewarded when they attain either or both. Indeed the strong familial ties of Arab society have their rewards in terms of social cohesion and the creation of social support mechanisms that have, unfortunately, been tested repeatedly in our modern history. The following quotation from a speech by Princess Basma Bint-Talal illustrates the normative constructions of the Arab family, society and work that may satisfy basic needs, but not strategic ones which could empower women. The quote is illustrative of what often remains unsaid and unquestioned, but is very influential in shaping attitudes (Sholkamy 2004): Arab society is a collective society in which family and clan relationships play a 92 prominent role. This collective social approach has saved Arab women and their  societies from much of the modem social strains that are common in other societies, including advanced industrialised countries. There is less hunger and starvation among the poorest Arab societies than in other regions. Drugs and prostitution is limited, rape almost non existent, single parent families and births outside marriage are also very few. Community violence exists, however at a lower level than most other societies; and polygamy, although it still exists among the less advantaged groups, is becoming more unusual. This collective social approach, however, did not greatly assist in spurring women to work outside the home. The family, in most cases, provided them with shelter, basic necessities and a relatively secure future, which meant there was little incentive to look for a job or seek other remunerative sources of employment (quoted in Sholkamy 2004). Marriage remains a major source of security for women. In Arab societies, societal recognition and support systems appear to revolve around the roles of women as wives and mothers. In this social context, the non-married woman and her psycholog- ical and economic well-being are totally ignored. Features of the well-being of non- married women as evidenced by their level of dependency and their support networks need to be investigated. The available data is limited and suggests a high level of dependency in terms of personal educational characteristics and the ability to earn a living. The significance of considering the well-being of non-married women is becoming more and more important because of the changing marriage patterns occurring in Arab countries, which implies that more women are spending longer spans of their lives in non-marital living arrangements, and that some women may live in permanent celibacy. Celibacy is a word, a choice, a consequence and a condition. In each of these guises celibacy is troubling. Let us take the anecdotal but illustrative example of its linguistic translation. In Arabic celibacy means ezoubiya or being single. Ezoubiya can describe both men and women. But the word resonates with the freedom and independence that make bachelorhood attractive and enviable. It implies a choice that men make when they have the ability to live a few years free of the pressures and responsibility that come with marriage and the creation of a family. But celibacy is also translated (or mistranslated) into Arabic as enoussa, an altogether different the empowerment of women concept that means spinsterhood. It implies lack of choice, almost desperation or missed opportunity, and applies almost exclusively to women. While neither the words bachelor nor spinster say anything about sexuality, when translated into Arabic they speak volumes. An azzib (male single man) or even an azzba (a term used less often to mean single woman) may well have chosen not to marry so as to enjoy sexual license. An annis (usually female but can mean male) is assumed to be sexually inactive. The primary content of the word celibacy when translated into Arabic means one thing, but implies a lot. Despite the low numbers of celibate women in the Arab world, the phenomenon itself is an important one to study. It is also hard to justify why a demographically insignificant trend has become such a culturally urgent one with far-reaching social implications. 93  The ideal of marriage is highly held and has been described as a positive feature of Arab societies and one which provides a certain degree of stability and security to individual men and women (Rashad, Osman et al 2003). However marriage is not universal in all Arab countries and will be less so in the future. A cursory look at the Arab media will reveal a growing sensitivity to female celibacy with programmes on satellite channels and articles in periodicals talking about el-‘enoussa in the Arab world, particularly among communities that guard mores of female modesty, such as in some Arab Gulf states. Meanwhile, social and civil life remains organized around the principles and premises of marriage. As populations change there is a need to draw attention to the possibility of a small, but significant single adult population of women who have never been married, have not attained the privileges that come with being a wife and mother, but nevertheless are full citizens with basic social, civil, and sexual rights. Accommodating celibacy does not mean accepting sexual promiscuity, as some members of the media and of religious establishments may like to suggest. It does mean accepting single women as social individuals and revising the assumption of marriage as a universal institution that is the gate to social respectability and participation. At age 39 years, over 10% of the female population in five Arab countries (Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco and Qatar) remain un-married (Rashad and Khadr 2002). This indicates a high prevalence of celibacy amongst women. The troubling issue here is that being celibate does not mean the same thing in these five countries. City life in Morocco affords women a fair amount of liberty and freedom that is independent of their marital status. In Kuwait and Qatar the situation is markedly different, with women’s identities remaining within the confines of family. The sexual rights of the non-married merit some consideration. There is a resounding silence on the subject of the gender inequities in sexual rights which tolerate the choices of men, but not those of women, since the sexual rights of the non-married are not sanctioned by religion. Pre-marital sexual activities are prohibited for both men and women. Yet non-married women in various Arab countries shoulder an unfair g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t burden of stigma and social exclusion. By forfeiting marriage, these women not only lose sexual rights, they may also, if poor or uneducated, be unable to access reproductive health services which are designed to primarily serve married women. Voice The agency of women and representation in public forums and in private decisions is a large and complex field of enquiry. Women’s representation in national, regional and local politics is one part. Another is the representation of women in cultural domains and in the media. A third dimension is women’s citizenship and legal equality. A fourth aspect is women’s mobility, freedom and right to hold and state opinions in public, to protest and to make choices. The first area is one which has received most attention and has been the site of most action. This is probably because it is the most measur- able rendition of voice. Global actors such as the UN and UNIFEM, the USA through 94 its aid and foreign policy, and the European Union most significantly through its Gender and Development programme, have identified benchmarks that measure progress on voice. Access and presence in public offices, quotas in legislative bodies, and universal suffrage are some of the benchmarks. This focus is problematic, because it ignores context and how the apparently progressive measures to enhance women’s presence in public office can be subverted by power-holders. Recently, attention has been drawn to the use of women’s quotas by tribal and family forces to maintain their own hold on power in Iraq and Afghanistan, where quotas were set by legislators appointed by the occupying powers. This and other experiences have raised questions about the virtue of making women part of less than virtuous political processes. What is the point of being appointed to a parliament that is not representative of society? Moreover, Cornwall and Goetz (2005) have argued that women’s participation in politics and political parties and their inclusion and prioritization of women’s issues and demands is a more significant indicator of gender justice and voice than are the numbers of women in elected or, even worse, appointed bodies. Islamicist feminists have voiced their own critique of the feminist interpretation of voice and agency, arguing that these conceptions of voice and agency are premised on notions of Islam as a religion that oppresses women through the imposition of the veil, the segregation of women, the emphasis on women’s reproductive and family roles and the constraints it places on women’s ability to arbitrate and lead. Islamicist scholars have questioned the universality of feminist definitions of power and agency, taking the position that agency and voice are about the ability to realize goals and roles; not necessarily the roles chosen by western women. Therefore, they argue, the rights of Muslim women to acquire the kind of agency and voice which they want and which is religiously sanctioned should not be ignored or subverted. Muslim women prize their religiously sanctioned gender roles and will agitate to realize that which Islam provides and which they have been denied by secularist and despotic regimes (Barazangi 2002; Mahmoud 2005). Thus ‘Islamic feminists’ in Iran have sought to realize significant gains for women in terms of their personal status, including compensation for household work and child-care in case of divorce, the right of women to argue for judicial posts, and the right of women to freely express and publish, for example the journal ‘Zanan’, from within the structures of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) (Mir-Hosseini 2002). the empowerment of women This culturally specific notion of voice and presence is indeed gaining momentum in the real and academic world, but it remains an un-tested proposition. It assumes acceptance of ascribed roles and relies heavily on the good will of the patriarchal order. The ability to realize collective goals and challenge injustices can be achieved in different ways, but in all cases the questions of citizenship and its rights remain. Citizenship is a secular principle that permits individuals equal rights regardless of gender, ethnicity and other forms of social difference. Women have every right to prize and adhere to ascribed gender roles, but some women may not share this vision and should also have the right to express this position. Moreover as Hirshman (2006) has written: ‘To paraphrase, as Mark Twain said, “A man who chooses not to read is just as ignorant as a man who cannot read.’”. In other words, women who decline to claim their individual rights to agency and voice are as silent as those who have been deprived of the right to do so. 95  At issue is the question of socioeconomic and political inequities in the determination of voice. Gender is a factor, but the forces of class, family and power even more so. Elite women may surface as parliamentarians or as judges, but it is poor women who still lack voice to express their collective predicaments. Several new Arab constitutions have proposed quotas for women in parliament. Two in particular highlight the irksome problem of quotas and of handing rights from above or from across the seas, rather than claiming and forging them in the context where they will be practiced. The New Iraqi constitution drawn up by a military occupation force and its political arm has designated 25% of parliamentary seats for women. Needless to say this parliament has many problems, one of which is that the women who won seats did not really contest them. Kin and tribesmen selected these women. Many are politicians in their own rights, but the necessity of filling so many seats with so many women meant that many corners were cut. It did the cause of women’s representation no good when this parliament disintegrated into factional disputes and has yielded the power of legislature over a disintegrating state. The Sudan has also designated a 25% quota in the new constitution, drawn-up to signal the end of almost 30 years of civil war. Many would agree that despite a robust and dynamic feminist and women’s movement that long preceded the current regime, women had little to do with enforcing this quota. It was part of a deal blessed by greater forces. The coming elections in Sudan will be contested with the participation of women. Political parties are scrambling to gain seats and fulfil their quota obligations. As one parliamentarian who will contest the elections on behalf of the Umma Party confided, ‘All the parties find this to be a contradiction!!’ In one recent newspaper article in a Sudanese daily, the writer suggested that only men contest the seats, and then choose the missing 25% for women. The article echoes the concerns of political parties who see few benefits (but many burdens) to giving voice and rights of representation to women. Egypt has not adopted a quota, but has witnessed a rapid decline in the representation of women in legislative councils. The more democracy, it would seem, the fewer women in parliament (Abu el-Qumsan 2008). In this study by Abu el-Qumsan et al the g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t party activists and senior members felt that women could not contest the elections and were therefore a liability. The voters polled by this same study had no such reservations and were more liberal in their views, stating that they would vote for a woman if she was a good candidate. Women’s voices are not always best served by protectionism. But if quotas are the tool of choice to realize the right of representation, they need a much more assertive and dynamic campaign that enables women to break into politics as equal and worthy contenders. The quotas so far have created new elites and ‘professional’ politicians who lack a constituency or a network that legitimates their worth as representatives and as legislators. This, of course, does not apply to hundreds of women who have been successful in proving their ability to serve as parliamentarians, trade unionists, and civil society activists without relying on quotas. Enabling women to participate in legislative bodies and other representative bodies is only one step. The next step is to 96 ensure that they can assume these roles effectively, fully, and as political actors accountable to a constituency. The voices of women are more than sounds and symbols. Symbolic gestures, lip service and tokenisms still prevail, and indeed are dominant particularly in the popular media. Female presidents and prime ministers are counted on a daily basis so are top executives and senior officials, but when we reckon the tally, we need to also think about what change this presence adds up to. A sharp line has to be drawn between the re-creation of gendered elites and the creation of a presence that voices collective concerns and is empowered to make change happen. Globalization Hands are reaching out across space, cyberspace and borders to create global programmes, coalitions, and movements that espouse women’s empowerment. The feminist movement has always had a global dimension and reflects imbalances of power between the global and the local. The challenges remain of aligning the messages of a global feminism to women’s struggles for empowerment situated in diverse cultural, political and religious settings. Some aspects of global movements travel well and others do not. Activists and scholars have met, participated and collaborated on many occasions in each others’ spheres of activity and interest. But the causes and concerns of women themselves have not travelled across boundaries in equal volume or speed. Women in the West have marched on behalf of many an Eastern sister, exemplifying how the West is the arbitrator of cross-border movements. The links seem always to pass through the globalized centre which is located geographically, academically and/or financially in the West. Globalization has meant that women simultaneously and all over the world are changed or challenged by similar forces. Free trade has created more jobs for women and perhaps improved working conditions for some, but it has also created pockets of unemployment, welfare benefit cuts and pay cuts for others. It is one global force interacting differently in a variety of settings. Donor agendas, human rights and reproductive health policies and paradigms, migration and refugee regimes, are all examples of global events and conditions with which women all over the world are contending. All happen in the centre, and all impact peripheries in different ways. the empowerment of women Do these forces divide or unite women? The pathways that women’s empowerment has passed through are littered with opportunities, both missed and realized, that have shaped many other progressive and just movements. It is time to look at the areas of voice, body, work and the global forces that shape arenas of action and of research so as to chart a course to justice. Development programmes targeting marginalized communities needs to be action oriented. Action research methodologies were developed to enable individuals and communities to solve their own problems and address their own needs by using simple research tools to quickly collect, analyse and act upon the results of data. This ideal has rarely been realized, if at all in Arab countries including Egypt. The divide between research and action persists, but so does the distance between policy and 97  local needs. Research is formal; and even when empirical it is rarely grounded in local knowledge. Meanwhile, local communities have few avenues by which they can independently express their realities, challenges or demands. The catalytic involve- ment of a new breed of researchers is the missing ingredient in Egypt’s developmental initiatives. Conclusion The Muslim Arab world is large and diverse. Like any other ‘region’, it has been typified and categorized in terms of a totalizing Western gaze. This region’s histories, trajectories of development and of change are varied. Yet there are frames of reference and common experiences that permit a paper such as this one to speak of a region. Islam is a moral and ideological framework and value that impacts the lives of Muslims and non-Muslims in the Arab world. Patriarchy is also the typical form of social organization and system that informs the laws and codes of most Arab countries. Arab identity and values still resonate as the cultural and political frame that distinguishes us from others and may even breed a sense of wariness and suspicion from the so-called ‘West’! Women’s rights to equity and empowerment have been pitted as a movement that is antithetical to these three frameworks that shape ideals, if not identities, in the Arab region. This may be why gender rights were propagated as means to achieve developmental goals, rather than absolute rights that have an intrinsic worth and value. This strategic choice has reached the limits of its utility. The paper has looked at the fields of work, body and voice to argue that the strategic and appeasing approach has not yielded real or sustainable gains. It is time to go beyond the limits of a strategy that is predicated on promoting women’s empowerment as a means to achieving other developmental goals, and attempt to realize liberty, equity and justice for women and men. The rights-based approach to development should resonate with the values of humanism and liberty. It has somehow evolved into a ghetto that alienates most people. The false distinction between rights and needs persists. It is as though claiming rights g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t is a foreign thing, but having needs met is a truly authentic and commendable goal. Thus in many Arab locations, feminism flounders while development chugs along. It is perhaps appropriate at this moment to try to change both feminist approaches to power and the lack of interest and appreciation of power relations characteristic of development work. Such a critical endeavour would enable men and women to realize gender equity and create the necessary conditions for progressive and liberating development. References Abu el-Qumsan, N. (2008) Heading towards the unknown, (In Arabic), Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, Cairo. Barazangi, N.H. (ed) (2002) Windows of faith: Muslim women’s scholar-activists in the North America, (In Arabic), Dar al-Fikr, Damascus. 98 Bisnath, S. (2001) Globalization, poverty and women’s empowerment, United Nations Division of the Advancement of Women. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/empower/documents/Bisnath- EP3.pdf (accessed 03-03-08). Chambers, R. (1997) Whose reality counts? Putting the first last, Intermediate Technology Publications, London. Cornwall, A., and A.M. Goetz (2005) ‘Democratising democracy-feminist perspectives’, Democratization 12(5): 783-800. ELMPS (Egypt Labor Market Panel) (2006), ‘ELMPS survey’ conducted by the Economic Research Forum, Cairo. Elson, D. (ed) (1979) Value: the representation of labour in capitalism. CSE Books, London. EWIC (Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures) (2003), ‘I: Methodologies, paradigms and sources’, Brill, Leiden. Gaventa, J. (2006) ‘Triumph, deficit or contestation? Deepening the “deepening democracy” debate,’ IDS Working Paper 264. Hirshman, L. (2006) Get to work: a manifesto for women of the world, Viking Books, New York. ICA (Investment Climate Assessment) (2005) Survey, conducted by the Social Research Center, American University, Cairo. Kabeer, N. (2000) The power to choose: Bangladeshi women and labour market decisions in London and Dhaka, Verso, London. Kabeer, N. (2001) ‘Resources, agency, achievements: reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment’, SIDA Studies 3: 19-57. Mahmoud, S. (2005) Politics of piety: the Islamic revival and the feminist subject, Princeton University Press, Princeton. Malhotra, A. et al. (2002) Measuring women’s empowerment as a variable in international development, Gender and Development Group, World Bank, Washington. Mayoux, L. (2002) Women’s empowerment or feminisation of debt? Towards a new agenda in African microfinance, Report based on a One World Action conference, London, March 2002. http://www.oneworldaction.org (accessed 8 January 2003). Mir-Hosseini, Z. (1999) Islam and gender, Princeton University Press, Princeton. Mohanty, C.T. (1991) ‘Under Western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourses’. In: C.T. Mohanty, A. Russo, and L. Torres, Third World women and the politics of feminism, Indiana University Press, Indiana. Mosedale, S. (2005) ‘Policy arena assessing women’s empowerment: towards a conceptual framework’, Journal of International Development 17(2): 243-257. Nussbaum, M.C. (1999) Sex and social justice, Oxford University Press, New York. the empowerment of women Rashad, H., and Z. Khadr (2002) ‘The demography of the Arab Region: new challenges and opportunities’. In: I. Sirageldin, Human capital: population economics in the Middle East, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo. Rashad, H., M. Osman, and F. Roudi-Fahimi (2005) Marriage in the Arab World, Population Reference Bureau, Washington. Sen, A. (2005) The argumentative Indian: writings on Indian history, culture and identity, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. Sholkamy, H. (2004) ‘Constructing the feminine…and the masculine: child rearing and identity’. In: N. Hopkins and R. Saad (eds), Upper Egypt: identity and change, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo. UNIFEM (2004) Progress of Arab women, http://unifem.org/resources/item_detail.php?ProductID=89 [Accessed 20 February, 2008] 99 Everjoice J. Win1 5 In search of new images: when feminism meets development As a feminist activist in development I have both challenged and have been challenged over the past five years. In challenging my colleagues to make women’s rights an integral part of human rights, I have also had to challenge my own assumptions – to unpack what it is we are saying as feminists, and to translate this into development actions as well as into language that others can understand. In this paper I review some of the challenges entailed in making two key shifts in development – a shift from charity work to a more political understanding of development, in line with the rights-based approach. And a shift to women’s rights as integral to development, also as part of the rights-based approach. A slow process of change ActionAid International (AAI) was founded in 1973 and currently has a presence in some 48 countries including in the global North. Until very recently, an assumption within AAI was that because the organization works with the poor, most of whom are women, AAI did not need to address women’s rights or gender equality more directly. In fact, there was little understanding as to why this would be important. It was only in 1998 that there was acceptance at a ‘corporate’ policy level that AAI needed to deliberately advance gender equality. The process of change was slow – starting from the outside, influenced by women’s global activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and linked to the UN processes of those decades. However, this was also a time when there was an increasing de- politicization of ‘gender’ within development. In the post-Beijing context, the language and approach had shifted to mainstreaming, and ‘gender’ was seen to be something that affected women and men equally. People seemed to have lost sight of the fact that in search of new images the goal was gender equality, and that the problem we had to deal with was unequal relations of power. De-politicized understanding translated into making sure we talked to everybody when we went out to communities. And a constant question was ‘If this is gender work, why are we focusing on women? Where are the men?’ However, a few country programmes did make some strides in addressing unequal gender power relations. Two examples include India, and Uganda where feminist staff in senior positions worked with women’s groups in ways that went beyond the normal grantee relationships, and beyond the usual formulaic income generation, micro-enterprise projects for women. AAI Uganda worked with organizations such as FIDA (women lawyers organization), Akina Mama (developing Feminist Leadership), and Isis-WICCE, all led by feminists. AAI India developed programmes with feminist 101  groups to support women in local government. In both cases these strides were possible because there were feminists in the organization, as well as relatively strong women’s movements in the country. However, across AAI there was still very limited understanding of mainstreaming, other than it was about, as many of our publications often put it, ‘women, men, boys and girls’. Most people in the organization would not easily work with feminists who they stereotyped as concerned with the macro issues and not being involved in real development. Reviewing understandings and practice: an opportunity for change When I entered AAI (in 2002), the position was that gender had to be mainstreamed, with little clarity as to what this entailed. I was called International Gender Coordinator and my task was to follow up the Beijing Commitments. When I tried to get clarity and asked ‘Which of the 13 critical areas of concern should I focus on?’ I was told to develop a plan and figure it out. While this was all well meant, it was barely adequate to give a sense of the task at hand. It also indicated that within the organization there had not been a meaningful discussion as to what we were aiming for. In addition to AAI not having a clear idea of my role, the location of my post was problematic. Coordinators of other themes such as HIV&AIDS, and Education reported to the Director for Policy or another International Director, while I reported to the head of Human Resources. In addition, I was an International Coordinator, with no staff and a very small budget. Gender Coordinators within country programmes were often laden with other responsibilities – such as HIV&AIDS, and child sponsorship. Luckily, this was also the time when AAI was beginning to review its overarching strategy, in keeping with changes in the external context. Within international development there was the increasing realization that traditional approaches were not enough to end poverty. In southern countries there was questioning of the donor- defined position on good governance and a shift to a greater focus on good governance from the point of view of citizens. There were questions around the definition of g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t governance beyond elections, and questions on what makes for free and fair elections from the point of view of poor women. Beijing +5 had happened and feminists were beginning to take note of what was working and what not working in relation to the Beijing Platform. Criticisms of gender mainstreaming were beginning to emerge, although these were muted. In this climate, AAI was also taking stock. Our strategy between 1998 and 2004 was ‘Fighting poverty together’. ‘Gender empowerment’ was one of the four goals in this strategy – a goal caught up in gender mainstreaming and not yet about rights. From a purely conceptual point of view, ‘Gender empowerment’ doesn’t mean anything. It is similar to the concept of ‘Gender rights’. In both cases one can see that this arose from the fear of clearly saying ‘Women’. The realization was creeping into AAI that we needed to go beyond old understandings 102 to tackle issues of governance – for example, the policies that make people poor. This entailed questioning our understanding and approach to poverty eradication. For example we began to ask ourselves – Is poverty only about material lack? Were we to meet material needs, would that eliminate injustice and inequality? Why are certain groups poorer than others? What are the processes that have contributed and continue to contribute to poverty? Where do issues of human rights fit into this? What are the forces that actively lead to impoverishment of people and keep them there? What is our role as an international NGO? And what is the role of the state? We realized we could not be a substitute for the state, and we began to explore a role in complementing it while at the same time holding it accountable. We saw both roles as equally important. This overhaul of policy and strategic direction provided the space to also interrogate gender mainstreaming as an approach. It also meant that we had to look at our understanding of the forces and factors that make women poor, from the private sphere to the public. These questions were brought into a review and reflection process carried out in 2004, and which culminated in AAI’s new international strategy – ‘Rights to end poverty’. I was nominated to the team that wrote ‘Rights to end poverty’, and was able to bring in conceptual perspectives on power and rights, and contribute to the setting of a new vision. The current AAI strategy, which was adopted in 2004, shows how the organization has transformed itself. There have been fundamental shifts in policy, and to achieve this there have had to be shifts in mind-sets among leadership and some staff members. Coming from outside the mainstream development ‘industry’, from a history of involvement in small feminist organizations, I was slow to appreciate how fundamental these shifts needed to be, given prior understandings within the organization. I now realize the huge internal struggles involved, firstly in making the shift from thinking in terms of charitable work to a more political approach. And secondly, to make the shift to women’s rights, when we are accustomed to thinking about poor women as a vulnerable group. The understandings and acceptance of new ways of thinking and acting in relation to both development and women’s rights are still patchy and uneven, with some levels of resistance within AAI. Dealing with Mr Schmidt! in search of new images To make the shift from charitable to political understandings and action is an ongoing challenge. ActionAid, like many of its peers, relies on child sponsorship funds. This is where the organization has come from. Even today, over half of AAI’s unrestricted funds come from child sponsorship. Getting this money, servicing the individual givers, and using this money at community level takes up quite a lot of staff time. For example, in country programmes there are/were staff employed to visit villages, to get pictures of children who were being sponsored, collect stories and updates, etc. Individual donors wanted to see how ‘their’ children were doing as a result of their donation. Although this is now changing, for some it was important to show pictures of poor children with snotty noses to the current or future donor, who is not really interested in longer-term political issues such as violence against women. 103  The way to get people in the global North to sponsor a child is to tug at their heart strings. Political analysis has little place in moving this constituency of sponsors, who are like the Jack Nicholson character, Schmidt, in the movie ‘About Schmidt’ – an ordinary sort of man going about his day-to-day life, sitting in his armchair in his living room, watching TV. The idea is to move this man, through visuals of suffering children in Africa, so that he will sponsor a child. The language and images cannot present a thesis on what is wrong with the capitalist system and the need to rearrange world politics. Once the organization receives his sponsorship, at some point it has to account to Schmidt. He wants to know that the child got a uniform and that the snot was wiped off his or her nose. Telling Schmidt we are running a workshop to empower women will make no sense to him. So the challenge is how to bridge the gap between reaching Schmidt, and using this money in a way that challenges the power inequalities that have led to that child’s position and condition in the first place. Bringing this together conceptually and politically continues to be a hard task.. While there has been quite a shift among development and activist organizations in the North with greater awareness of the injustices of the global system – for example activism around G8 Meetings etc. – and while constituencies in the global North and South are connecting in addressing power imbalances globally and nationally, for organizations like us, where most money comes from Mr and Mrs Schmidt, it is still a huge challenge to bring these things together. Balancing the need to be clear yet not simplistic is not easy. But even before dealing with the Schmidts, a critical part of the challenge is in redefining how staff within the organization themselves understand poverty, and making a break with old understandings of poverty as a material lack. Among the front line staff within the organization there tends to be insufficient discussion on perspectives – i.e. on viewing poverty in a more political way, or on how to translate such a redefinition of poverty into practice. Shifting to women’s rights g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t Then there is the question of women in this equation. In the dominant view, women’s roles are essentialized and conflated with caring for children. For most people the thinking is that women care for children, and if we help mothers we are helping the next generation. Trying to separate women from this perspective to talk of them as people in their own right, with needs and wants as individuals and with entitlements, is often problematic. In development-speak, women are often portrayed as poor, powerless and pregnant. When we talk of rights-based development approaches now, what replaces this image? Women in high heels? A prospective donor once repeatedly asked me: ‘I need to understand – when you say empowerment, what do these women become? Is this a chance to leave the village, to lead better lives, with electricity and running water?’ My response was, to turn rural into urban dwellers, driving nice cars in high heels – 104 that is not quite the vision. Although that too would be lovely. Hey, why not! But what is the image that replaces the poor, powerless, pregnant woman of development? What will she look like? This is not yet clearly defined. The development industry depends on visual images and simple messages. The new message is more complex and needs to be more nuanced. The challenge, therefore, is how to achieve these nuances in a world that runs on sound bites. The question of ‘what is legitimate development work and what is not?’ also creeps in. Real development work is seen as practical, tangible, visible, with an image you can attach – a school, women around a new water tap, healthy children. How do we communicate outcomes of women’s rights? What do women gaining rights look like? What does an empowered woman do? When we say we shall mobilize women, will they be standing in a straight line? This all sounds very facetious, but it really isn’t. Violence against women sounds old hat to feminists. But to a traditional development organization like AAI the response often is ‘What are you asking us to do exactly’ or ‘What does violence against women have to do with poverty?’ On women’s land rights I have been asked, ‘Women already use the land, they are farming anyway, so what is the problem?’ For those of us who see the links between violence against women and other areas of women’s lives, and who have been saying these things for what seems like forever, we sometimes wonder ‘Have I landed on the right planet?’. I have only recently begun to appreciate the political struggle one has to go through in this space to make the shift from thinking that is wrapped up in child sponsorship, in traditional definitions of poverty as material lack – and many of the assumptions underlying that thinking. But in fairness to development practitioners, I must admit that we feminists have tended to speak in a language which does not easily translate into other contexts outside our own circles. When we say ‘women’s empowerment’ we need to explain what we mean by this. When we say ‘mobilize women’ we need to say what we mean. At times we get so caught up in our own jargon that we lose sense of the meaning ourselves. ‘Feminism meets development’ is sometimes not an easy mix. As an activist, I appreciate the space I have been in over the last five years – i.e. in development – where I have had to challenge my own assumptions – to unpack what it is we are saying – not to rely on jargon. It has made me appreciate the need to constantly challenge ourselves as feminist activists in translating our rhetoric into in search of new images meaningful actions on the ground. While I do not see the micro as good and the macro as bad, I have to acknowledge that a macro focus tends to de-link us from real people, and we have tended to be impatient with those who ask us to step back and think through our assumptions and plans. We get impatient because we are beginning to believe our own rhetoric. We need to be challenged and to challenge each other. AAI women’s rights strategy With our current strategy we have adopted a rights-based approach (RBA). What does this mean and what does it mean for women’s rights? In using RBA we have to name rights holders – whose rights and what rights we are talking about. We can no longer say it is ‘gender rights’; this is what enabled the shift to women’s rights. I am now 105  called International Women’s Rights Head, not Head of Gender. Insignificant as this might appear as feminists, we know that naming is a political issue. Therefore RBA is a big plus, in that it has allowed us to put the word ’women’ squarely back on the agenda. And in so doing we are putting women back on the map as rights holders, as beneficiaries of development as well as agents of change. Once you frame what you are asking for as a RIGHT, the terms of engagement also have to shift – for example women will be demanding that governments allocate more resources to address rape, because it is their RIGHT to have these resources allocated in that way. In other words, how you frame the problem and what needs to be done shifts completely when we are using a rights-based approach. You are not asking for state largesse, for corporations to be kind, or for men to be nicer. You are saying you are entitled, because you are human. This is a very important shift. If you do not have a claim as a right, the state can withdraw largesse when other priorities take over and leave women by the wayside, for example. Violators of rights can also come up with seemingly reasonable explanations as to why they are doing what they are doing, and not see what they are doing as violation of those rights. RBA has enabled the shift from women as instrumental to wider development objectives such as reducing poverty, educating children, to the notion of women as individuals, people, citizens in their own right. Let us not forget that in many contexts in the world today, the very notion that women are HUMAN and to dare suggest that they have rights or entitlements is still a revolutionary idea! While women’s rights are critical, it is not only a means to an end but an end in itself. We can focus more directly on how to advance women’s rights within all areas of AAI work. So for example in the Hunger Free Campaign, a campaign we recently launched, we have named rights holders and a right – that is Women’s Rights to Land and Natural Resources. We have insisted that we are campaigning for women’s rights to land, not because it is instrumental to women feeding other people, but that land is property that women as citizens must be able to access and control in their own right. We also say that land or property is a source of power – it fosters power within, and power to, (to go back to those feminist concepts of power). Through this campaign we are questioning decision-making at community and household levels that denies g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t women access and control over this fundamental resource. Because of RBA we have to ask who is the duty bearer, and who is accountable for upholding and promoting or protecting women’s rights? Who is the violator? We name the state, donors, the international community, traditional leaders, individual men, etc. And we point to what it is that needs to change from law and policy to attitudes and behaviours. Holding states and donors accountable is critical, as blame can often be put on individual ‘bad men’ or ‘backward’ attitudes among the poor themselves. The micro, the individual, the household level was often not dealt with in development. As women’s rights, we brought greater focus on the micro into RBA. Starting with the self is critical. While this was a strength of participatory methodologies, we fell short on moving onto behaviour change. We named violators at every level – from intimate and household to global. And we create understanding 106 that what we are dealing with is systemic, that it is important to change systems and institutions that underpin and reinforce individual behaviour. We also need to bring in the North-South dynamic. Understanding the larger order and how it replicates or reinforces injustice is critical. The bigger macroeconomic framework reminds us that what is happening to poor women in the global South is because of global systems that underpin our world of inequality and injustice. In this regard, our policy advocacy for example at the G8, the United Nations, and regional economic blocs, becomes as important as the practical work with women in poor communities. At the same time, we have to step up our education work among the poor so that they are aware of the macroeconomic and political systems which result in the micro problems they are facing. Feminists have insisted on intersectional analyses and approaches to poverty eradication. In the past the approach was to think in terms of one silver bullet – be it income generation or education/literacy. Feminists point out that everything is interconnected, therefore the solution to poverty is not just about providing condoms, not just literacy, and not just economic empowerment. It is all of this and more: legal rights, access to justice, participation in decision-making, etc. Feminism meets RBA has brought intersectionality to the fore. But again, translating this into programmes and communicating it has not been easy. This is particularly the case in the development sector where we like to be very single issue focused, and where we tend to have a flavour of the year. With the ‘Women Won’t Wait’ campaign, for example, we look at the intersection of violence and HIV&AIDS. We have deliberately targeted state and donor accountability in terms of allocation of resources and programming for HIV. Often donors speak with forked tongues – they speak of the importance of changing gender power relations, but they do not allocate money to make these changes happen. They shy away from addressing structural change in terms of gender relations. We are posing the question, ‘How are you supporting changes in how women and men relate to each other?’ ‘Women Won’t Wait’ is a good example of something we would perhaps not have done seven years ago – because the question would have been asked, ‘How will this help poor women?’ In this sense we are trying to raise the bar in the discourse as well as in in search of new images practice by demonstrating what RBA looks like. A two-pronged approach We have adopted a two-pronged approach to our women’s rights programmes and campaigns; an approach we call Mainstreaming Plus. We could have gone the mainstreaming route as have many development organizations. However it was a deliberate political choice to say we are doing Mainstreaming Plus. This means that we have stand-alone women’s rights projects and programmes ‘owned’ and led by the Women’s Rights (WR) team(s) in addition to mainstreaming, which is the responsibility of all staff in all of their work, with the WR team providing support and advice. 107  AAI works on six key thematic areas: Education, HIV&AIDS, Governance, Human Security, Food Rights and Women’s Rights. Having a stand-alone women’s rights theme in and of itself as one of these six has been an important shift. At the same time, we see mainstreaming as a strategy that can work if it remains true to its feminist roots – that is questioning the very same mainstream and keeping the focus on changing structures, attitudes and behaviour, so as to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. If the focus is clear, the rest of the organization can be held accountable, because in this sense, mainstreaming is not seen as the sole responsibility of the WR team. Women’s Rights is on the same level as the other thematic areas in AAI, and the position of the Head of Women’s Rights is on a par with that of other thematic heads. More importantly, the WR theme has independent resources, while the mainstreaming agenda gets resourced from other themes or functions. In line with our understanding of intersectionality, our strategic priorities within the WR theme are linked with the other five AAI themes: Violence against girls (in Education), Violence against women (and its intersection with HIV&AIDS), Violence against women (in conflict and emergencies), Women in local government (linked with Governance), and Women and land rights (linked to the Food Rights theme). We deliberately chose these issues because it made strategic sense to work on themes that AAI cares about, has experience in, and has resources for (human and financial). It was also important to guard against Women’s Rights being ghettoized, hanging by a thread on its own and de-linked from these other themes. Our review in 2009 will show if this was a wise choice! In addition, the staff of each theme have to develop their own women’s rights strategies and objectives as part of all their work. Therefore there is a lot more women’s rights work besides that covered only by our theme or that we lead on. All other themes and functions are held accountable for delivering on WR. This strategy has worked well so far, in that it has enabled us to bring in a rights perspective and approach, a focus on women as rights holders and agents of their own change. We have visible programmes, projects and campaigns for women’s rights. g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t This has made more tangible the task of communicating what we mean by women’s rights and what it is we are doing or asking – again reminding ourselves that we sit in a development organization where tangibility matters. This has enabled us to get dedicated resources to do this work – at both the national and international levels. In addition, we have full time staff whose full time job is women’s rights, in almost all country programmes and internationally. We have even been able to insist on the kinds of expertise that these women must have. I can safely say, happily, that we have a feminist international team. Money and senior staff have given us power. As part of our responsibility to mainstream in other themes and functions, the women’s rights staff have had to learn about other themes – and we bring our expertise to bear on these themes. We are now working with partners that AAI would not have worked with in the past, 108 e.g. the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Women and Law in Southern Africa, the Coalition on Violence Against Women, etc. Similarly in country programmes we now partner the more well-known feminist and radical groups which engage in advocacy at macro levels. We have drawn on the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, and African Union (AU)/other regional protocols. Five years ago in AAI these were words we hardly spoke and tools we rarely used. Clearly, the rights focus has made a difference – the space is there to advance women’s rights. This focus has also enabled us to make every part of the organization accountable. Mainstreaming can advance women’s rights, but only if it arises from strong political vision, and if the organization and its staff are committed to engaging and transforming power. We have also learnt that leadership makes a difference. In our case the bold leadership and support of our Chief Executive Officer, some International Directors and some Country Directors have contributed hugely to where we are. Without this individual and collective leadership from those with visible power, the task would have fallen only on a handful of activists like theme staff – who in some cases don’t have much power to fall back on. However, there is still the challenge in bringing all staff on board. Challenges in shifting mind sets and practice Getting other themes to deliver on WR has not been easy. Firstly, some have tended to see the addition of a simple line of text, such as ‘especially women and girls’, as sufficient, whether the programme is around floods in Mozambique, or any other issue. While this simple acknowledgement of the situation of women is a good start, much more needs to be done to go beyond this, otherwise we will get stuck in rhetoric. The challenge is in getting critical analyses of problems. For example, with the floods in Mozambique the challenge is to understand what the relations between women and men were, even before the floods came. This understanding needs to be taken into account in designing interventions, so that these do not reinforce or worsen women’s situation. There is also the challenge of intersectional analyses which can serve as the basis for good, firmly rooted interventions. There have been good experiences in interventions relating to the Tsunami. From the start, attention was paid to understanding how this in search of new images impacted differently on women and men. Interventions did not rebuild old structures, but paid attention to gender power relations. Whether this good practice was sustained is not clear, but the intention was there. We are beginning to see appreciation – although it is still patchy and uneven. One of the real problems and challenges is that AAI does not like templates. The AAI approach has been to provide the basic frameworks, but to let people go out, learn, experiment and theorize. There is merit in that approach. It moves away from the tyranny of ticking boxes. But we need to guard against a laissez faire approach. We need a middle path – providing a basic guide and framework which doesn’t say this is the only way to do things, but which also says this not what we mean…by RBA etc. It 109  has taken us too long to articulate in very clear terms what RBA means and what it does not mean. The gap has become visible because front line staff – the doers in the organization – need to know what it is they are supposed to be doing differently on Monday morning, now that we have moved to a rights-based approach. Coupled with the fact that Women’s Rights work is seen as very complex (almost like rocket science to some people), some staff fear to even try. And fear immobilizes people. At the same, in some people’s minds RBA is all about lobbying G8 governments, or lobbying the AU. Staff members question why these actions are necessary. And they feel we have lost direction – that we are supposed to deal directly with the poor, and provide for their practical needs. Thankfully, some of us can go back to our feminist organizing experiences which have taught us that meeting practical gender needs without addressing strategic needs will not take women very far. In an organization such as AAI, one always has to navigate the waters between the very practical oriented and the strategic. Equally in our own work of bringing women’s rights into the mix we have to demonstrate in visible ways how our work does this. Staff at all levels need not only conceptual tools, but practical tools and methods to enable them to act differently. Concluding thoughts As a mainstream development organization, AAI’s bread and butter is facilitating development – using a rights-based approach. Understanding of what that develop- ment should look like and what rights-based means have had to change. As AAI we needed to understand that development is beyond building schools or providing water taps, beyond the hardware and the visible. It is much more. Development is about changing mindsets and belief systems both in the global North and the global South. It is about every bit of life as a human being – enabling women and men to live fulfilling lives. It is about expanding choices, and it is about what you think and what you do. The main lesson is that RBA has provided a strong platform and legitimacy to bring feminist approaches, perspectives and experience into development. Through RBA, g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t AAI and other international NGOs will be able to push out the boundaries on under- standing as well as practical interventions in poverty eradication, human rights and development. And for this to happen, staff and leaders of these organizations have to have strong political convictions as well as practical tools. In this regard, we have to find new images and new messages that communicate that vision of development from a feminist and women’s rights perspective. The old images just don’t do it. And the old messages don’t do it. Women’s lives are complex and complicated. And women’s rights are not just in law or policy. How to communicate and act on this in clear, but not simplistic ways remains a big challenge. Note 1 This article was spoken and edited by Everjoice J. Win. It was put on paper by Shamim Meer in conversation with Everjoice. The views expressed here are the personal reflections of Everjoice J. 110 Win and do not necessarily reflect an official policy position. References ActionAid International, Rights to end poverty: ActionAid international strategy 2005-2010, ActionAid International, Johannesburg. http://www.actionaid.org/assets/pdf/EndPoverty_LongVersion.pdf (accessed 03-03-08) ActionAid International website, for their approach to women’s rights and current work, www.actionaid.org (accessed 03-03-08) in search of new images 111  A guide to the annotated bibliography: explanation of the records The records in the annotated bibliography are listed alphabetically by author and organization, with an author and geographical index, which give the record number within the bibliography. Each record is complemented by an abstract. Photocopying services: libraries, organizations as well as individual users from any country in the world may request photocopies of articles and small books (up to 100 pages) included in the bibliography. Photocopying services for organizations in developing countries are free-of-charge. Information about charges and library services can be requested at Information & Library Services (ILS). Please state the KIT Library shelf code of the book(s), chapter(s) or journal article(s) in your request. Information & Library Services Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) P.O. Box 95001 1090 HA Amsterdam, the Netherlands Fax: +31 (0) 20 6654423 E-mail: library@kit.nl URL: http://www.kit.nl/ An example of a typical record is shown below: 1) 004 2) A rights-based approach to gender 1) Record number. equality and women’s rights 3) POWELL, MARIE. 4) Canadian Journal of 2) Original title. Development Studies 26(2005)special issue, p. 605-617 5) ISSN 0225-5189 3) All authors are listed and entered in the Author The concept of a rights-based approach is Index. explored to determine if it provides a useful methodology for furthering progress by donor 4) The reference includes the journal title in full agencies on achieving gender equality and (in italics), the volume number, year of women’s rights. It is argued that for gender publication (in brackets), issue number, g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t equality advocates working in donor inclusive page numbers as stated in the organizations, a rights-based approach adds original document. For monographs, the value to current gender mainstreaming efforts. publisher, place, number of pages and year of However, a number of issues and lessons learned publication are given. from gender mainstreaming need to be addressed to ensure that gender equality and 5) The bibliographic data conclude with the ISSN women’s rights are not marginalized. or ISBN (if available) of the original document. (taken from journal) KIT Library shelf code 6) H 1847-26(2005) 6) A unique library code, of the book, chapters or spec.issue journal articles, available in KIT Library, is given at the end of each record. Please state this shelfmark in your photocopy request. When it concerns an electronic document, the URL is provided, however, photocopies of these documents are also available at KIT Library. 112 Annotated bibliography 001 The rights-based approach in development: DAC commitments on human rights and recent policies and strategies changes to the international context and donor ABRAMOVITCH, VICTOR. CEPAL Review practices have prompted this work. New focus (2006)88, p. 33-48 ISSN 0251-2920 areas include aid effectiveness and state This is a discussion of some of the issues fragility, and how these relate to human rights. surrounding current rights-based approaches, Principles for effective engagement on human towards establishing relationships between rights are recommended to guide donors in the national and international development policies design of human rights policies and programmes. and strategies and international human rights Three priority action areas to be undertaken by law. Some viewpoints concern the relevance of OECD DAC Members where enhanced efforts this approach in the political, social and and new initiatives can have a significant impact institutional context of Latin America. The first are: (1) making use of the principles; step is to analyse what the recognition of rights (2) promoting dialogue and collaboration between signifies, and the relationship between this and human rights practitioners and other the empowerment of excluded sectors. An development practitioners; and (3) acting as a examination of the relationship between human resource to others in strengthening human rights rights, the obligations that derive from them, and assessments and indicators, including through public policies refers in particular to economic, horizontal work across the OECD. social and cultural rights. An attempt is made to http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/50/48/38688578.pdf relate three issues that are fundamental to any (accessed January 2008) development strategy, namely inclusion, participation and accountability to current legal 003 Analysis workshop report: does debates in the region concern human rights. implementing a rights based approach increase Specifically, these refer to the scope of the right impact on poverty reduction? Evaluation / to equality and non-discrimination, social and learning process political participation, and access to justice. UK Inter-Agency Group on Rights Based KIT Library shelf code K 1182-(2006)88 Approaches, London, 2006, 47 p. The Interagency Group, a loose network of UK 002 Action-oriented policy paper on human rights based NGOs concerned with integrating human and development rights into development practice, initiated a one Organisation for Economic Co-operation and year evaluation/ learning process to examine the annotated bibliography Development (OECD), Paris, 2007, 17 p. impact of rights based approach (RBA) and non- The current position of the Development RBA projects on the multidimensional Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation experience of poverty and the realization of the for Economic Co-operation and Development Millennium Development Goals. Evaluative case (OECD) on human rights and development studies were undertaken in Bangladesh, Malawi reflects changes in the international context and and Peru. A 2-day analysis workshop was donor experiences over the past decade. New organized in January 2006 to discuss preliminary challenges and opportunities for promoting case study findings and help the various research human rights constitute a key part of the teams to push their analysis further and identify development process. The paper sets out gaps for further inquiry. The workshop report, principles and recommendations for future together with the in-depth country reports from actions. Background information is provided on Bangladesh, Malawi and Peru are further the emerging consensus on the relationship analysed and synthesized in a final synthesis between human rights and development. Existing document available in June/July 2006. 113 Preliminary findings show that RBAs open up the  possibility of engaging with hitherto disengaged new topics have been added which are not citizens. RBA deals with both exclusion and directly represented by the articles of the power. They provide powerful tools because they convention: Violence Against Women, Refugee help address both rights and entitlements, and Women, and Religion and Women. Regional responsibilities. RBAs regard partnership and analysis sources have been organized according networking as a central requirement, enabling to country or region. Many of the sources within duty bearers to share their responsibilities, e.g. each section have been cross-referenced in order with regard to social protection. Furthermore, to provide a more comprehensive resource for with regard to new aid modalities, budgetary the reader. support, for example, can be centralized in http://www.iwrp.org/pdf/biblio.pdf (accessed January Finance Departments. RBAs can provide a 2008) safeguard in ensuring that processes are more accountable and participatory. Many agencies 006 A rights-based approach to development: have worked on rights issues for several years. what the policy documents of the UN, However, RBAs have enabled agencies to begin development cooperation and NGO agencies say to better institutionalize rights. APPLEYARD, SUSAN. Office of the United http://www.crin.org/docs/iap_workshop.pdf#search=%22 Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights UK%20inter-agency%20group%20on%20rights-based% (OHCHR) Asia-Pacific, 2002, 44 p. 20approaches%20analysis%20workshop%20report%22 Various development cooperation agencies, (accessed January 2008) United Nations agencies and NGOs active in Asia define the rights-based approach to development 004 Rights into action: UNFPA implements in different ways, adapting their policy and human rights-based approach incorporating it into their programmes according ANGARITA, ANA. United Nations Population to their perspectives. Where an organization has Fund (UNFPA), New York, NY, 2005, 32 p. not adopted a rights-based approach, a summary The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is given of how the organization describes the carries out human rights work in key thematic relationship between human rights and develop- areas, including population and development, ment. The descriptions and language are drawn reproductive health, gender equality and women’s directly from policy documents issued by the empowerment. The underlying principles of organizations themselves. These descriptions UNFPA’s programming are to advance human have either been provided by or reviewed by the rights and show the significant role that good agency concerned. practices and synergy among different actors http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ can play in this regard. The first section sets out RBA_policy_docs_UN_NGO.pdf (accessed January the commitment of UNFPA to a human rights 2008) framework and discusses the rights-based approach to programming. The second section 007 ‘Application of human rights to reproductive describes UNFPA’s role in monitoring human and sexual health’: recommendations rights treaty committees in key programme areas. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and http://www.unfpa.org/upload/lib_pub_file/529_filename_ Office of the High Commissioner for Human g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t rights_into_action.pdf (accessed January 2008) Rights (OHCHR), New York, NY, Geneva, 200[1], 7 p. 005 Annotated CEDAW bibliography In 2001 the United Nations Population Fund International Women’s Rights Project, Victoria, (UNFPA) and the Office of the High BC, 2004, 106 p. Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) This compilation of sources dealing with the organized a meeting to assess progress, obstacles Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of and opportunities in integrating reproductive Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has rights into the work of the treaty bodies and to been organized into various topics identified elaborate further measures and strategies to be within the articles of the Convention. Sources used by treaty bodies in the monitoring and pertain specifically to CEDAW as a whole, but strengthening of reproductive and sexual health. also cover issues that relate to specific topics The meeting defined actions and recommen- discussed within the Convention. Each dations to ensure better implementation of treaty corresponding article of the Convention has been obligations at domestic level so as to promote and replicated at the beginning of the respective ensure enjoyment by women and men of sections. In addition, the preamble to the reproductive and sexual health. This document Convention is outlined at the beginning of the presents the recommendations for action that are 114 bibliography. It is important to note that three grouped into three main areas: advocacy, information gathering and reporting process, and people, poor farmers, HIV positive women, and national level implementation, and have been island communities. Their cases include claiming proposed according to the stakeholders identified their rights to land, to livelihood, to food, to as having the main responsibility in implementing gender sensitive responses for women living with them. HIV/AIDS, to education, to information, and to http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/ water and sanitation. They illustrate the added Reproductiveen.pdf (accessed January 2008) value that the use of rights-based approaches have in capacitating those who have often been 008 Applying a human rights-based approach and left out of the larger social system, or those who mainstreaming gender in local development have not been able to access the benefits of programming and implementation development programmes and policies. Joint Community of Practice, Gender, Human http://www.equalinrights.org/file.html?id=1989 Rights, and Local Governance and (accessed January 2008) Decentralization. Yerevan, Armenia, 13-15 June 2006, 14 p. 010 Where to for women’s movements and the UNDP Armenia and the Bratislava Regional MDGs? Centre hosted the Joint Community of Practice BARTON, CAROL. Gender and Development (JCoP) meeting ‘Applying a Human Rights-Based 13(2005)1, p. 25-35 ISSN 1355-2074 Approach and Mainstreaming Gender in Local Different women’s rights activists and Development Programming and Implementation’ organizations, in various regions of the world, to bring together experts from the Communities have different responses to the Millennium of Practice in Local Governance and Development Goal (MDG) agenda and processes. Decentralization, Human Rights and Justice and A brief overview of the current state of play the cross-cutting issue of Gender Mainstreaming. focuses on campaigning and advocacy, and the Human rights and gender can be easily activism of grassroots movements; women’s integrated in local development programming critiques of the MDGs; and the different ways in and implementation because of the inter-linkages which women are choosing to engage with the of the three areas. The summarized proceedings MDGs, to advance their own agenda. There are of this meeting provide an overview of objectives different regional responses. Women’s groups in and analytical conclusions. Compiled links are Africa see the MDGs as an entry point to try to provided to relevant materials used. The major reclaim the right to public services that conclusion of the JCoP meeting identified a need dramatically affect their lives, and to point out to enhance the effectiveness of available contradictions with poverty reduction strategy expertise and knowledge by providing tools that papers. In Latin America the issue of reproduc- are easily transferable and usable across tive rights, ignored in the MDGs, has been different national and local settings. central to the feminist agenda. Consequently, http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/uploads/final%20 some Latin American feminist groups have report_Yerevan_joint_CoP.pdf (accessed January 2008) wanted little to do with the MDGs. In Asia, responses to the MDGs reflect a reality of 009 Lessons learnt from rights-based approaches poverty, racial, ethnic and caste divisions, and in the Asia-Pacific region: documentation of case militarism. Women’s responses have often been studies linked to those of broader social movements with BANERJEE, UPALA DEVI. United Nations which they work. Many women are reluctant Development Programme (UNDP)/Office of the players in the MDG context, but continue to feel annotated bibliography United Nations High Commissioner for Human the need to be at the table to push for a gender Rights (OHCHR), New York, NY/Geneva, 2005, equality agenda that is integrated into all areas of 352 p. development and peace. They do not concede any Case studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pacific terrain on Beijing and Cairo commitments, but island countries, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, many use the MDGs as a vehicle to keep women’s the Philippines and Vietnam demonstrate how issues on the global agenda. various rights-based approaches, strategies and KIT Library shelf code D 3030-13(2005)1 processes have been used by developmental agencies and civil society groups. NGOs, 011 The human rights of women: international community-based organizations (CBOs) and instruments and African experience citizens have successfully demanded and claimed BENEDEK, WOLFGANG; KISAAKYE, ESTHER rights for and in participation with poor, vulner- M.; OBERLEITNER, GERD. Zed Books, London, able and marginalized groups in Asia and the 2002, 336 p. ISBN 1-84277-045-4 Pacific. The stakeholders range from landless 115  For the past generation, human rights has been strategy for achieving women’s human rights, in perhaps the most exhaustively developed area of Algeria and beyond, depends on utilizing the international law. In no other area has the impact range of international standards in fully gender- of the women’s movement worldwide resulted in sensitive ways. Given both the centrality of a more profound transformation. Today, the economic, social and cultural rights to women, primary issue is no longer a better elaboration of and their experience of violation of these rights, human rights law, but its enforcement. In this the ICESCR must be given more attention. context, a series of post-graduate training KIT Library shelf code K 1204-57(2005)2 courses for participants from the South has given rise to a book that aims to better equip human 013 Operationalising the rights agenda: rights workers, teachers, lawyers, civil servants, participatory rights assessment in Peru and community leaders, students and academics. It Malawi aims to prepare them to address specific cases of BLACKBURN, JAMES; BROCKLESBY, MARY gender inequality in their own countries, promote ANN; CRAWFORD, SHEENA; HOLLAND, respect for the human rights of women locally, JEREMY. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 91-99 and contribute to women’s empowerment by ISSN 0265-5012 making more effective use of existing inter- The Department for International Development national standards. An introduction to the inter- (DFID) carried out a Participatory Rights national instruments that deal with the human Assessment Methodologies (PRAMs) project in rights of women specifically examines the Malawi and Peru examining the challenges African experience in trying to implement them. facing donor agencies as they seek to Beginning with an explanation of the place of operationalize a stated commitment to rights- gender in modern international human rights law, based development. The experiences of assessing successive chapters examine each of the inter- rights in practice draw attention to how rights national human rights covenants and conventions, are defined in particular contexts and how the the United Nations context, and the humanitarian effectiveness of rights in a particular context is law. The European human rights system is one mediated by existing power structures, which among several regional systems. The focus is on may be slow to change. A focus on participatory the African system for the protection of human rights-based assessment ties in with the growing rights, as it now stands, and certain specific trend towards participation in development topics, including Muslim women’s rights, poly- processes, with its emphasis on institutional gamy, female genital mutilation, women engagement and change and on local ownership. prisoners. The roles that NGOs and women’s Through a more specific rights and entitlements movements play today in the promotion of human analytical framework, however, a participatory rights in Africa are also described. rights assessment approach politicizes analysis, KIT Library shelf code P 02-775 highlighting power relations and processes of exclusion and discrimination. Participatory 012 The International Covenant on Economic, rights assessments have the potential to identify Social and Cultural Rights as a tool for combating both the institutional structures and the political discrimination against women: general processes that define the channels through which g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t observations and a case study on Algeria citizens can contest their claims. The lessons BENNOUNE, KARIMA. International Social learned from DFID’s PRAMs initiative highlight Science Journal 57(2005)2, p. 351-369 both the potential of rights to address the ISSN 0020-8701 structural causes of marginalization, and also the The International Covenant on Economic Social complexity of implementing rights-based and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) provides a tool for approaches. combating discrimination against women. Is the KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 Covenant suited for this task? How has the related jurisprudence been developed to this 014 Voices of African women: women’s rights in end? From a gender perspective, what are some Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania of the flaws both in the text and in its application, BOND, JOHANNA. Carolina Academic Press, and how might these be overcome? How can the Durham, NC, 2005, 421 p. ISBN 0-89089-124-9 Covenant best be deployed to complement key There are few works such as these from Ghana, women’s human rights documents like the Uganda and Tanzania about women’s human Women’s Convention and the Beijing Declaration rights within Africa, actually written by African and Platform for Action? These questions are women lawyers and human rights activists. Some explored in general and specifically through the strategies are transferable across borders and 116 prism of a case study on Algeria. An effective will interest like-minded activists in other countries. Many of the essays include broader scholarship takes place in isolation from women’s theoretical questions, such as the role of judicial movements and politics. Differences in activism in the quest for social justice. Despite perspective and political position between the range of topics and strategies, however, the women in the North and the South are elaborated. authors share a steadfast commitment to gender KIT Library shelf code P 02-2296 equality. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of women in the three countries mentioned. They 017 Rights-based development: a guide to describe the challenges they face in implement- implementation ing international human rights norms at the local BROCKLESBY, MARY ANN; CRAWFORD, and national levels. In sharing their expertise SHEENA. 2005, 81 p. they contribute to the global effort to promote Filling a need in current operational development and protect women’s human rights. practices, practical advice indicates how to KIT Library shelf code P 05-676 embed rights issues within policy processes and working practices, and how to reflect system- 015 Is the rights focus the right focus? atically on the processes involved. The guide Nicaraguan responses to the rights agenda provides support for development practitioners BRADSHAW, SARAH. Third World Quarterly working towards the Millennium Development 27(2006)7, p. 1329-1341 ISSN 0143-6597 Goals, and illustrations from examples of recent What are the different meanings, perceived practice show steps towards realization of the usefulness and limitations of a rights based goals. Suggestions are drawn from experience at approach to promote women’s demands and unify all stages of the policy and programme cycles, women’s actions in pursuit of these demands? from across a wide range of sectors, and include Women’s organizations have used rights to cross-cutting themes like age, gender, health mobilize and promote change in Nicaragua. status and sexuality. Lessons learnt from work to Research into them uses semi-structured inter- date in building policy and implementing views conducted with representatives of women’s programmes that support poor people in groups and key actors in the national women’s achieving their rights are shared. The focus is on movements in 2005. Many groups using the rights providing a tool to increase understanding and discourse find it useful for furthering collective capacities for rights-based development. The aims. However, the notion of ‘rights based approaches and suggested methods can support development’ is not widely understood within staff and encourage a wider range of women’s movements and, when recognized, is stakeholders to work for rights-based seen to be part of the donor agenda. This has development. implications for women’s actions for change, http://www.equalinrights.org/file.html?id=1577 bringing up questions as to the repackaging of (accessed January 2008) gender as rights and raising concerns about the ability of a rights focus alone to challenge 018 The BIAS FREE framework: a practical tool unequal power relations. for identifying and eliminating social biases in KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 health research BURKE, MARY ANNE; EICHLER, MARGRIT. 016 Common ground or mutual exclusion: Global Forum Health, 2006, 64 p. women’s movements and international relations ISBN 2-940286-43-4 BRAIG, M.; WÖLTE, S. (eds). Zed Books, London, This volume provides students, researchers and 2002, 156 p. ISBN 1-84277-159-0 policy makers with a new user-friendly rights- annotated bibliography Contributors from North and South, including based tool for identifying and eliminating biases feminist academics and activists as well as deriving from social hierarchies in their work. mainstream scholars of international relations Cutting a swathe through the layers of tools explore the concrete impact women have made in researchers and policy-makers have had to apply areas like development theory and practice, in the past to avoid sexism, racism, ableism, conflict management, and the conceptualization classism, casteism, ageism and endless other and politics of human rights. They also reflect on ‘isms’ in their work, the BIAS FREE Framework how far the traditionally male-defined discipline is offered as an integrative approach to explore of international relations has taken on board and remove the compounding layers of bias that feminist thinking and now includes a recognition derive from any social hierarchy. BIAS FREE of women as actors in international politics. The stands for Building an Integrative Analytical issue of an intellectual relationship between System for Recognizing and Eliminating in- feminism and mainstream scholarship is opened equities. The acronym is the statement of a goal. up, and the degree to which today’s feminist The theoretical underpinnings of the BIAS FREE 117  Framework and the roots of discrimination – gender analysis of rights can add power to a the logic of domination – common to all ‘isms of claim to frame it in terms of a right, which may domination’ are laid out. Understanding this be accepted in principle but ignored in fact. basic conceptual interconnection among all Through taking action to solve problems, people systems of oppression is the key to unlocking gain confidence and consciousness of themselves them. The focus of the volume is the application as the subjects of rights. Recognizing when and of the BIAS FREE framework for understanding how to use rights in a social change strategy is an how biases that derive from social hierarchies important part of a rights-based approach. manifest in health research. The BIAS FREE However, perhaps the most significant framework is applicable not just to research, but accomplishment of the global movement is the also to legislation, policies, programmes and new consciousness about rights that is reaching practices. It is also transferable to any policy women everywhere. sector, not just health, and speaks to the needs KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 of high- and low-income countries alike. It is an essential tool for getting at the roots of social 021 Where is the money for women’s rights? inequalities and effecting real social change. Assessing resources and the role of donors in the http://www.globalforumhealth.org/filesupld/Bias%20 promotion of women’s rights and the support of free/The%20BIAS%20FREE_FullText.pdf (accessed women’s organizations January 2008) CLARK, CINDY; SPRENGER, ELLEN; VENEKLASEN, LISA; DURAN, LYDIA 019 Claiming rights, claiming justice: a ALPIZAR; KERR, JOANNA. Association for guidebook on women human rights defenders Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Toronto, 2006, 153 p. Development (APWLD), Chiang Mai, 2007, 168 p. Ongoing action research launched by the ISBN 978-974-7348-92-7 Association for Women’s Rights in Development Women human rights defenders face specific (AWID) provides insight into possible strategies risks, violations and constraints in their work. for changing existing funding landscapes, so that Naming these issues enables a practical more resources are made available to women’s discussion of the useful mechanisms developed rights organizations. The aim of the research was by the state and civil society to provide redress to understand better the limitations and levers and remedy, and to protect women human rights for strengthening financial support for women’s defenders. It is intended to be used by human rights organizations and movements in and of rights and other organizations to further a gender themselves. The findings are based on over perspective in the monitoring and documentation eighty face-to-face interviews with donor of human rights. The guidebook was produced in organizations and women’s groups, three inter- close collaboration with individuals and national consultations, an extensive online survey organizations who have participated in the with women’s groups worldwide and a comprehen- international campaign on women human rights sive review of secondary literature. There are defenders since 2005. clear indications that while public awareness of http://www.apwld.org/pdf/book3NeoWithCover.pdf women’s rights violations internationally may g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t (accessed January 2008) have increased, funding for women’s organizations to guarantee those rights has not. 020 Living rights: reflections from women’s Many groups are in a state of survival and movements about gender and rights in practice resistance and trying to adjust to the new CLARK, CINDY; REILLY, MOLLY; WHEELER, funding landscape, particularly as a result of JOANNA. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 76-81 shifts in development assistance and cutbacks by ISSN 0265-5012 the large independent foundations. The survival The experiences of the women’s human rights of many women’s organizations doing critical movement over the last three decades indicate work to guarantee and protect the rights of some of the main contributions that a gendered women on the ground is at stake. approach can make to understanding how rights http://www.awid.org/publications/where_is_money/web_ can be used in practice to address exclusion and book.pdf (accessed January 2008) marginalization. The examples show that a gender analysis of rights can show how rights are 022 Taking stock II: Rights based approach 2004 experienced, have meaning, and are mediated by COHEN, DAVID. ActionAid International, power relations. They also demonstrate the Johannesburg, 2004, 33 p. potential of rights to be part of a wider process of ActionAid has evolved over time from a relief 118 pro-poor change. In some circumstances, a and service-based organization into a development organization with a rights based bring progressive change within a specific approach as a normative policy. Implementation context. The impact of local and trans-national of the rights based approach within the CoSOs on gender in conflict and gender rights organization is reviewed. Steps are suggested violations is described. Hypotheses indicate that ActionAid International should take in the which type, in which particular time and place next five years to further advance in major ways and with which particular actions a CoSO can the rights based approach, in the framework of favour progressive gender change, turning fighting poverty. conflict into a catalyst for equality and social http://www.actionaid.org/assets/pdf%5CAAI%20Rights justice. %20Based%20Approach.pdf (accessed January 2008) http://www.luiss.it/shur/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/ shurwp04-07.pdf (accessed January 2008) 023 Human rights of women: national and international perspectives 025 The politics of rights: dilemmas for feminist COOK, REBECCA J. (ed.). University of praxis Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1994, 634 p. CORNWALL, ANDREA; MOLYNEUX, MAXINE ISBN 0-8122-1538-9 (eds). Routledge, London, 2007, 192 p. How could the Convention on the Elimination of ISBN 0-41545-906-8 All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and Since the late 1990s, development institutions the supporting provisions and institutions of have increasingly used the language of rights in international human rights law become an their policy and practice. This special issue on effective instrument in the quest for women’s feminist perspectives on politics of rights equality, protection, and individual dignity? explores the strategies, tensions and challenges Analysis indicates how international human associated with ‘rights work’ in a variety of rights law applies specifically to women in settings. Articles on the Middle East, Africa, various cultures worldwide, and suggests Latin America, East and South Asia explore the strategies to promote equitable application of dilemmas that arise for feminist praxis in these human rights law at international, regional, and diverse locations, and address the question of domestic levels. Reports and case studies from what rights can contribute to struggles for various regions in the world (Africa, Latin gender justice. Exploring the intersection of America, South Asia, India, Sudan, Ghana, formal rights – whether international human Canada, and Colombia) are combined with rights conventions, constitutional rights or scholarly assessments of various aspects of national legislation – with the everyday realities international law as these rights specifically of women in settings characterized by apply to women. International human rights law, entrenched gender inequalities and poverty, feminist studies, family law, political science, plural legal systems and cultural norms that can third world studies, jurisprudence, and constitute formidable obstacles to realizing philosophy present multiple and overlapping rights. The contributors suggest that these sites agendas. of struggle can create new possibilities and KIT Library shelf code P 04-2451 meanings – and a politics of rights animated by demands for social and gender justice. 024 Conflict society and human rights: a gender See: http://www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp? analysis id=1001 COPPER, DIANA. SHUR Working Paper Series 04/07. 2007, 12 p. 025a The politics of rights: dilemmas for feminist annotated bibliography Civil society organizations (CSOs) in conflict- praxis. An introduction ridden societies (CoSOs) are analysed in depth CORNWALL, ANDREA; MOLYNEUX, MAXINE. from a gender perspective. Gender is mapped out Third World Quarterly 27(2006)7, p. 1175-1191 according to the classification of civil society ISSN 0143-6597 organizations and the roles these organizations The globalization of rights and the appearance of fulfill within conflict situations that are relevant rights-based development as a policy instrument to this study’s scope of analysis. A complex have proceeded in tandem over recent years, relationship exists between gender and CSO offering women’s advocates the potential to seek types. The relationship between gender, CoSOs improvements in women’s status and entitle- and human rights is explored, juxtaposing gender ments. The increasing visibility of women in to structure, identity, the framework of action public life and the pluralization of opportunities and political and opportunity structure of CoSOs for women’s political participation, however, is no to understand how CoSOs may fuel, prevent and guarantee of support for women’s rights. It is contribute to the redressing of gender rights and precisely in relation to gender-specific issues 119  such as sexual and reproductive rights that development has certain implications, and feminism has met unprecedented challenges, proponents of other approaches point out some of including from women themselves. Old dilemmas the dilemmas, such as sustainable livelihoods. and divides among women have been exacer- A provisional history of rights-based approaches bated by these fractures, requiring feminists to to development gives rise to reflections on how navigate new political terrains and confront new and why rights have become an issue at this hazards. The dilemmas that the politics of rights particular time. The historical discussion pose for feminist practice in a diversity of sites juxtaposes current usage of rights language in and settings frame differences that are com- development with talk of rights in other times, pounded by harsh political realities surrounding such as in anti-colonial struggles in the 1950s and efforts to advance women’s rights. 1960s, and the Movement for a New International KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 Economic Order in the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Definitions and distinctions used in the 026 Why rights, why now? Reflections on the rise discourses of a range of international develop- of rights in international development discourse. ment agencies enable an exploration of what a CORNWALL, A.; NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C. IDS rights-based approach means to them and what it Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 9-18 ISSN 0265-5012 might consist of in practice. A summary indicates Why have rights now come into favour with the key elements and differences in approaches to international agencies, and what are some of the linking human rights and development and a brief implications of the shift to thinking and talking discussion of the shortcomings that emerge about rights for the politics and practice of across the board in contemporary international development? Normative, pragmatic and ethical development agencies’ talk and practice around justifications for ‘rights-based approaches’ to rights-based approaches to development. development are outlined. Certain implications KIT Library shelf code E 2401-25(2004)8 flow from treating rights as a normative frame- work for development. Proponents of other 028 Gender and the politics of rights and approaches point out some of the dilemmas, such democracy in Latin America as sustainable livelihoods. The current usage of CRASKE, NIKKI; MOLYNEUX, MAXINE. rights language in development is compared to Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2002, 226 p. talk of rights in other times, such as at the time ISBN 0-333-94948 of anti-colonial struggles in the 1950s and 1960s This volume addresses the question of why issues and the movement for a new International of rights and democracy have become so central Economic Order. Reflections on the challenges to women’s movements in post-transition Latin and prospects of rights for the politics and America. Women’s movements moved from being practice of development are articulated, an oppositional force to one forging new including that however it is operationalized, a strategies to promote gender justice. Nine ‘rights-based approach’ would mean little if it has contributions cover a range of countries and no potential to achieve a positive transformation political contexts, analysing specific bodies of of power relations among the various development rights and campaigns for legal reform. These actors. Thus, however any agency articulates its include rights of political representation in g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t vision for a ‘rights-based approach’, it must be Venezuela, legal literacy in Brazil, reproductive interrogated for the extent to which it enables rights in Chile, socioeconomic rights, rights and those whose lives are affected the most to ethnicity in the Andes, labour rights and rights to articulate their priorities and claim genuine protection against domestic violence in Uruguay. accountability from development agencies, and KIT Library shelf code P 01-2713 also, the extent to which the agencies become crucially self-aware and address inherent power 029 Definitions of rights based approach to inequalities in their interaction with those people. development: by perspective KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 August 2003, 11 p. A compendium of rights-based approaches 027 Putting the ‘rights-based approach’ to representing the perspectives of various development into perspective European development organizations and CORNWALL, A.; NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C. Third governments, United Nations organizations, and World Quarterly 25(2004)8, p. 1415-1437 NGOs. ISSN 0143-6597 http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ There are different rationales and justifications Interaction_analysis_RBA_definitions.pdf (accessed for rights-based approaches to development. January 2008) 120 Treating rights as a normative framework for 030 Development effectiveness in practice: 032 ‘We are also human’: identity and power in applying the Paris Declaration to advancing gender relations. Paper submitted to the gender equality, environmental sustainability and conference ‘The winners and losers from rights human rights. Concept note for the Dublin based approaches to development’, University of Workshop, 26-27 April 2007 Manchester, 21-22 February, 2005 DCD/DAC/EFF (2007)1. Organisation for DRINKWATER, MICHAEL. 2005, 13 p. Economic Co-operation and Development A rights-based approach (RBA) to development (OECD), Paris, 2007, 6 p. can address the more pervasive factors that This concept note outlines the background, perpetuate gender inequality. Until men accept rationale and focus of the Dublin Workshop (26-27 women as equally human, attempts to promote April). It was prepared by a Workshop Steering the empowerment of women will necessarily Group composed of Members from the DAC always be limited in their scope and longevity. Networks on Gender Equality, Environment, CARE International has adopted a kind of RBA, Governance, the Working Party on Aid namely a relational approach to rights that sees Effectiveness and the Secretariat. all people as moral beings who possess equal http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/16/38408110.pdf rights and responsibilities, to improve the (accessed January 2008) situation of women and their families. Illustrations of this approach by CARE 031 Gender and human rights in the International draw on analytic and programmatic Commonwealth: some critical issues for action in work undertaken on gender equity issues in a the decade 2005-2015 range of African and Asian cultural contexts. The DODHIA, DINESHI; JOHNSON, TINA. The focus is on attitudes and ways of thinking of men Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2004, 312 p. and women, the use of male power in gender ISBN 0-85092-808-7 relations, how men perceive themselves, and how The purpose of this book is to contribute to their identities are influenced by and influence current policy making, programme planning and social structures. The final section summarizes the implementation of gender and human rights. It some lessons learned from CARE’s experience so is intended for a wide audience of policy makers, far about the kinds of approaches that are needed magistrates, judges and lawyers, academics and to address the deep-rooted cultural causes of civil society organizations grappling with these gender inequality. issues. It is also intended as a conceptual and http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/ policy-oriented resource for those committed to conferences/documents/Winners%20and%20Losers%20 implementing and supporting the human rights Papers/Drinkwater.pdf (accessed January 2008) goals of the new Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015. The papers 033 Globalization and human rights as gendered address a wide range of gender and human rights ideologies: a case study from Northeast Thailand issues, including the convention on the EARTH, BARBARA. Gender, Technology and Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Development 9(2005)1, p. 103-123 ISSN 0971-8524 against Women (CEDAW), gender-based violence, Isan, Northeastern Thailand, serves as a case culture and the law, indigenous peoples, study on how Western liberal philosophy trafficking and migration, land and property constructs both globalization and human rights as rights, diversity, and a life-cycle approach to gendered development discourses. The case gender and human rights. The book brings focuses on a pulp mill and its effects on the together the papers commissioned for a Pan- surrounding community. It highlights the annotated bibliography Commonwealth Expert Group Meeting on Gender competing human rights claims of Isan women. and Human Rights which took place at the Isan women and men are similarly affected by Commonwealth Secretariat, London in February globalization and its impacts on land rights, 2004. Together with other key background livelihoods, the environment, public health and papers, they represent much of the analysis and Isan culture. In Isan’s traditional bilateral experience of Commonwealth member countries culture, women inherit land while men hold legal that informed the development of the Human authority. In the context of industrialization, new Rights section of the new Commonwealth Plan of household employment scenarios emerge that Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015. erode women’s traditional equality in the public See: http://publications.thecommonwealth.org/gender- sphere and worsen their position in the private and-human-rights-in-the-commonwealth-355-p.aspx sphere. At the same time, the environmental (accessed January 2008) rights movement has been led by men, resulting in their increased visibility and an under- articulation of women’s issues. The gendering of 121  liberalism requires that women claim their unique that agencies have appropriated the ‘rights’ location with respect to environmental rights as language without changing their underlying well as expand their legal claims and protections beliefs; (3) Rights-based approaches are to the private sphere. It is for women’s groups challenging. They reveal difficult issues themselves to articulate how their particular concerning the legitimacy of action, the practice location differs from that of the men and to claim of power and lines of accountability; (4) The full their rights in both public and private spheres. implications of putting a rights-based approach KIT Library shelf code H 2516-9(2005)1 into practice remain to be tested. Priorities for development agencies in their relations with 034 Donors, rights-based approaches and government and civil society in aid recipient implications for global citizenship: a case study countries have been identified. from Peru http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/briefs/Pb17.pdf EYBEN, R. In: Inclusive citizenship: meanings (accessed January 2008) and expressions ed. by Naila Kabeer. Zed Books, London, 2004, p. 251-268 ISBN 1-84277-549-9 036 Can donors be more accountable to poor How far can foreign governments go in support- people? ing the realization of the rights of citizens of EYBEN, R.; FERGUSON, C. In: Inclusive aid: other countries? The country programmes of changing power and relationships in international most bilateral aid agencies hesitate to move from development ed. by Leslie Groves and Rachel declaration to implementation of rights-based Hinton. Earthscan, London, 2004, p. 163–180. approaches. Nevertheless, innovation and enter- ISBN 1844070328 prise flourish on the margins of the mainstream. Rights-based accountability involves It is here we must look for efforts to put transparency and responsiveness. It includes the declarations into practice. Various challenges and active involvement of stakeholders in defining an risks face a foreign aid agency when it seeks to institution’s responsibilities and monitoring the do so, as shown in interviews with the staff fulfillment of those responsibilities. There are concerned, and four examples from a broader five categories of institution or persons to which range of efforts. The Peru office of the UK bilateral aid agencies in particular should be Department for International Development is a accountable: taxpayers in the donor country; small country office on the periphery of a large government in the donor country; government in bilateral international aid programme. The case the recipient country; poor people in the study shows that the Peru team consistently recipient country; and the international human takes a rights-based approach and the team’s rights framework. In this context, the character- effort reveals difficult issues concerning the istics of donor accountability are identified. The legitimacy of action: the practice of power and promotion of ‘good governance’ and respon- lines of accountability. Illustrating these sibility towards recipient governments through dilemmas and challenges may help development partnerships has become a fundamental part of agencies contribute to an inclusive world order donor assistance. Donor agency staff need to based on transnational notions of rights and map out lines of accountability and facilitate social justice. alliances between stakeholders. Donor govern- g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t KIT Library shelf code P 05-680 ments must hold a vision of accountability as central to all of their work, procedures, and 035 The rise of rights: rights-based approaches to relationships. Donor governments must persuade international development their own citizens to hold them accountable for EYBEN, R. IDS Policy Briefing 17. Institute of aid programmes. Donors can avoid imposing Development Studies (IDS), Brighton, 2003, 4 p. conditionality by supporting the strengthening of International development agencies increasingly formal democratic machinery, rather than use rights-based language. But how can their funding civil society to increase state policy and practice support people’s own efforts accountability. to turn their rights into reality? Four major KIT Library shelf code N 04-1007 issues are that: (1) Some people believe these new rights-based approaches offer the potential 037 The human rights-based approach to for a fundamental and positive change for development: the right to water international development agency relations with FILMER-WILSON, EMILIE. Netherlands governments and civil society in aid recipient Quarterly of Human Rights 23(2005)2, p. 213-241 countries, while others remain puzzled as to their ISSN 0169-3441 relevance for achieving the Millennium The human rights-based approach to 122 Development Goals; (2) Some observers suspect development (RBA) puts human rights at the heart of human development. It sets the 039 Aid effectiveness and human rights: achievement of human rights obligations as an strengthening the implementation of the Paris objective of development aid and integrates Declaration human rights principles into the development FORESTI, MARTA; BOOTH, DAVID; O’NEIL, process. Based on the experience of development TAMMIE. Overseas Development Institute agencies and using the right to water as an (ODI), London, 2006, 76 p. example, this article identifies the practical This publication is based on a project implications and added value of the RBA. The commissioned by the OECD-DAC Network on RBA establishes the obligations of States to Governance (GOVNET) exploring the possible ensure that basic water needs are met and that synergies between human rights and the aid communities are empowered to claim their right: effectiveness agenda set out in the Paris it identifies and addresses the root causes for Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (PD). The lack of access to water, and places people at the overall purpose of the project was to contribute centre of the development process. Translating to developing a human rights perspective on aid this complex approach into practice is effectiveness, with the objective of progressively challenging. Yet taking the extra steps to adopt contributing to: (1) effective implementation of the RBA will improve overall impact and the PD; (2) continuing evolution of aid sustainability of development aid. effectiveness thinking; and (3) OECD-DAC future http://www.undg.org/archive_docs/6136-The_Human_ strategies and policies in these two fields. More Rights_Based_Approach_to_Development__the_Right_ generally, the project aimed to instigate a to_Water.pdf (accessed January 2008) process of structured reflection and innovative dialogue on the potential for positive interaction 038 Finland and the human rights-based approach between different important lines of develop- to development: final report ment thinking – by the respective expert Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Helsinki, communities – which have so far evolved 2006, 47 p. separately. A framework paper and five think The purpose of the study is to support pieces analyse the specific practical contribution implementation of the new development policy that human rights thinking and practice can and to review and analyse what implications the bring to each of the partnership commitments of rights-based approach has for Finnish the PD: ownership, harmonization, alignment, development cooperation. The study involves two managing for results, and mutual accountability. case studies in Nicaragua and Ethiopia. The http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/24/38284443.pdf overall conceptual finding is that the human (accessed January 2008) rights-based approach to development does not just entail taking the ‘realization of the rights of 040 Challenges in the implementation of women’s the individual as defined by international human human rights: field perspectives on domestic rights instruments’ as a ‘starting point’, but also violence and HIV/AIDS. Paper presented at The making crucial conceptual shifts in development. winners and losers from rights-based approaches In both Nicaragua and Ethiopia, processes were to development neither iterative nor based on assessments, FORTI, SARAH. 2005, 26 p. analyses and actions linked to specific human Research in Uganda studies the linkages between rights. Development should deliberately comply Women’s Human Rights, Domestic Violence and and advance human rights principles. This HIV/AIDS from a socio-legal and anthropological requires that strategies, methodologies, and perspective. The study scope is to critically annotated bibliography styles of development work are based on and assess the ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ judicial advance human rights principles. There is institutions and bodies that are accessed by enough in the country’s development and human women living in poor urban neighbourhoods to rights policies to make its development resolve conflicts related to domestic violence. cooperation demonstrably human rights-based. This paper shows the complexities related to the Another key finding is that the human rights- implementation of women’s human rights with based approach insists on the performance of regard to substantive legal issues and to duties at all levels of society, and therefore structural challenges. The first chapter focuses effective decentralization is central to the on key and fundamental violations of Women’s realization of well-being through this approach. Human Rights in two intrinsically related http://www.ramboll-finnconsult.fi/images/hrb_study_ categories, namely violations related to women’s report.pdf (accessed January 2008) right to dignity and violations related to women’s socio-economic rights. The next chapter provides an analysis of development in National 123  Legislation in relation to the key women’s human level in Latin America. One particularly dynamic rights issues discussed in chapter 1. Chapter 3 – and fraught – arena of rights at the trans- assesses the structural challenges related to the national level is that of gender rights, including poor access to one ‘formal’ institution by the women’s rights and sexual and reproductive poorest section of the population in relation to rights. The paper examines four types of gender women’s human rights abuses. It also highlights rights in the region: political quotas for women, the ‘informal’ institutions that are currently ending domestic violence, reproductive rights, accessed. The paper concludes with questions for particularly abortion, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, further reflection and debate. transgender (LGBT) or queer rights. It concludes http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/ with speculation as to why the effects of the conferences/documents/Winners%20and%20Losers%20 transnational have differed across the rights Papers/Forti.pdf (accessed January 2008) types. See: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p74343_ 041 Frequently asked questions on a human index.html (accessed January 2008) rights-based approach to development cooperation 043 Gendering the agenda: the impact of the UN, Office of the High Commissioner of Human transnational women’s rights movement at the Rights, New York, NY, Geneva, 2006, 50 p. UN conferences of the 1990s United Nations (UN) agencies have gone a FRIEDMAN, ELISABETH. Women’s Studies considerable way towards overcoming the International Forum 26(2003)4, p. 313-331 congruence between human rights and develop- ISSN 0277-5395 ment theory, partly by defining a common under- In 1995, over 30,000 women’s rights advocates standing of a human rights-based approach to attended the United Nations (UN) Fourth World development cooperation. Yet there remains a Conference on Women, making a substantial chasm between theory and practice, preventing difference to conference outcomes. However, objectives, policies and processes of develop- advocates’ achievements at their ‘own’ ment being channelled more directly and conference was not the central gain of the 1990s. effectively towards human rights goals. There It was their success in gendering the agenda of are, of course, many reasons why this is so, other global conferences of the 1990s: main- including continuing gaps in knowledge and streaming gender analysis into areas considered skills, and difficulties in translating human rights ‘gender-neutral’ and prioritizing women’s rights norms into concrete programming guidance as integral to conference goals. A theoretical applicable in diverse policy contexts and national framework for the emergence and development circumstances. This is the principal gap that this of transnational social movements is offered, the publication aims to fill, with UN development women’s rights advocates’ particular interest in practitioners as the primary audience. The transnational organization is explained and their publication aims to advance a shared under- objective described. The historical emergence of standing about how the goals of human rights and transnational women’s rights organization is development can be achieved through more examined, in particular its recent history during effective development cooperation, within wider the UN Decade for Women. An analysis is made g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t strategies and coalitions for change. The valuable of how the movement developed over the course contributions to this publication by UN develop- of the 1990s through the UN conference ment partners are testimony to the kind of processes, with particular attention to how it collaboration that should be further encouraged. ‘gendered the agenda’ of conferences that were http://www.hurilink.org/tools/FAQon_HRBA_to_ not focused on women’s rights. The organized Development—OHCHR.pdf (accessed January 2008) backlash encountered by the movement is also http://www.equalinrights.org/file.html?id=840 (accessed analysed, as is the challenge that women’s rights January 2008) advocacy presents to a globalizing world. KIT Library shelf code H 2452-26(2003)4 042 Gender rights in Latin America: following, transforming, leading and lagging the 044 The Africa Women’s Protocol: a new transnational. Paper presented at the annual dimension for women’s rights in Africa meeting of the International Studies Association, GAWAYA, ROSE; MUKASA, ROSEMARY Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2006 SEMAFUMU. Gender and Development FRIEDMAN, ELISABETH. 2006 13(2005)3, p. 42-50 ISSN 1355-2074 This paper queries the extent to which trans- The development and agreement of the African national norms and institutions are influencing Women’s Protocol was adopted by the African 124 rights claims and rights legislation at the national Head of State in 2003. This article considers the experience of Oxfam GB in supporting the increased emphasis on the importance of a development and ratification of the Protocol. The rights-based approach to planning. This paper authors make particular reference to the provides a guide to the international human southern African countries of Mozambique, rights framework, and discusses the challenges South Africa, and Zambia. Advocacy activities that integration poses when trying to achieve linked to the African Women’s Protocol suggest gender equality. It surveys international human that it is a potential force for positive change, rights law at all levels and considers gender- despite its imperfections. The Protocol specific norms and standards, concentrating on legitimizes the struggles for gender equality and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of the promotion and protection of women’s rights Discrimination against Women. The scope and as an African struggle. If properly harnessed, it application of human rights are discussed, can serve as an effective tool to be used by including the identification of rights-holders and African women, to support their empowerment. duty-holders and States’ obligations as a result of This is an issue of fundamental human rights. In human rights provisions. Also considered are: the addition, empowering African women, who make role of civil society; challenges to a rights-based up more than half of the continent’s population, approach to gender equality, including the impact will have a positive multiplier effect, which will of the public/private divide and competing rights; eventually produce happier, healthier, wealthier, and the role of multilateral and bilateral bodies in and more harmonious families and societies. realizing human rights at national level. Key KIT Library shelf code D 3030-13(2005)3 elements inherent in a rights-based approach are set out. 045 Accessing economic and social rights under http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/news/rights.htm neoliberalism: gender and rights in Chile (accessed January 2008) GIDEON, JASMINE. Third World Quarterly 27(2006)7, p. 1269-1283 ISSN 0143-6597 047 Reinventing development? Translating The International Covenant on Economic, Social rights-based approaches from theory into and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) provides an practice important framework within which it is possible GREADY, PAUL; ENSOR, JONATHAN. Zed to consider rights-based approaches to develop- Books, London, 2005, 314 p. ISBN 1-84277-649-5 ment, particularly from a gender perspective. This volume aims to contribute to a small but The first part of the paper provides an overview growing body of work that attempts to identify of the ICESCR and outlines the processes of what difference a rights-based approach makes operationalizing rights as set out in the covenant. in practice. What is the ‘value-added by a rights- It also briefly examines feminist critiques of the based approach? How does a rights-based ICESCR. The second part of the paper highlights approach alter development work and some of the ways in which groups of women programming? What possibly new difficulties workers are being denied access to many rights and tensions are arising? Secondly, the collection within the ICESCR, particularly the right to aims to make a contribution to a greater common health. Chile is an ideal case study, since it is understanding of a rights-based approach. Top- often considered as the ‘neoliberal success story’ down attempts to formulate policy coherence in and provides a model for welfare provision relation to rights-based approaches have made across Latin America. Finally, drawing on the some progress towards identifying common experiences of Chilean NGOs working in the themes, but have largely failed to convince health sector, the analysis considers how citizens sceptics that they go beyond repackaging annotated bibliography could use the ICESCR to claim their rights, given existing best development practice. While the limitations of participatory mechanisms in acknowledging the diversity of rights-based Chile. approaches and practice and seeking to explore KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 its implications, this collection aims to build a greater common understanding of its core 046 A rights-based approach to realising gender components, from the bottom up, based on equality insights provided by practitioners. It does this by GOONESEKERE, SAVITRI. UN Division for the detailing the experiences of practitioners in case Advancement of Women (DAW), 1998 studies of rights-based approaches in practice in In the past decade there has been a shift in how Africa (Rwanda, Uganda), Latin America (Brazil), women’s advancement is regarded. Women’s Asia (India, Nepal), and Europe (Ireland). In status – politically, socially, economically – and addition, three contemporary challenges facing their health are all now considered important the implementation of rights-based approaches ends in themselves. This shift coincides with are addressed: the implications of rights for 125  development in an era of neoliberalism and ‘good approaches to health. This has led to careful governance’; (2) the relationship between rights reflection on the numerous ways the term is and culture; and (3) aid politicization and the ‘war currently being used. As the articles against terror’, drawing on the case of demonstrate, rights-based approaches to health Afghanistan. The conclusion provides some are implemented all over the world, whether provisional answers and issues for an ongoing encompassing legal, advocacy or programmatic dialogue. efforts. These different ways of conceptualizing KIT Library shelf code P 05-2114 and pursuing rights-based approaches to health indicate areas in which further work is needed to 048 Diverting the flow: a resource guide to move the field of health and human rights in the gender, rights and water privatization direction of greater clarity. GROSSMAN, ANNA; JOHNSON, NADIA; KIT Library shelf code H 3188-9(2006)1; SIDHU, GRETCHEN (eds). Women’s H 3188-9(2006)2 Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), New York, NY, 2003, 12 p. 050 Rights and realities: limits to women’s rights ISBN 0-9746651-0-X and citizenship after 10 years of democracy in Water is a vital natural resource and human South Africa right. However, access to potable water is HAMES, MARY. Third World Quarterly 27(2006)7, becoming increasingly difficult. When water is p. 1313-1327 ISSN 0143-6597 scarce, polluted, or unaffordable, women suffer South Africa’s seemingly progressive legislation most acutely. As economic providers, caregivers, has been tried and tested over the past 10 years. and household managers, women are responsible Subsequent case law has been created and these for ensuring that their families have water for precedents have given women citizens the daily living. While much has been written on courage and opportunities to challenge legis- water privatization, there is a need to link this lation in the upper and lower courts, and to use discourse to the actual impact on women. This other legal mechanisms to improve their access publication is a resource guide for policy makers to justice. The contradictions between the liberal and human rights, environmental, and economic rights discourse and the lived experience of and gender justice advocates working on global many South African women form the central policy, to examine the impact that privatization of focus of the article. An account is given of the goods and services like water has on the liveli- policies and laws that were introduced in an hoods of women, particularly poor women. attempt to redress past inequalities. It is Section one presents extracts from a variety of examined how black women living in a peri- sources that highlight the critical issues related urban area of Cape Town understand, express to water privatization and women, including: and experience these rights and realities, water as a human right, public versus private drawing on insights from a series of workshops goods, gender roles and inequities, global policy that highlight the significance of issues of race, trends, and governance issues. Section two class and language. It is shown how difficult it presents different arenas for civic engagement. still is for many women to exercise or even This includes actions at the local level and entry understand their newly acquired liberal ‘rights’ g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t points for advocacy on privatization issues in as entrenched in the constitution and elsewhere. strategic global forums. Finally, a list of The majority of black women are more resources is provided for additional information. interested in ‘bread and butter’ issues. The gap http://www.wedo.org/files/divertingtheflow.pdf between the rights that exist and the everyday (accessed January 2008) realities of women point to an urgent need for systematically restructuring the architecture of 049 Rights-based approaches to health existing ‘women-sensitive’ laws so that these GRUSKIN, SOFIA (ed.). Health and Human interventions result in substantive equity, Rights 9(2006)1, 201 p. and 9(2006)2, 300 p. bringing meaningful change to ordinary women’s ISSN 1079-0969 lives. A large number of research-based papers KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 presented at the landmark 2005 conference on ‘Lessons learned from rights-based approaches to 051 The global women’s rights movement: power health’ is included in these 2 issues of Health and politics around the United Nations and the World Human Rights (2006). Contributions mirror the Social Forum current state of the field of health and human HARCOURT, WENDY. United Nations Research rights. They underscore the need for further Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), 126 clarification of what is meant by rights-based Geneva, 2006, 27 p. This paper examines the discourse, inputs and 053 Developing a human rights-based approach reorganization of strategies emanating from the to addressing maternal mortality: desk review lobbying of women’s rights movements vis-à-vis HAWKINS, KIRSTAN; NEWMAN, KAREN; global agencies like the United Nations, as well THOMAS, DEBORAH; CARLSON, CINDY. as the World Social Forum. The author sets out Department for International Development some key strategic questions for consideration: (DFID), London, 2005, 58 p. How much have women’s movements achieved The purpose of this desk review is to provide an by working in collaboration with the UN? Is there evidence-based assessment of the potential of a recognizable global women’s rights movement rights-based approaches for accelerating a as it is perceived on the UN stage? Is there such reduction in maternal mortality. In particular, it an entity as a global women’s movement, or is it aims to identify how a rights perspective can just a skilfully displayed mirage? The essay is a increase the focus on equity and thus improve contribution to these debates: about the role of health outcomes for poor women. The desk global agencies; their effects on the autonomy, review is a supporting document for the DFID legitimacy and representativeness of social guidance note entitled: ‘How to reduce maternal movements; and their local impacts and actual deaths: rights and responsibilities’. The How-to benefits for women around the globe. The author Note provides practical guidance for DFID seeks to answer the above-mentioned questions advisers and programme managers working on based on her experience as a feminist researcher maternal health. It is by necessity concise and a and activist involved in women’s rights issues, as starting point only. This desk review comple- well as through reference to the literature and ments the Note by providing more detailed ongoing debates. analysis, and additional case studies and KIT Library shelf code K 3087-(2006)25 references. Together, these documents are one of See: http://www.unrisd.org the priority outputs identified by DFID’s maternal health strategy document ‘Reducing 052 The implications of adopting rights-based maternal deaths: evidence and action’. The approaches for Northern NGOs: a preliminary argument developed in this review is that exploration carefully contextualized rights-based approaches HARRIS-CURTIS, EMMA. International NGO can add a critical impetus to existing means of Training and Research Centre (INTRAC), Oxford, reducing maternal mortality. This can be 2003, 104 p. achieved by enabling key policy actors in both Research was undertaken into the policy government and civil society to recognize and implications for adopting rights approaches for find ways of directly addressing the economic, Northern NGOs. Collaboration and constructive social, cultural and political forces that constrain criticism by peers were the vital components that poor women and their families in asserting their formed the basis of the research. Fifteen NGOs right to maternal health. Rights-based that comprise the INTRAC NGO research approaches require a multi-sectoral analysis and programme were the main stakeholders. It is response. This is to ensure that support can be found that by engaging in rights-based mobilized across health, education and other approaches, NGOs are flirting with a cacophony sectors for the changes required to prioritize of implications which no-one really understands. maternal health. This brings with it challenges In addition, by adopting rights approaches, related to prioritizing activities, and resource advocates are embracing a mixture of old and allocation and reallocation. new. The conclusion is that there is no one, single http://www.hurilink.org/tools/Developing_aHRBA_to_ annotated bibliography rights approach. Each NGO interviewed had a Maternal_Mortality—DFID.pdf (accessed January 2007) different interpretation. However, there also exists a basic principle behind rights approaches 054 Out of the margins: the MDGs through a that is common to all NGOs. NGOs need to CEDAW lens collaborate more. They need to look to academia HAYES, CERI. Gender and Development and other NGOs, not as rivals, but as useful 13(2005)1, p. 67-78 ISSN 1355-2074 colleagues. By adopting rights approaches they This article examines the Millennium are making a huge decision about their Development Goals (MDGs) from a women’s engagement with the eradication of poverty. human rights perspective. It outlines some of the http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/I practical ways in which human rights principles, NTRAC_RBA_NGOs.doc (accessed January 2008) and the provisions set out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in particular, can be used to ensure that the MDGs are met in a way 127 that respects and promotes gender equality and women’s human rights. The article begins with a This is a report of a workshop held at the brief consideration of the challenges, Institute of Development Studies between 17-20 opportunities, and paradoxes presented by the November 2003. Rather than seeking to capture MDGs from a women’s human rights perspective. everything presented by resource persons and It then examines how the MDGs are positioned discussed by participants, it highlights some of within the broader human rights agenda. The the key issues that emerged from the workshop. final section focuses on CEDAW and the practical It especially focuses on the concerns raised by way in which the Convention can inform and participants with respect to the application of guide strategies for the implementation of the theory to practice by international development Goals to ensure that women and men benefit agencies. These relate to the various inter- equally from development gains. The article pretations of rights and citizenship and the highlights just a few of the practical ways in implications of the meaning given to these which human rights principles, and CEDAW in concepts for in practice. Implementing rights- particular, can guide national-level monitoring based approaches through the lens of power is and the processes required to meet the MDGs in still a relatively new idea and requires some a way that tackles the root causes of inequality serious analytical work. It also requires and discrimination against women. According to appreciating power as experience as well as the author, this is something that existing theory, including the emotions felt in situations of approaches fail to do. CEDAW does not have all powerlessness. Development organizations are the answers, but implementing these basic themselves powerful political actors who without provisions would go a long way towards ensuring sufficient reflection may undermine the very that the MDGs are met. rights that they are working to help poor people KIT Library shelf code D 3030-13(2005)1 realize. Because each organization varies in its mandate and comparative advantage there is no 055 Rights and power: the challenge for standard cook book for responding to these international development agencies challenges. Participants shared their experiences HUGHES, ALEXANDRA; WHEELER, JOANNA; so as to identify the different short term and EYBEN, ROSALIND. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, longer term strategies that may be appropriate, p. 63-72 ISSN 0265-5012 depending on the context of their work. Rights-based approaches are increasingly part of http://www.drc-citizenship.org/docs/publications/ the policy and practice of international drc_general/Report/r&pworkshopreportfinal.pdf development agencies, but the relationship (accessed January 2008) between rights and shifting power relations is still rarely addressed. In this article, the authors 057 Human rights and poverty reduction: a consider that rights-based approaches should conceptual framework inherently politicize development by challenging Office of the United Nations High Commissioner power structures, from policy and programme for Human Rights (OHCHR), Geneva, 2004, 46 p. levels to organizations and individuals and the A human rights approach to poverty reduction values, cultures and principles that underpin links poverty reduction to questions of obligation, them. This was the theme of a recent workshop rather than welfare or charity. It compels us to for donor representatives at the Institute of look behind national averages and identify the Development Studies on 23 November 2003. most vulnerable people, and design strategies to Participants explored meanings and expressions help them. A human rights approach is grounded of power and reflected on their significance for in the United Nations Charter, Universal their own individual and organizational Declaration of Human Rights, and binding behaviour as powerful development actors. The provisions of human rights treaties. It sharpens report discusses key issues emerging from the the moral basis of the work carried out by workshop and the challenges faced by staff economists and other policy makers, directing seeking to promote rights-based approaches in their attention to the most deprived and excluded, their organizations. especially those excluded by discrimination. It KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 describes how a political voice for all people and access to information are integral to develop- 056 Rights and power workshop: report ment. Informed and meaningful participation in HUGHES, ALEXANDRA; WHEELER, JOANNA; development is a matter of right rather than EYBEN, ROSALIND; SCOTT-VILLIERS, PATTA. privilege. The conceptual framework presents a Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton, clear vision of a human rights approach to 2004, 22 p. poverty reduction, a vision that explicitly encompasses accountability and empowering people as actors for their own development. have a negative impact on vulnerable groups in Chapter 1 explores the definition of poverty and different ways. Analysis should help to under- suggests that Amartya Sen’s ‘capability stand these causes and the linkages between the approach’ to poverty provides a conceptual various problems. A situation analysis makes it bridge between the discourses on poverty and possible to give relative weight to various human rights. Having established this conceptual problems, to understand how their interaction common ground, chapter 2 outlines the main affects communities and individuals and to features of a human rights approach to poverty arrive at a consensus on the causes and possible reduction. This includes empowerment and solutions. It may also help to understand the participation; recognition of the national and synergy, or its lack, between the legislative international human rights framework; process, the development of public policy and accountability; non-discrimination and equality; development choices that affect people directly and progressive realization. or indirectly. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ http://www.equalinrights.org/file.html?id=601 (accessed Broch_Ang.pdf (accessed January 2008) January 2008) 058 The human rights based approach to 060 A human rights based approach to development cooperation: towards a common programming for maternal mortality reduction in understanding among the UN agencies a South Asian context: a review of the literature 3 p. UNICEF Regional Office for Asia, Leknath Marg, United Nations (UN) interagency collaboration at 2003, 154 p. global and regional levels, and especially at the This literature review by the UNICEF Regional country level in relation to the Common Country Office for South Asia (ROSA) synthesizes Assessment (CCA) and the United Nations relevant information for applying a human Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) rights-based approach to programming to the processes, requires a common understanding of urgent task of reducing maternal mortality and the human rights-based approach to development morbidity. Information was gathered on maternal cooperation. An attempt is made to arrive at such mortality, especially in South Asia, and on the an understanding on the basis of those aspects of human rights-based approach to programming, the human rights-based approach that are particularly as applied within UNICEF. The common to the policy and practice of the UN literature chosen is by no means exhaustive, but bodies that participated in the Interagency aims to be sufficiently representative to make Workshop on a Human Rights-Based Approach in the review useful for the task and to be a the context of UN reform 3-5 May, 2003. This reference source for policy makers, programmers Statement of Common Understanding and advocates within South Asia. For those in specifically refers to a human rights-based other regions, where the reduction of maternal approach to the development cooperation and mortality and morbidity remains a priority, it development programming by UN agencies. provides an important resource to supplement http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/appeal global policy documents and programme /human_rights/UN_Common_understanding_RBA.pdf guidance. The resulting material is organized in (accessed January 2008) three sections of text according to the main themes, plus a fourth section of annexes. Section 059 A human rights based approach to 1 deals with the concept of ‘Human rights and development programming in UNDP: adding the development’ and attempts to reveal the range of annotated bibliography missing link possibilities to be tapped by applying the human United Nations Development Programme rights treaties. It examines the relationship of (UNDP), New York, NY, 2001, 25 p. the human rights-based approach to other Making a human rights-based approach to development approaches and the value to be development programming operational in the gained from this approach. Section 2 deals with United Nations Development Programme the ‘Challenge of maternal mortality in South (UNDP) is an evolving process. The continuing Asia’. The present situation is alarming, yet there cycle of assessment, analysis, planning and is considerable understanding of the causes of implementation requires constant adaptation and this appalling state. Even though the means to enhancement. UNDP’s programming process save women’s lives are known, there are offers ample opportunities for the application of numerous challenges to applying this knowledge. a human rights-based approach to development Each of these challenges is discussed in detail. In programming. The problems identified through Section 3, the knowledge gained on the human assessment have interconnecting causes that rights-based approach is applied to the particular 129  issue of the reduction of maternal mortality. It 063 Indicators for human based approaches to follows the process of assessment and analysis, development in UNDP programming: a users’ strategies and priority setting, through to guide monitoring and evaluation. A summary of the United Nations Development Programme findings is given in the conclusion. The (UNDP), New York, NY, 2006, 32 p. bibliography is the first of the annexes, followed This is a practically oriented guide on indicators by important material to supplement the text in for human rights-based approaches to the main chapters. development programmes for Country Offices http://www.unicef.org/rosa/HumanRights.pdf (accessed (Cos) of the United Nations Development January 2008) Programme (UNDP). The guide contains separate sections on different aspects relating to the 061 Human rights in developing countries: how development and use of indicators across the key can development cooperation contribute to elements of human rights programming. It furthering their advancement. International summarizes the normative evolution in human policy dialogue, September 2003 rights and explains how human rights have been This international policy dialogue was organized mainstreamed into the activities of all United by the Development Policy Forum/ InWEnt to Nations agencies. It also reviews the main provide a platform for the exchange of existing indicators for human rights and experience between leading ministerial officials, discusses their limitations for human rights- donor and consulting organizations, human rights based programming. Two hypothetical activists and media representatives from both programme examples on access to clean water industrial and developing countries. The goal was and the prevention of torture are used to show to contribute to the international debate on how how indicators can be used for human rights development cooperation can further human programming. Finally the guide offers advice on rights. The preface, summaries of discussions, how COs can use indicators for all phases of speeches, issue notes, and programme are programme design, implementation, monitoring, presented. A list of participants is included. and evaluation. http://www.inwent.org/ef-texte/human_rights/index.htm http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/HR_guides_ (accessed January 2008) HRBA_Indicators.pdf (accessed January 2008) 062 Integrating rights-based approaches into 064 The International Covenant on Economic, community-based health projects: experiences Social and Cultural Rights from the prevention of female genital cutting Facts and Issues. Women’s Rights and Economic project in East Africa Change 3. Association for Women’s Rights in IGRAS, SUSAN; MUTESHI, JACINTA; Development (AWID), Toronto, 2002, 8 p. WOLDEMARIAM, ASMELASH; ALI, SAIDA. The International Covenant on Economic, Social Care, 2002, 24 p. and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is the primary The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate international document enumerating economic, and discuss how reproductive health project staff social and cultural rights. In subsequent years, in Ethiopia and Kenya are working to develop a additional human rights treaties were drafted g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t rights-based approach that is community-based. recognizing different categories of rights and The study explains the participatory process that various vulnerable populations. An ideological staff took with communities to learn how rights split emerged in the context of Cold War politics, and responsibilities were defined by classifying civil and political rights separately communities themselves. It provides examples of from economic, social and cultural rights. The how staff planned and then actually used this ICESCR is an instrument of particular new knowledge in designing strategies and importance for gender advocates. The latter educational messages to help communities to confront the most pressing problems of the day, address issues related to rights and specifically transform needs into rights, provide legal to female genital cutting. Finally, it discusses accountability, help to build coalitions across lessons learned and questions raised by project borders and challenge global inequality. Women’s staff when taking an inductive approach to rights rights are inseparable from other human rights. in community-based health projects. Economic, social and cultural rights can make a http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ difference in development and the pursuit of integrating_rba_CARE_Ethiopia.pdf (accessed January justice. 2008) http://www.awid.org/publications/primers/factsissues3. pdf (accessed October 2007) 130 065 Integrating human rights into development: time, among a wide-range of sectors there is a donor approaches, experiences and challenges vast amount of experience in the use of rights Development Dimension Series 9. Organisation and rights like strategies (advocacy, empower- for Economic Co-operation and Development ment) to promote development objectives, with (OECD), Paris, 2006 169 p. ISBN 9264022090 little reflection on the use of rights (e.g. value- Growing recognition that there are crucial links added and methodologies) – lots of action and between rights violations, poverty, exclusion, little talk/reflection. This offers RBA advocates a environmental degradation, vulnerability and wealth of potential resources (not necessarily conflict has led many member countries of the presented as RBAs), but it requires much digging Organisation for Economic Co-operation and to find them. This paper is primarily concerned Development (OECD) and multilateral donors to with identifying these resources and those look at human rights more thoroughly as a means groups that have made the most progress for improving the quality of development specifically in terms of RBAs. It divides the cooperation. Some have adopted human rights- organizations working with rights and develop- based approaches to development, while others ment into two broad categories: the relatively have preferred to integrate human rights small number of advocacy groups working explicitly or implicitly into various dimensions of specifically with economic, social and cultural their development work, especially into their rights (ESCR); and the much larger set of governance agendas. This book seeks to enhance organizations working on development generally, understanding and consensus on why and how working with a specific social sector or working there is a need to work more strategically and on a particular development issue. coherently on the integration of human rights http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ and development. It reviews the approaches of RBA_Oxfam_CARE.pdf (accessed January 2008) different donor agencies and their rationales for working on human rights, and identifies the 067 Human rights-based approach to current practice in this field. It illustrates how development programming aid agencies work on human rights issues at the JONSSON, URBAN. UNICEF Eastern and programming level, and it draws together lessons Southern Africa Regional Office, April 2003, that form the core of current evidence of the 124 p. added value of human rights for development. This book describes a method for programming Lastly, it addresses both new opportunities and from a human rights perspective. It addresses conceptual and practical challenges to human basic human rights concepts and principles and rights within the evolving development partner- explores the crucial role of communication in ships between donors and partner countries, as achieving human rights. Differences between well as in relation to the Paris Declaration on Aid traditional (basic needs) approaches to develop- Effectiveness as a new reference point of the ment and the human rights-based approach are international aid system. By giving numerous presented, pointing to some important examples of practical approaches, this programming implications inherent in the human publication shows that there are various ways for rights approach. Some theoretical tools that can donor agencies to take human rights into account be used to make a human rights-based approach more systematically, in accordance with their to programming (HRAP) operational are respective mandates, modes of engagement and introduced. A methodology for community- comparative advantage. centred capacity development (CCD) is KIT Library shelf code U 07-143 described, followed by a step by step approach to annotated bibliography See: http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp? applying an HRAP for developing community CID=&LANG=EN&SF1=DI&ST1=5LGH2Z2QG1BN capacity. The steps outlined seek to define (accessed January 2008) capacity gaps, that is, areas in which claim- holders need support to claim their rights and 066 Rights-based approaches to development: an duty-bearers require support to fulfil their overview of the field responsibilities in regard to human rights. Case JOCHNICK, CHRIS; GARZON, PAULINE. CARE studies from Tanzania, Mozambique and and Oxfam America, New York, NY, 2002, 22 p. Zimbabwe illustrate the application of HRAP and The field of rights and development is para- CCD in UNICEF’s work. Suggestions are given on doxical: on the one hand, the relatively young how a human-rights based programme could be field of rights-based approaches (RBAs) is monitored and evaluated. characterized by a glut of discussion and http://www.unicef.org/rightsresults/files/HRBDP_ theoretical papers and a dearth of operational Urban_Jonsson_April_2003.pdf (accessed January 2008) experience – all talk and little action. At the same 131  068 Making rights work for the poor: Nigeria approach, which has the potential to strengthen Kori and the construction of collective the status of citizens from that of beneficiaries of capabilities in Bangladesh development to its rightful and legitimate KABEER, N. IDS Working Paper 200. Institute of claimants. As the contributions articulate, the Development Studies (IDS), Brighton, 2003, 69 p. rights approach goes beyond a ‘human rights ISSN 1353-6141 approach’, which often focuses on debates about This paper was prepared for the Development global legal covenants, to focus on rights in Research Centre of Citizenship, Participation and practice. The studies presented here examine the Accountability (Citizenship DRC), an inter- meanings and expressions of rights and national research partnership dedicated to citizenship ‘from below’, and how these meanings exploring the new forms of citizenship which are are acted upon through political and social needed to make rights real for poor people. mobilization. Particular contributions throw light Nijera Kori is an NGO in Bangladesh, which on the variety of ways in which people are defines itself as working to make rights real for excluded from full citizenship; the identities that the poor through building their capacity for matter to people and their compatibility with collective action. Nijera Kori represents an dominant notions of citizenship; the tensions organization that defined its agenda from its between individual and collective rights in inception in terms of building the collective definitions of citizenship; struggles to realize and capabilities of poor women and men to claim expand citizens’ rights; and the challenges these their rights as citizens rather than as clients, questions present for development policy. customers, beneficiaries, users, welfare KIT Library shelf code P 05-680 dependants or any of the other ‘identities’ ascribed to the poor by conventional develop- 070 A rights-based approach to realizing the ment projects. The aim of this paper is to try and economic and social rights of poor and distil lessons from the experience of Nijera Kori marginalized women: a synthesis of lessons regarding the challenge of making rights real. learned The paper draws on a variety of published and KAPUR, AANCHAL; DUVVURY, NATA. ICRW unpublished sources and is not intended as any Report. International Center for Research on kind of rigorous evaluation of the organization. Women (ICRW), Washington, DC., 2006, 24 p. The data permit reflection on the experiences of The report presents a conceptual and operational an organization which was founded to promote framework on the rights-based approach to the rights of the poor a decade or so before a development, with a particular emphasis on rights-based approach achieved its current realizing the economic and social rights of poor prominence in the international development and marginalized women and girls. It provides discourse. guidelines and ideas that can be adapted and KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2003)200 changed depending on the specific context of http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp200.pdf development projects and the capacities of (accessed January 2008) people involved. The first of the four sections of the report presents the conceptual framework of 069 Inclusive citizenship: meanings and a rights-based approach to development, with a g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t expressions focus on definitions. The next section outlines a KABEER, N.; GAVENTA, J. Zed Books, London, framework, including the principles and 2005, 274 p. ISBN 1-84277-549-9 strategies involved in implementation of a rights- This book is about how poor people understand based approach. The third section highlights the and claim citizenship, and the rights they advantages of this approach and how to sustain associate with it. It contributes new insights, its impact. The last section considers the rooted in local realities, to global debates about challenges encountered during the course of concepts of rights and citizenship. The promise project implementation. The report brings and challenge of translating rights into reality is together lessons learned from six projects that illustrated in a range of case studies from the applied a rights-based approach to development. North and South, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Using different strategies to fulfill different India, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, the rights to food, livelihood, education, work, UK and the United States. Case studies provide housing, freedom from sexual harassment, and an understanding of citizenship as a multi- overall development, eight organizations from dimensional concept, which includes the agency, different states in India worked to protect and identities and actions of the people themselves. promote the rights of women and girls who face In recent years the rights-based approach has significant violations of their rights. A range of 132 emerged in the development context as a new economic, social, cultural and political rights must be recognized and respected for social The impact of social movements on the public justice and social change to be realized. Clearly, policy process is examined. In particular, the the pursuit of one or more of the objectives of a struggle of disenfranchised women to claim their rights-based approach has helped pave the way rights and justice in a liberal democratic society for enhancing the strategies and outcomes of the is studied. Empirically, the study analyses the approach as a whole. The report is intended to women’s movement in Botswana called Emang pave the way to an enriched debate on the Basadi (literally translated: Stand Up women) increased use of a rights-based approach to and its campaign to challenge legislature and the development, particularly with regard to its government to change laws which discriminate benefits for poor and marginalized people around against women, to introduce policies favourable the world. to women, and to mobilize and empower them. http://www.icrw.org/docs/2006_Rights-basedEconand Also examined is how the movement has Social.pdf (accessed January 2008) impacted public policy and the country’s legal and political system and democracy. Drawing on 071 The future of women’s rights: global visions human rights, social movement, and policy and strategies process and agenda-setting literature, the study KERR, JOANNA; SPRENGER, ELLEN; finds that a social movement can deepen SYMINGTON, ALISON (eds). Zed Books, London, democracy in a society by engaging in broad- 2004, 224 p. ISBN 1-84277-459-X based education and advocacy campaigns This book is the result of a joint project of the targeting various constituencies. It argues that Association for Women’s Rights in Development the strength of the state affects the impact that a (AWID) and Mama Cash, referred to as ‘Facing social movement is likely to make. In Botswana, the Future’. The project focuses on identifying the ‘strong’ state was able to resist the movement. and analysing issues, processes and events in However, the women’s movement was able to their early stages and anticipating their potential make an impact by taking advantage of the state’s impacts on women’s rights and gender equality in weakness in providing political education to the the coming years. The central questions of the general population. The study attempts to explain project are: What emerging trends and future the conditions under which a social movement developments will have an impact on the rights can develop and its role in a plural African of women? How do these trends and develop- society like Botswana. This research makes a ments relate to the strategies used by women’s contribution in the area of the impact and out- movements? What are the best strategies to comes of social movements. It also contributes to respond to these trends and developments? The the scarce literature of social movements in project also involved three interactive workshops Africa. in 2002 and 2003. Trends that may threaten the KIT Library shelf code P 04-2519 ongoing work of women’s movements include the impacts of globalization and neoliberal 073 The Maputo Protocol of the African Union: an economics, development in biotechnology, the instrument for the rights of women in Africa neo-conservative backlash against women’s LISY, KERSTIN; FINKE, EMANUELA; rights, monopolistic ownership patterns over HOENSBROECH, ANJA-ROSA. Deutsche information technologies that exclude women, Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit fundamentalisms of various kinds and the rise of (GTZ), Eschborn, 2006, 12 p. identity politics that subordinate or marginalize With the Maputo Protocol, the African Union has women’s issues, and the increase of violent created an instrument that censures the annotated bibliography conflict and war. The contributors stress the need precarious situation of the rights of women in for women’s movements to evaluate the methods Africa and commits the ratifying countries to they have used until now, with a view to making concrete action for equality of women and men their political work more effective in the future. before the law. As the practical examples KIT Library shelf code P 04-2566 indicate, German Development Cooperation (DC) has been working actively on several issues 072 Social movement and democracy in Africa: within the Maputo Protocol before it even came the impact of women’s struggle for equal rights into being. Now that the Protocol has come into in Botswana effect, it provides German DC with new LESLIE, AGNES GEORGE NGOMA. UMI, Ann opportunities for building on the obligations that Arbor, MI, 2003, 276 p. African partner governments have taken upon 133  themselves and for supporting them in realizing 076 CEDAW: the treaty for the rights of women: the human rights of women. rights that benefit the entire community http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/06-0896.pdf MILANI, LEILA RASSEKH; ALBERT, SARAH C.; (accessed January 2008) PURUSHOTMA, KARINA. The Working Group on Ratification of the United Nations Convention 074 The human rights framework for on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination development: seven approaches Against Women (CEDAW), 2004, 129 p. MARKS, STEPHEN P. Working Paper 18. The Working Group for the Ratification of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Human Rights, Harvard University, 2003, 29 p. Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) This paper explores the relevance of the human produced this advocacy booklet, with the full text rights framework to human development by of the Treaty for the Rights of Women, ratifying highlighting seven approaches through which countries, and the impact of the treaty on human rights thinking is applied to development. women’s lives around the world. By approach, the author means a conceptual http://www.womenstreaty.org/CEDAW%20Book-%20 framework or way of dealing with a complex WHOLE%20BOOK.pdf (accessed January 2008) issue or set of issues. Scholars, policy makers and practitioners have been using a common 077 Rights-based approaches: recovering past vocabulary in recent years with respect to each innovations of the approaches in question. Some overlap, MILLER, VALERIE; VENEKLASEN, LISA; some emerge from human rights thinking, some CLARK, CINDY. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 52-62 are more common to development thinking. By ISSN 0265-5012 grouping them, it is shown how each one offers a The rich history of rights and participatory way of understanding how human rights and approaches is relatively unknown to many development are related. The seven approaches development and rights practitioners. are: the holistic approach, the rights (or human Consequently, historical insights applicable to rights) based approach, the social justice today’s challenges of inequality and exclusion approach, the capabilities approach, the right to often remain untapped. Drawing on the authors’ development approach, the responsibilities 30-year practical experience and related approach, and the human rights education research on these efforts, this article examines approach. three main areas of past innovation and thinking http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/fxbcenter/FXBC_WP18— that link rights and participation and explore how Marks.pdf (accessed January 2008) they address power and encourage critical consciousness and citizenship. Having looked at 075 Reframing rights for social change diverse historical and conceptual streams MEER, SHAMIM. In: Revisiting gender training: shaping participatory approaches, specific legal the making and remaking of gender knowledge. rights strategies and women’s rights experiences A global sourcebook. Amsterdam, Royal Tropical from the last several decades are examined. One Institute (KIT) in association with Oxfam, 2007, conclusion is that to create change for excluded p. 73-83 populations, participation and rights strategies g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t This paper explores the power of rights-based need to be grounded in broad visions and development approaches for advancing ideas and processes of empowerment that are both an action for social change, including change in individual personal (private) process and a unequal gender power relations. Starting with collective (organizational) political (public) experience in South Africa, the author teases out process. This evolution of vision and practice can the particular understandings of rights and provide rich lessons for the quest for practical agency, and reflects on a methodology for linking ways to link rights, participation and reflection and action through starting from the development and build more effective change personal. She draws on her work and experience strategies. both as a political and feminist activist and as a KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 development practitioner engaged in gender training. 078 Rights-based development: linking rights and KIT Library shelf code D 3382-10(2007) participation – challenges in thinking and action http://www.kit.nl/smartsite.shtml?ch=FAB&id=17029 MILLER, VALERIE; VENEKLASEN, LISA; (accessed January 2008) CLARK, CINDY. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 31-40 ISSN 0265-5012 The growing interest in pursuing ‘rights-based 134 approaches to development’ is raising questions about how these broad traditions – human rights based strategies have been understood in Bolivia, and development – can best work together in Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico. The political and practice. In particular, participatory develop- personal nature of development is stressed, ment approaches seem to have much to especially the importance of enabling people to contribute to efforts to better define and achieve make their own demands of the state and other economic, social and cultural rights. At the same institutions. Focusing on NGOs working with time, human rights perspectives and methods women and indigenous people, good practice and could deepen the impact of many participatory general issues relevant to various development development efforts. This article shares insights arenas are highlighted. The importance of and questions generated by interviews with staff context in the implementation of development and activists involved in US-based international approaches is stressed. Rights-based develop- human rights and development organizations, ment work involves combining ideas of citizen- and practical experience over several years with ship, democracy, participation and empowerment both development and rights groups in several in novel ways. Two case studies of two NGOs, one countries. Tentative conclusions drawn from the in Nicaragua, the other in Mexico, illustrate the study underscore promising directions and work carried out in accordance with the synergies in efforts on rights, participation, principles of rights-based approaches. The book governance and citizenship as well as raising reveals the potential that the rights-based important concerns and challenges. approach to development offers in ongoing KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 efforts to secure more equitable as well as more effective and inclusive development outcomes. 079 Re-interpreting the rights-based approach: a KIT Library shelf code P 03-1662 grassroots perspective on rights and development 081 Gender justice, development, and rights MITLIN, DIANA; PATEL, SHEELA. Global MOLYNEUX, MAXINE; RAZAVI, SHAHRA. Poverty Research Group, Economic and Social Oxford University Press, for the United Nations Research Council, 2005, 28 p. Research Institute for Social Development The rights-based approach is particularly (UNRISD), Oxford, 492 p. ISBN 0-19-925645-4 associated with pro-poor development and the The 1990s were a landmark period in the agency of the poor. At the centre of the approach international human rights movement, which saw is an understanding that successful development many positive changes in women’s rights as well requires political analysis and action. Rather as in human rights more broadly. This collection than development being reliant on charitable of theoretical and empirical studies reflects on goodwill to meet the basic needs of very poor these gains, and on the significance accorded in people, the rights-based approach emphasizes international policy to issues of rights and that development should be based on a democracy in the post-cold war era. It engages recognition of the equal rights of all citizens to with some of the pressing and contested the resources required for material well-being contemporary issues – neo-liberal policies, and social inclusion. Within such a conceptu- democracy, and multiculturalism – and in doing alization of development, the contribution of the so invites debate on the nature of liberalism itself state is given prominence. Their role is that of in an epoch that has seen its global ascendancy. provider, through equal access to essential These issues are addressed here through two services, and regulator, through a legal system perspectives which cast contemporary liberalism that ensures equal rights for all. It is anticipated in a distinctive light. First, by applying a ‘gender annotated bibliography that under such conditions, the poor will lens’ to the analysis of political and policy experience a more supportive and less processes and by deploying the insights gained discriminatory context, and will be able to take from feminist theory, this volume provides a advantage of new opportunities. gendered account of the ways in which liberal http://www.gprg.org/pubs/workingpapers/pdfs/gprg- rights, and ideas of democracy and justice, have wps-022.pdf (accessed January 2008) been absorbed into the political agendas of women’s movements and states. Second, case 080 Doing the rights thing: rights-based studies from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, development and Latin American NGOs the Middle East, East-Central Europe, South and MOLYNEUX, MAXINE; LAZAR, SIAN. South-East Asia contribute a cross-cultural Intermediate Technology Development Group dimension to the analysis of modern forms of (ITDG), London, 2003, 164 p. ISBN 1-85339-568-4 rule by examining the ways in which liberalism – Development practice in Latin America is are the dominant value system in the modern world – examined to determine the ways in which rights- 135  both exists and is resisted in diverse cultural perspective are outlined, and gaps in the paper settings. that require further elaboration are identified. KIT Library shelf code U 03-21 http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/tcor.pdf (accessed January 2008) 082 To claim our rights: livelihood security, human rights and sustainable development 083 Legally dispossessed: gender, identity and MOSER, CAROLINE; NORTON, ANDY; with Tim process of law Conway, Clare Ferguson, Polly Vizard. Overseas MUKHOPADHYAY, MAITRAYEE. Stree, Development Institute (ODI), London, 2001, 79 p. Calcutta, 1998, 246 p. ISBN 81-85604-39-8 ISBN 0-85003-554-6 This study of women’s experiences of litigation The objective of this paper is to explore the under personal laws (those that cover marriage potential contribution of a human rights and inheritance) raises vital questions of identity perspective to the development of policies and and citizenship in Indian democracy and throws programmes that strengthen the sustainability of new light on the uniform civil code debate. The poor people’s assets and livelihood security. It focus is on the hidden structuring of the neutral outlines a conceptual framework for addressing citizen-subject, the process of ‘norming’, the issues of empowerment and poverty reduction, resulting exclusions, which serve to secure by examining the links between human rights asymmetrical power. Investigating the law’s and assets and livelihood security as they relate stated neutrality in relation to gender, caste and to the issue of sustainable development. The community, women’s litigation over maintenance particular relevance of such a framework relates and property claims is looked at. It is shown how to the opportunity provided by the World Bank’s the private domain of social relations is decision to focus its 2002/3 World Development connected to the public domain of the state, Report on the theme of sustainable development, which social relations are ‘normed’ and as well as the Social Development Department’s ‘invisibilized’ through this connection and how upcoming Social Development Strategy Paper. In patriarchy is created through the use of policy terms, therefore, the main focus of the adjudication. Of particular interest are the thirty paper is on the specific context of the World case studies of seventeen Hindu women and Bank. Key elements in human rights, livelihoods thirteen Muslim women. Four life histories and sustainable development debates are provide insight of how Hindu women are reviewed. The concepts of livelihoods and ‘ambiguous heirs’ who have to establish their sustainable development both require a stronger right to property first before they can fight to analysis of power relations, institutions and claim it, whereas Muslim women become rightful politics if they are to provide a useful basis for heirs at birth but have to fight for control. The an holistic understanding of development relationship of women to the state is addressed processes. In assessing the potential of a human by exploring the woman-state relationship rights perspective to address this missing through the experiences of the women’s dimension, there are a number of unresolved movement in the seventies and the eighties and issues relating to the practical integration of a by looking at the reasons given by respondents human rights perspective into development on why they have appealed to the state. The g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t interventions. Nevertheless, a human rights conclusion contains a discussion of the highly framework provides a useful entry point for the charged uniform civil code debate, where analysis of asymmetries in power and the feminists have found themselves sharing a institutions that reinforce those relations. platform with the Hindu right, analysing what A conceptual framework for the analysis of the the implications for gender equality are. human rights dimensions of livelihoods is KIT Library shelf code P 00-240 developed, supported by case study material. The framework operates at three levels: normative, 084 Rights based approaches in development: analytical and operational. The final section pulls issue paper together some of the most relevant issues MUKHOPADHYAY, MAITRAYEE. Royal Tropical highlighted by the conceptual framework, Institute (KIT), Amsterdam, 2004, 26 p. arguing that a rights and livelihoods perspective This discussion of rights-based approaches in provides the basis for developing a more development focuses on the evolving agenda of concrete understanding of social sustainability international development agencies – United and, concomitantly, sustainable development. Nations organizations, bilateral organizations, Two propositions for analysing social international financial institutions such as the sustainability from a rights and livelihoods World Bank, and mainly Anglophone, 136 international NGOs. The emerging policy of international agencies is considered rather than 086 How nations misbehave: compliance with their practice, since there is insufficient material human rights treaties in Commonwealth Africa on which to base an assessment of how these MWANZA, IRIS CHISECHE. UMI, Ann Arbor, policies are translated into programming. The MI, 2002, 174 p. context of international development policy and Research seeks to explain the problem of practice that has given rise to rights-based compliance with human rights treaties in approaches is highlighted. A conceptual frame- Commonwealth Africa through the examination work proposes how a rights approach in develop- of compliance with the United Nations ment could be applied. The common agenda in Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination rights-based approaches and limitations of the against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations present rights-based approaches are highlighted. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by The paper ends with a proposal for a KIT Ghana, Uganda and Zambia. In this dissertation, programme of action-oriented research in compliance is conceived of as processes of partnership with organizations in the South to international and domestic legal and normative gain a deeper understanding of actor-oriented changes. At the international level, the research perspectives on rights, its practices and focuses upon the United Nations (UN) process methodologies. promulgating women and children’s rights http://www.equalinrights.org/file.html?id=349 (accessed through treaties, and the impact that these January 2008) treaties have had on the case studies. It is found that because the UN monitoring system did not 085 Breathing life into the African Union impinge upon state sovereignty, the UN process Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa induced only superficial changes and did little to MUSA, ROSELYNN; MOHAMMED, FAIZA advance effective treaty implementation in the JAMA; MANJI, FIROZE. Solidarity for African three countries studied. The inability of the Women’s Rights & African Union Women, Gender international UN system to compel changes in and Development Directorate, Commission, these states means that treaty compliance is Directorate of Women, Nairobi, 2006, 113 p. essentially a domestic process delineated by a ISBN 1-904855-66-0 state’s political factors. In each country Solidarity for African Women’s Rights, a coalition examined, political power is concentrated in the of more than 20 organizations, set out to achieve President. As a consequence all important laws the target of 50 country ratifications of the and policies, including treaty implementation, African Union Protocol of the African Charter on are determined by the President and the level of Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of compliance tied to the President’s personal Women in Africa. The Protocol commits the interest in the treaty’s subject matter. President states which sign it to eliminating all forms of Museveni’s interest in the promotion of women discrimination against women and to ensuring and children’s rights was the impetus behind their equal rights in, for example, marriage, Uganda’s substantial progress in implementing education and employment. This book documents the CRC and the CEDAW. This manifested in a the experiences and strategies that could be used comprehensive legal framework, institutional to ensure universal ratification and implement- support, effective government-NGO ation of the Protocol. In it, women leaders have collaboration, and resources allocations for looked at a number of strategies for working with treaty implementation. Obstacles to compliance the mass media, legal courts and gender still exist; however, they are related to the machines to ensure that the rights contained in country’s poverty and not the lack of political annotated bibliography the Protocol are exercised by all men, women, will. In contrast, in the cases of Ghana and girls and boys. The papers are drawn from the Zambia where the Presidents were not interested jointly convened African Union Commission and in either CEDAW or the CRC, the international Solidarity for African Women’s Rights treaty system engendered only superficial conference on the Protocol that was held in Addis changes reflected in laws and policies that were Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-30 September 2005. The book not implemented. Recommendations to enhance is an important guide to the action that must be state compliance with UN human rights treaties taken to ensure the universal ratification and by forging more effective links between the implementation of the Protocol within all 53 international and domestic processes are made. countries in Africa. KIT Library shelf code P 04-491 KIT Library shelf code P 06-856 137  087 Focus on human rights and gender justice: ‘universal human rights’ an adequate context for linking the Millennium Development Goals with the struggle for women’s rights? Does ‘rights’ the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of based rhetoric need to give way to other kinds of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing demands on national and international gover- Platform for Action nance bodies, and can human rights agendas be NEUHOLD, B. United Nations Non- transformed so that they respond to the concerns Governmental Liaison Service, 2005, 28 p. of all women in a multicultural and racialized This paper aims at showing the interlinkages world? between the Convention on the Elimination of All KIT Library shelf code P 05-1459 Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action 089 An actor-oriented approach to rights in (BPFA), and the Millennium Development Goals development (MDGs), and to emphasize that the MDGs must NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, be developed further from the perspective of p. 41-51 ISSN 0265-5012 human rights, poverty eradication and the Actor-oriented perspectives on rights are drawn empowerment of women. A critical examination out through a discussion of three key debates of CEDAW, the BFPA, and the MDGs is that have preoccupied human rights scholars and presented. The author finds that the MDGs are practitioners, challenging many of the based on an overly-rigid, neoliberally defined assumptions that underlie them. The three key idea of poverty, and attempts to solve social debates are: universality versus cultural problems with economic solutions. Furthermore, relativism; individual or group rights; and gender concerns are largely marginalized within invisibility of rights, the hierarchy between civil- the goals, being dealt with primarily in Goal 3. political and economic-social rights. A focus on The paper also provides a brief feminist analysis concrete struggles is shown to lead to a of each Millennium Development Goal. It questioning of the underlying assumptions and concludes with a list of strategies to be adopted changes the terms of these debates. Some of the to further develop the MDGs. key emerging implications for taking an actor- http://www.concordeurope.org/Files/media/internet orientated approach to rights in practice are documentsFRE/3_Sujets_traites/3_2_sujets_traites/ highlighted, particularly in the context of 3_2_12_gendre_et_developpement/3_2_12_3_autres_ development research and practice. documents/3_2_12_3_2_2004/WIDEMDGpaperFeb KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 2005.pdf (accessed January 2008) 090 Ruling out gender equality? The post-cold 088 Engendering human rights: cultural and war rule of law agenda in Sub-Saharan Africa socioeconomic realities in Africa NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C. Third World Quarterly NNAEMEKA, OBIOMA; EZEILO, JOY NGOZI 27(2006)7, p. 1193-1207 ISSN 0143-6597 (eds). Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY, 2005, The central question addressed in this paper is p. 314 ISBN 1-4039-6707-5 whether the post-cold war rule of law (ROL) The essays included in this book represent a agenda in sub-Saharan Africa has enhanced or varied group of distinguished scholars, activists, impeded gender equality. The first section gives g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t and practitioners, and incorporate gender an overview of ROL reform programmes in sub- perspectives on the formulation, monitoring, Saharan Africa. The next section discusses the reporting, and implementation of human rights in priorities that have been articulated by gender Africa and the African Diaspora. The contributors justice advocates in the region and then tackle issues ranging from reproductive rights, evaluates the reform initiatives taken by immigration, religion, and spousal abuse to governments and donors in order to highlight the cultural imperatives, legal reform and the arts. specific gender gaps in the ROL agenda. The The book tries to carve a space for a new final section observes that the overall climate in definition and analysis of human rights. It which the reforms are being promoted threatens centralizes the experiences, histories and socio- to de-legitimize the pursuit of any goals seen as economic realities of everyday lives of African incompatible with the core agenda of creating women. Within the context of engendering human efficiently functioning legal institutions for the rights, the book highlights the right to health, market. Although this core agenda may arguably rights of female children and adolescents, produce benefits that trickle down to all citizens violence against women, and the effects of in the long run, in the absence of explicit religious fundamentalism on women’s lives. It commitment to social justice and redistribution, questions whether international law provides an there have been few gains for gender equality. 138 enabling space for racialized gender equality. Is KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 091 Toward an actor-oriented perspective on to achieve a positive transformation of power human rights relations among the various development actors. NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C. IDS Working Paper 169. Thus, however any agency articulates its vision Brighton, IDS, 2002, 31 p. ISBN 1-85864-471-2 for a rights-based approach, it must enable those Rights are shaped through actual struggles whose lives are affected the most to articulate informed by people’s own understandings of what their priorities and claim genuine accountability they are justly entitled to. This paper shows that from development agencies. The extent to which looking for the meaning of rights from the the agencies become critically self-aware and perspective of those claiming them transforms address inherent power inequalities in their defined normative parameters of human rights interaction with those people is also relevant. debates, questions established conceptual KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2004)234 categories and expands the range of claims that http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp234.pdf are validated as rights. The exercise of drawing (accessed January 2008) out these ‘actor-oriented perspectives’ on rights is organized around four key debates: (1) the extent 093 Kenyan civil society perspectives on rights, to which human rights norms are socio-culturally rights-based approaches to development, and contingent or universally valid; (2) the extent to participation which the liberal individualist conception of NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C.; MUSYOKI, S. IDS rights permits recognition of group rights; (3) the Working Paper 236. Institute of Development hierarchy between social/economic and Studies (IDS), Brighton, 2004, 40 p. civil/political rights; and (4) the extent to which ISBN 1-85864-853-X international human rights should place human This paper goes beyond conceptual debates to rights obligations on non-state actors. These key explore country level practices around emergent debates are mapped out, highlighting ways in rights-based approaches to development, and which bottom-up, actor-oriented perspectives their relationship with more established shaped by specific human rights struggles have practices of participatory development. Drawing questioned their premises. Accounts of these on the perspectives of a cross-section of Kenyan struggles and critical responses to the debates civil society groups, the paper examines the point to the possibility of an actor-oriented extent to which these approaches overlap, and perspective on rights. Finally, specific lessons evaluates prospects for an integrated and are proposed for consideration in researching the sustained approach to civil society’s questioning linkages between rights, citizenship, of institutional arrangements that foster unequal participation and accountability. relations. Current trends suggest a gradual KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2002)169 closing of the chasm between the practice of http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp169.pdf participatory community development and the (accessed January 2008) practice of rights advocacy. Community development NGOs are taking the notion of 092 What is the rights-based approach all about people’s rights and entitlements more seriously NYAMU-MUSEMBI, C.; CORNWALL, A. IDS as the starting point for their work, and the need Working Paper 234. Brighton, IDS, 2004, 65 p. for greater engagement with macro-level ISBN 1-85864-847-5 political institutions to build accountability. Despite growing talk amongst development actors Rights advocacy NGOs are responding to and agencies about ‘a rights-based approach’ to demands for the active and meaningful development, it remains unclear what exactly this participation of marginalized groups in shaping a annotated bibliography consists of. This paper seeks to unravel some of rights advocacy agenda that is genuinely rooted the tangled threads of contemporary rights talk. in communities. Another trend is that Where is today’s rights-based discourse coming community-based networks are looking inward to from? Why rights and why now? What are the ensure internal legitimacy, inclusiveness and differences between versions and emphases non-discrimination. These trends hold promise articulated by different international for an integrated and sustained approach that is development actors? What are their potentially more effective in Kenya’s new shortcomings, and what do these imply for the political climate, characterized by stronger practice and politics of development? Reflecting demands for accountability at different levels. on these questions, some of the implications of the The paper concludes with suggestions on how range of different ways of relating human rights these emerging trends could be strengthened. to development are explored. It is argued that KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2004)236 ultimately, however it is operationalized, a rights- http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp236.pdf based approach means little if it has no potential (accessed January 2008) 139  094 Challenges and opportunities of indication of and a necessity for the realization of implementing a rights-based approach to human rights. The MDGs largely correspond development: an Oxfam America perspective. with states’ core obligations under international Paper presented at a conference on ‘Northern human rights law, thus generating immediate and relief and development NGOs: new directions in binding obligations. The centrality of a women’s poverty alleviation and global leadership human rights approach to development must be transitions’, 2-3 July, Balliol College, Oxford, UK emphasized. The MDGs and gender main- 2001 streaming must be reclaimed as strategies to OFFENHEISER, R.C.; HOLCOMBE, S. Non-profit achieving human rights. In summary, the author and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 32(2003)2 states that the GAD Network and its members p. 268-301 must fully own and shape this strategy. This article explores some of the rationales that http://www.choike.org/documentos/mdg_women2004.pdf have led Oxfam America – as a member of (accessed January 2008) Oxfam International – to embrace a rights perspective, as well as the conceptual constructs 096 Rights-based strategies in the prevention of that support the new paradigm and the domestic violence challenges to implementation that it poses. The PANDA, P. ICRW Working Paper 344. first section probes the historical circumstances International Center for Research on Women that have marginalized economic and social (ICRW), Washington, DC, 2002, 91 p. rights and focused international dialogue on An attempt is made to broaden the discussion political and civil rights. The second section about the prevention of domestic violence against analyses the philosophical and conceptual women informed by a rights-based strategy. foundation that supports implementation of a Specifically, the study discusses the critical rights-based approach in development practice elements of a human rights framework to reduce and humanitarian response. The final sections domestic violence, presents research findings on explore the organizational and management the prevalence and correlates of domestic challenges that flow from the use of the rights- violence in intimate relationships in Kerala, based model as an organizing principle for India, and explores strategies for the prevention development practice. of domestic violence on the basis of research and KIT SwetsWise database analysis. Domestic violence needs to be resituated in the broader social transformation of society 095 Gender, the Millennium Development Goals, and domestic violence should be conceptualized and human rights in the context of the 2005 as violation of a woman’s most basic right. The review processes strength of a rights-based strategy is that it PAINTER, GENEVIEVE RENARD. Choike, 2004, meshes formal treaty doctrines with grassroots 76 p. activism and critiques of power. While the right This paper takes advantage of the 2005 reviews to make the claim is global, specific and useful of the Beijing Platform for Action and the strategies to prevent domestic violence must be Millennium Declaration and Millennium developed locally. Research and analysis in this Development Goals (MDGs), to consider the study in the context of Kerala clearly suggest g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t opportunities offered by these coinciding that domestic violence against women (physical reviews. It also outlines an advocacy agenda for and psychological) is widely prevalent, takes participation in the reviews at an international multiple forms and has a high frequency of level. It is argued that the linkage of the occurrence. Forced sex and physical violence Millennium Review and the Beijing +10 Review during pregnancy are also not uncommon. The provides a strategic window that can be used to study suggests that ‘right to housing’ and ‘right to reframe the MDGs as international human rights property and inheritance’ are critical and most obligations. This linkage would connect the fundamental for any strategy in the prevention of review processes to the analytical tools and domestic violence. practical strategies offered by human rights. http://www.cds.edu/download_files/344.pdf (accessed The task is to ensure that the reviews are January 2008) directed towards achievement of human rights, not towards the further entrenchment of a neo- 097 Developing rights? Relating discourse to liberal, economic-growth driven model of context and practice development. The author further stresses that PETTIT, JETHRO; WHEELER, JOANNA (eds). the departure point for the Gender and IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 1-8 ISSN 0265-5012 Development (GAD) Network’s advocacy should Drawing on the range of contributions to this 140 be that achievement of the MDGs is both an special issue entitled ‘Developing rights’, some of the key lessons about using rights effectively are across government, e.g. between a development highlighted. First, important historical and agency and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs. geopolitical forces are behind the timing and http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/DFID%20RBA framing of the rights-based discourse, which %20Final%20Doc%20July%202003.pdf (accessed bear careful examination. Second, the contexts of January 2008) actual struggles are crucial to understanding how rights become substantive. Third, the process of 099 The right to development: a review of the making rights real is a political one, rather than a current state of the debate for the Department technical or procedural one, because it entails for International Development confronting the structural inequalities that PIRON, LAURE-HELENE. Overseas underlie the negation of rights. Understanding Development Institute (ODI), London, 2003, 44 p. how rights can shift power relations is essential The objective of this report is to assess the to realizing the potential of rights to contribute to relevance of the Right to Development for change. Finally, a rights perspective, when development policy and practice, and to make understood within particular contexts and linked practical recommendations to the UK to strategies to shift power relations, has the Department for International Development potential to confront some of the most prominent (DFID). Though the Right to Development is an assumptions of development orthodoxy and academically and politically contested concept, emerging agendas of security. the debates surrounding its interpretation can KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 shed new light on international development policy and practice. This report argues that the 098 Learning from the UK Department for new ‘partnership approach’ to development (one International Development’s rights-based based on shared responsibilities and mutual approach to development assistance commitments between developed and developing PIRON, LAURE-HELENE. German Development countries and international organizations) is Institute, and Overseas Development Institute fairly consistent with a contemporary inter- (ODI), Bonn and London, 2003, 33 p. pretation of the Right to Development. However, The UK Department for International such a partnership approach does not place Development (DFID) has developed an human rights at the centre of the development innovative approach to human rights policy, as process, and does not consider development as a presented in its 2000 Target Strategy Paper human right. This report makes a case for DFID, ‘Realising Rights for Poor People’. Since then, and other development agencies, to take the DFID has been attempting to implement this new Right to Development debate seriously. One of policy framework, but, to date, its impact has not the conclusions reached is that the governments been assessed. The German Development of developing countries need to be involved in Institute commissioned a study to identify what discussions concerning rights-based approaches lessons could be learned from DFID’s to development assistance. The Right to experience. The study was updated with the aim Development inter-governmental debate is too of being circulated to a wider audience. This politicized to create such an opportunity. It would updated study presents lessons learned, be important to hear from developing countries comments on challenges currently facing DFID officials how they see their national development and some recommendations for the German strategies as contributing to the realization of government and other donors. It is suggested human rights, and how this relates to the Right to that DFID should undertake further conceptual Development. annotated bibliography and operationally relevant work. This requires http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/right_to_ DFID to have a strong human rights focal point, dev.pdf (accessed January 2008) with adequate resources to contribute to policy development, the capacity to learn from DFID 100 The right to development: study on existing programmes and to exchange information and bilateral and multilateral programmes and views with other development agencies, research policies for development partnership. Report institutes and human rights organizations, both in commissioned by the Office of the High developed and developing countries. Lessons for Commissioner for Human Rights donors include that drafting a policy document PIRON, LAURE-HELENE. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/15. can be a useful process of further refining a new 3 August 2004, 38 p. policy, identifying ways in which it is innovative, A survey of existing bilateral and multilateral and building consensus between different policies and programmes was conducted to professional groups within an organization and suggest principles and criteria for identifying good practices in the creation and implementation 141  of development partnerships. A review is agencies to account in a meaningful way. The presented of the concept of partnership for the focus is on bilateral and multilateral realization of the right to development. The study organizations providing development aid. Human then reviews recent trends in development policy rights accountability can be understood in a and practice, in particular the development of a narrow or broader sense. It can be taken to mean new consensus around a ‘global compact’ for accountability through the use of established poverty reduction, the importance of national human rights mechanisms, at the international, ownership, and challenges of governance, aid regional or domestic level, focusing on agreed conditionality and selectivity. It also reviews data human rights standards. However, given the on aid flows and the quality of aid. Good ongoing legal debates as to the extent to which governance and good donorship are identified as aid agencies can be said to be legally obligated key issues to be examined. Thirdly, the study under the human rights framework (e.g. issues of reviews the place of human rights in this extra-territoriality or restrictions on the mandate evolving aid consensus, starting with the of the international financial institutions), this contributions made by the Declaration of the paper principally examines non-legal channels of Right to Development. Human rights are not yet accountability. Human rights-based approaches fully part of the mainstream of development can make a contribution to mainstream assistance; human rights-based approaches are in accountability frameworks, for example by the process of being developed and adopted. complementing financial or macro-level results- However, partnerships to realize the right to based orientations with a concern for impacts on development would need to be grounded in the individuals, or by the effectiveness of redress international human rights framework. Human mechanisms. rights principles can be useful here, but they http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/LHP_Donor need to be applied in a way consistent with Accountability.pdf (accessed January 2008) international norms and standards. http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/RTD&Dev 103 Integrating human rights into development: Part.pdf (accessed January 2008) a synthesis of donor approaches and experiences PIRON, LAURE-HELENE; O’NEILL, TAMMIE. 101 Rights-based approaches and bilateral aid Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, agencies: more than a metaphor? 2005, 63 p. PIRON, LAURE-HELENE. IDS Bulletin This study was commissioned by the Human 36(2005)1, p. 19-30 ISSN 0265-5012 Rights and Development Task Team of the OECD The argument put forward in this article is that a DAC Governance Network (GOVNET) with a common core of rights-based approaches in view to assisting in the preparation of an action- bilateral development aid agencies can be oriented policy in 2006. It analyses and identified and some transformations are under- synthesizes the approaches and experiences of way. However, much remains to be done to bilateral and multilateral agencies working on influence, not just the behaviour of individual human rights and development, and offers a agencies, but also the international consensus on number of practical recommendations. There are aid and the place of human rights within it. This a number of key messages which emerge from g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t review begins by identifying some of the ways in this study and should inform future GOVNET which agencies can incorporate human rights and DAC action. The study has in particular into their policies and activities. It then examines confirmed that there is a clear gap in the DAC’s the extent to which rights-based approaches can policy processes and documentation, with no be said to have been adopted and the factors that substantive work on human rights since the late facilitate or constrain the transformation. Finally, 1990s. This does not reflect the reality of some of the current challenges are considered agencies’ current work. This initiative is there- that face agencies attempting to close the gap fore highly relevant for the DAC as a whole given between their rights-based approaches and the cross-cutting nature of human rights. It also mainstream development policy and practice. has meaning beyond the DAC, given the value of KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 bringing together representatives across such a large number of bilateral and multilateral 102 The role of human rights in promoting donor agencies with a common purpose. The study had accountability identified a significant number of new policies, PIRON, LAURE-HELENE. Overseas as well as accompanying tools, guidance Development Institute (ODI), London, 2005, 12 p. documents and programming experiences. This This background paper examines the extent to demonstrates that work on human rights has not 142 which human rights can be used to hold aid been limited to policy pronouncements, but has from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burundi, Cambodia, also started to impact practice. Guatemala, Honduras, India, Peru, Rwanda, http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/humanrights_ Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Thailand gives into_development.pdf (accessed January 2008) concrete evidence of what RBA ‘looks like’ in context and in practice. Lessons are discussed in 104 DFID human rights review: a review of how terms of promoting empowerment; working in DFID has integrated human rights into its work partnership; ensuring accountability; promoting PIRON, LAURE-HELENE; WATKINS, FRANCIS. responsibility; and opposing discrimination. Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, http://www.careinternational.org.uk/download.php? 2004, 120 p. id=140 (accessed January 2008) This review was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development’s 107 Programming for justice: access for all. Reaching the Very Poorest Team in Policy A practitioner’s guide to a human-rights based Division. Its purpose is to gain a greater under- approach to access to justice standing of DFID’s human rights work, drawing United Nations Development Programme on a portfolio of activities supported by DFID. (UNDP), New York, NY, 2005, 256 p. The focus is on lessons to be learned from ISBN 974-93210-5-7 experiences on the ground, covering a range of This guide has been broken down in seven sectors and initiatives, in particular at country chapters that successively: (1) describe the goals level. The review attempts to show how human and scope of the justice sector in line with human rights can make a contribution to poverty development and human rights-based reduction at the normative, analytical and approaches; (2) provide a ten-step plan for operational levels. It concludes with forward- practitioners to develop access to justice looking recommendations. programmes; (3) discuss capacity development http://www.odi.org.uk/rights/Publications/DFIDRights strategies with regard to the normative Review07.04.pdf (accessed January 2008) frameworks that need to be in place to ensure that disadvantaged groups are protected and 105 A rights-based approach to gender equality their access to justice is ensured; (4) examine the and women’s rights role and ability of institutions that are tasked POWELL, MARIE. Canadian Journal of with providing access to justice; (5) explore legal Development Studies 26(2005) special issue, empowerment, legal awareness and legal aid; (6) p. 605-617 ISSN 0225-5189 focus more specifically on the justice needs of The concept of a rights-based approach is disadvantaged groups, including women; and (7) explored to determine if it provides a useful look at unique challenges faced by countries methodology for furthering progress by donor recovering from conflict. agencies on achieving gender equality and http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/Justice_Guides_ women’s rights. It is argued that for gender ProgrammingForJustice-AccessForAll.pdf (accessed equality advocates working in donor organi- January 2008) zations, a rights-based approach adds value to current gender mainstreaming efforts. However, 108 The Protocol on the Rights of Women in a number of issues and lessons learned from Africa: an instrument for advancing reproductive gender mainstreaming need to be addressed to and sexual rights ensure that gender equality and women’s rights Briefing Paper. The Center for Reproductive are not marginalized. Rights, New York, NY, 2006, 25 p. annotated bibliography KIT Library shelf code H 1847-26(2005)spec.issue This briefing paper offers concrete suggestions for women’s health and rights advocates within 106 Principles into practice: learning from and beyond Africa. It provides detailed innovative rights-based programmes information that can help African women use the CARE International UK, London, 2005, 48 p. protocol to exercise their reproductive rights, CARE International has been testing methods of and suggests ways that governments can incorporating rights-based approaches into its implement the protocol’s landmark provisions. development programmes. This report is an The paper can also be useful to advocates outside account of some of those innovations and the Africa who are seeking to establish similar lessons learned from them. In this report the guarantees. term rights-based approach means a deliberate http://www.reproductiverights.org/pdf/pub_bp_africa.pd and explicit focus on enabling people to achieve f (accessed January 2008) the minimum conditions for achieving their human rights. The review of 16 RBA projects 143  109 CARE’s experience with adoption of a rights- women’s engagement with the UN? Should the based approach: five case studies UN be reformed, should feminist movements RAND, JUDE. CARE USA, Atlanta, GA, 2002, reinvest in UN processes, or is the UN no longer 56 p. a strategic site through which to pursue CARE has embarked on a learning process economic and gender justice? This paper aims to designed to build understanding of and a contribute to this debate, while not pretending to commitment to a human rights-based approach cover all UN mechanisms or processes. (RBA) to its relief and development work. Among Beginning with an overview of the current the most important inputs to the learning process context and global governance framework, the have been case studies, i.e., written descriptions paper then focuses on four key economic-related of and reflections on rights-based approaches in UN mechanisms, namely the Millennium action. In an effort to broaden its understanding Development Goals, the Financing for of the implications of RBA integration in CARE Development process, and human right treaties and to foster learning across different parts of including the International Covenant on the CARE world, CARE’s Rights/RBA Initiative Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and World commissioned the present set of five case studies Conferences. Each of these international norm- in Uganda, India, Burundi, Vietnam and South setting spaces is assessed for its efficacy as a Africa. The selection of RBA initiatives for platform for promoting gender and economic inclusion in this series was not based on progress justice, considering the status of the mechanism or successful adoption; rather, it was based on the and the outcomes of women’s participation to potential for learning about the implications of date. The paper also discusses the major adopting RBA for each stage of CARE’s challenges facing women’s movements in their programme cycle. The five cases represent a quest for gender and economic justice though diverse range of contexts and approaches and international venues, including the implications shed light on the creative array of options of some of the reform proposals put forward in available for RBA application. Taken together, the recently released Cardoso Report on civil they reveal the very real differences an explicit society engagement with the UN. It concludes focus on rights makes for CARE and its partners with a call to engage critically with UN at all stages of the programme process, providing mechanisms, reclaiming these global policy important insights into the theoretical and spaces. practical implications of a rights approach. http://www.awid.org/publications/OccasionalPapers/ However, they also raise a number of key issues spotlight2_en.pdf (accessed January 2008) and questions for further consideration. The insights and lessons learned from each case are 111 Human rights, institutions and social change. summarized, followed by a synthesis of the most Paper prepared for the Helsinki Conference 2005 salient implications of adopting RBA for each RAO, ARUNA; KELLEHER, DAVID. 2005, 11 p. stage of CARE’s programme cycle. Key This paper presents a conceptual framework on outstanding questions are summarized at the end rights, institutions and social change which can of the paper to guide CARE and its partners in be used to assess how gendered aspects of their further pursuit of a rights-based approach. institutions, both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, explain g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ patterns of rights achievement, and more CARE_experiences_case_studies.doc (accessed January importantly, to identify institutional change 2008) strategies that challenge and transform power relationships to enable the realization of women’s 110 ‘We, the women’: the United Nations, rights. To deepen strategic thinking on trans- feminism and economic justice forming power relations, the authors argue for RANDRIAMARO, ZO. Spotlight 4. Association for understanding the confluence of the opportunity Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), structure provided by the state, the empower- Toronto, 2002, 12 p. ment of women and their organizations, and The evidence is mounting: internationally agreed formal and informal institutions which mediate development and human rights goals are not both access and benefits. being met. Moreover, civil society organizations http://www.genderatwork.org/resources.php?id=31 and social movements are suffering from (accessed January 2008) ‘conference fatigue’ after years of systematic involvement in the United Nations (UN) conference arena. Women’s organizations and international networks are particularly affected. 144 What does this imply for economic justice and 112 Islamic politics, human rights and women’s features of this study is the listing of good claims for equality in Iran practices and recommendations on how human RAZAVI, SHAHRA. Third World Quarterly rights education methodologies can be more 27(2006)7, p. 1223-1237 ISSN 0143-6597 effectively used for vulnerable, disadvantanged The diverse currents of thinking that feed into and marginalized groups in the Asia-Pacific the reformist orientation in Iran are analysed. Region. It provides a useful resource in the work The need for change is being voiced not only by of wide ranging agencies and actors working secular forces, but also by those within the heart towards furthering and implementing human of the Islamic establishment. These advocates of rights education. reform have included male lay intellectuals, Preliminary: http://www.arrc-hre.com/publications/ some clerical authorities and a number of reclaiming_voices/reclaiming-preliminary.pdf feminists with an Islamic orientation. It is argued (accessed January 2008) that these disparate streams of reformist Main 1: http://www.arrc-hre.com/publications/ thinking constitute a genuinely local effort to reclaiming_voices/Reclaiming_main-01.pdf (accessed move Islamic politics out of the cul-de-sac of January 2008) traditional Islam by endorsing modernist and Main 2: http://www.arrc-hre.com/publications/ universal values of human rights and democracy. reclaiming_voices/Reclaiming_main-02.pdf (accessed Gender equality figures centrally only in some January 2008) strands of this thinking, for example within feminist Islamism, but it is also found in the 114 Building resilience: a rights-based approach ‘dynamic jurisprudence’ that is being propagated to children and HIV/AIDS in Africa by some religious scholars. For intellectuals and RICHTER, LINDA M.; RAMA, SHARMIA. Save public figures whose roots go back to the heart of the Children Sweden, Stockholm, 2006, 59 p. the Islamic establishment, the turn to human ISBN 91-7321-220-2 rights, democracy and women’s rights constitutes As the vulnerability of children living in a metamorphosis. The social and political communities affected by HIV/AIDS becomes a dynamics underlying these tensions are clear challenge, governments, international considered in the second part of the article. It is agencies, civil society, neighbourhoods, and shown that while the reformist movement was families have mobilized to tackle the issues these always constrained as a political force, it is today children face. This report provides a brief over- almost gone from the centres of power and view of the responses of the international decision making, as traditionalists have tightened community and governments in rising to these their grip over political power. While this challenges, the roles of the private and civil represents a major setback for the realization of society sectors, and the responses of families and human rights, democracy and gender equality, it communities dealing directly with the children. nevertheless challenges the reformist A rights-based approach seems to be a useful intellectuals and leaders to cultivate a broad approach to rectify many of the distortions that social base, bringing into their fold the largely have arisen from a crisis-driven response to impoverished middle class, women and youth children affected by HIV/AIDS, poverty, and who constituted the ‘vote bank’ for president conflict, and can provide a beacon for moving Khatami’s reformist platform, but whose voices forward. The underlying principles of have remained muted in subsequent Iranian universality, indivisibility, responsibility, and politics. participation provide a firm foundation for KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 framing priorities and responses to vulnerable annotated bibliography children and families. One of the recommend- 113 Reclaiming voices: a study on participatory ations made is that it is imperative that stake- human rights education methodologies in the holders coordinate their responses, and that they Asia-Pacific are guided by a strong rights-based approach. Asia Pacific Regional Resource Centre for http://www.crin.org/docs/save_children_hiv.pdf Human Rights Education (ARRC), 2004, 3 parts (accessed January 2008) (Preliminary; Main 1; Main 2) The study documents the different methodo- 115 A rights-based approach to development logies employed in non-formal human rights Facts and Issues. Women’s Rights and Economic education programmes and assesses these Change 1. Association for Women’s Rights in methodologies in terms of type of users, issues Development (AWID), Toronto, 2002, 9 p. covered, materials employed, results obtained, A rights-based approach to development builds weaknesses and limitations, advantages and on the experiences and expertise of two areas for improvement. In addition to the significant branches of the women’s movement: 145  development and human rights. This primer years UNICEF has gained a wide range of describes the approach, presents its benefits to experience in the human rights-based approach the development community, and suggests some to programming. A process has been initiated for ways that it can be used. the systematic documentation, assessment and http://www.awid.org/publications/primers/facts monitoring of these experiences. This paper issues1.pdf (accessed January 2008) describes how some key principles influence programming, and provides examples of their 116 Rights based approaches application. Experiences in the application of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner rights approach have brought to the forefront a for Human Rights, Geneva number of issues that are currently being This website discusses terms used in, and studied, i.e. how to address those rights that are Frequently Asked Questions about, rights-based politically sensitive and hence controversial; the approaches to development. need for better rights-based indicators that http://www.unhchr.ch/development/approaches.html monitor both outcome and process; balancing a (accessed January 2008) rights approach with donor demand for a results approach; and the challenge of reaching a 117 Rights-based approaches common understanding with our partners about Keysheet 18. Department for International what is a human rights-based approach to Development (DFID) and Netherlands Ministry development programming. of Foreign Affairs, London and The Hague, 2003, http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/ 2 p. hrbap/Applying_Human_Rights_Approach_to_ Rights-based approaches are discussed in terms Programming.pdf (accessed January 2008) of an overview of the debate, key issues in decision making, and key literature. 120 A human rights-based approach to http://www.keysheets.org/red_18_rights_based_ programming for children and women in Viet approaches.html (page 1) (accessed January 2007) Nam: key entry points and challenges http://www.keysheets.org/red_18_rights_based_ SALAZAR-VOLKMANN, CHRISTIAN. UNICEF, approaches_2.html (page 2) (accessed January 2007) New York and Hanoi, 2004, 60 p. UNICEF has adopted the Human rights-based 118 Rights-based approaches: learning project approach to programming (HRBAP) as an Oxfam America/Care USA, November 2007, approach to development programming and its 134 p. ISBN 978-0-85598-607-0 application has been analysed in numerous case This report presents the findings of a studies around the world. This case study collaborative Learning Project between CARE presents a situation analysis on child rights in USA and Oxfam America, who compared rights- Vietnam. It identifies key strategies and entry based approach (RBA) projects with non-RBA points, as well as challenges and future topics for projects and identified best practices and lessons progress in rights-based programming in the that could be used to improve the application of country. The case study demonstrates that a rights-based approaches in programming. In human rights-based approach to programming is doing this they confirmed that rights-based possible within the process of modernization and g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t approaches strengthen development work. urbanization of Asian societies. It also shows that See: http://styluspub.com/books/BookDetail.aspx? the Convention on the Rights of the Child can be productID=165141 (accessed January 2008) successfully implemented in a political system governed by only one party. But human rights- 119 Applying a human rights based approach to based programming under such cultural and programming: experience of UNICEF. Paper political conditions demands a clear and accurate prepared for the Workshop on Human Rights, understanding of the historical and political Assets and Livelihood Security environment, in order to identify the right entry ROZGA, DOROTHY. London, 2001, 11 p. points for rights-based projects and activities. In April 1998, UNICEF adopted a human rights- The main difficulties for child rights based approach to programming for children and programming in Vietnam identified here include women. Within the framework of the UNICEF cultural traditions that do not recognize children rights-based approach, human rights and child as subject of rights and new economic market rights principles are applied in all phases of the mechanisms that contribute to growing social programme process. These processes include gaps among the population. The rule of law was situation assessment and analysis, programme only introduced in Vietnam since the beginning design, implementation and management and of the 1990s. Therefore, the legal framework for 146 monitoring and evaluation. Over the past three children is still relatively weak and mechanisms to monitor and handle complaints of child rights 122 Governance hybrids: pro-poor, rights-based violations are still insufficient. Key challenges approaches in rural Peru for further progress in the implementation of SCHNEIDER, A.; ZUNIGA-HAMLIN, REBECCA. child rights in Vietnam are: strengthening the IDS Working Paper 240. Institute of Development rule of law, widening spaces for child and Studies (IDS), Brighton, 2005, 70 p. adolescent participation, addressing the negative ISBN 1-85864-856-4 impact of privatization on poor families and Poverty is multidimensional, and attempts to improving living conditions of ethnic minority respond to poverty must offer internally children. consistent responses to each of the dimensions. http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ Rights-based approaches (RBA) offer a coherent Vietprintaug04.pdf (accessed January 2008) set of economic, social and political responses to poverty that promise substantive change in the 121 Human rights-based approaches to social order. In rural Peru in 2002, a host of local development cooperation, HIV/AIDS, and food and national movements were eager to security experiment with new RBA alternatives to address SARELIN, ALESSANDRA LUNDSTROM. Human intense poverty. The introduction of RBA did not Rights Quarterly 29(2007)2, p. 460-488 occur in a vacuum, however, and existing ISSN 1085-794X clientelist practices mixed with RBA to produce An attempt is made to identify human rights- governance hybrids. At first glance, this based practices and methods for development combination seems unusual. Clientelism and RBA efforts in countries where the HIV/AIDS are usually seen as mutually exclusive, polar pandemic aggravates the realization of two opposites; clientelism reproduces poverty while highly interrelated human rights, namely the RBA transforms it. The current study right to food and the right to health. The analysis demonstrates a variety of hybrid RBA and of field research carried out by CARE clientelist practices that imply different degrees International in Malawi identifies elements of benefit for poor citizens. At a conceptual level, characteristic of a human rights-based approach this study suggests the need to re-evaluate to development cooperation. The focus is on discrete categories of rights and clientelism and human rights-based analysis and assessment, as allow for a continuum that would include a well as on efforts designed to develop the number of intermediate, hybrid steps. Policy capacity of rights-holders and duty-bearers. makers may want to take these hybrids into The article raises questions and issues that are account when designing their interventions to relevant to designing such a strategy. This article move in the direction of greater rights, rather focuses on HIV/AIDS-affected households in than watered-down RBA or reversion to rural areas. For rural populations, the impact of clientelism. HIV/AIDS on farming, farming systems, rural KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2005)240 livelihoods and nutrition is potentially serious, http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp240.pdf but this aspect of the pandemic has been largely (accessed January 2008) overlooked. In sub-Saharan Africa, where roughly 80% of the entire population depends on 123 Can a rights-based approach help in small-scale subsistence agriculture for livelihood achieving the Millennium Development Goals? and food, agriculture is critical for rural food SHETTY, SALIL. IDS Bulletin 36(2005)1, p. 73-75 security and is, therefore, of key importance ISSN 0265-5012 when generating strategies to strengthen HIV- What is the relationship between a rights-based annotated bibliography affected people’s rights to food and health. approach and the framing and implementation of Realizing human rights requires long-term the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? change, government responsibility, implementing And, more broadly, does a rights-based approach structures that guarantee access to food or the help in achieving development or human means to produce it, on a non-discriminatory development? This article argues that although basis as a right. This is why HRBAs applied in more discussion on this question is needed, a HIV/AIDS impact mitigation primarily means rights-based approach does indeed contribute that people living with HIV/AIDS and those positively to human development and the affected are empowered to claim their rights and fulfilment of the MDGs. The first section focuses demand structural change in favor of realizing on how a rights-based approach underlies and human rights and establishing mechanisms of frames the MDGs. The next section examines accountability. how a rights-based approach to implementing the KIT SwetsWise database MDGs strengthens their effects. KIT Library shelf code E 1978-36(2005)1 147  124 Achieving women’s economic and social indivisibility, accountability and participation. rights: strategies and lessons from experience Developing rights-based approaches has been a SYMINGTON, A.; GOKAL, S.; PRINCIPE, T. journey of discovery: exploring new ideas, Association for Women’s Rights in Development challenging established beliefs and ways of (AWID), Toronto, 2006, 48 p. working and searching for solutions beyond the The Association for Women’s Rights in boundaries of conventional development and Development (AWID) is an international feminist, human rights work. While there is broad membership organization committed to consensus on the foundations of a rights-based strengthening the voice, impact and influence of approach, there are no blueprints for how an women’s rights advocates, organizations and organization should become rights-based. Every movements around the world. The focus of the organization has to do its own analysis of what a project described in this paper is on the rights-based approach implies for its programme innovative ways in which a single set of areas and for the social, political and cultural strategies is being used in different ways for context in which the agency works. Child Rights similar aims. The methodology for this project Programming (CRP) is Save the Children’s own was to look at examples and experiences from label for a rights-based approach (RBA) with a many different contexts, striving to understand specific emphasis on children and their rights. the opportunities and obstacles to economic and For the purpose of this collection of articles, the social rights implementation, and the different term rights-based approach (rather than CRP) activities that have been used to advance has been used. There are several reasons for this economic and social rights in different settings. choice. To a large extent, CRP and RBA share The research presented in this paper is based on common principles. The theory and practice of interviews with activists, researchers, lawyers, CRP has benefited greatly from the conceptual government officials and development advances and practical experiences in the practitioners with diverse experience using a broader field of rights-based approaches. At the range of strategies to implement economic and same time, there is much that child rights social rights, as well on reports and articles on organizations can contribute to the broader economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) that discourse on rights-based approaches. Using have been published in different sources. The RBA rather than CRP ensures that this book report is not intended to be a comprehensive reaches audiences beyond the small circle of account of the entire field of women’s economic child rights agencies and advocates. and social rights. It aims to provide examples and http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/hrbap/ experiences from key ESCR advocacy efforts promoting.pdf (accessed January 2008) around the world in order to illuminate, inspire and provoke. The authors of the report hope that 126 Announcing a new dawn prematurely? the experiences presented will contribute to the Human rights feminists and the rights-based body of knowledge on the critically important approaches to development question of how to move from the realization of TSIKATA, DZODZI. In: Feminism in ‘rights on paper’ to ensuring their concrete development: contradictions, contestations and implementation in women’s lives around the challenges ed. by A. Cornwall, E. Harrison and g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t world. A. Whitehead. Zed Books, London, 2007, http://www.awid.org/publications/ESCR%20Report.pdf p. 214-226 ISBN 1-84277-819-6 (accessed January 2008) An account is presented of the debates about policy and programmatic implications of rights- 125 Promoting rights-based approaches: based approaches (RBAs), arguing that experiences and ideas from Asia and the Pacific differences in interpretation signal the need for THEIS, J. Save the Children Sweden, caution. Then it is discussed how gender has been Bangkok/Stockholm, 2004, 162 p. treated within certain RBAs and this is related to This book draws on Save the Children’s the claims being made for RBAs by women’s experiences with rights-based approaches in East rights organizations. The conclusion reached is and South-East Asia and to some extent on work that many of the hopes for the RBAs are not in South Asia and the Pacific. Save the Children likely to be realized given their processes and has promoted rights-based approaches through contexts. training workshops, programme reviews, KIT Library shelf code P 06-1646 discussions, documents and practical programme experimentation. All of this work is based on a firm commitment to human rights and the 148 fundamental principles of universality, 127 The rights-based approach to development: understanding of the linkages between gender, potential for change or more of the same? human rights and HIV/AIDS and respond TSIKATA, DZODZI. IDS Bulletin 35(2004)4, p. strategically to these challenges. Tools and 130-133 ISSN 0265-5012 techniques are hardly ever universally The adoption of the rights-based approach to applicable. When applied in practice, the development by the UN and its agencies, techniques and approaches presented in this bilateral development agencies, and international operational guide must be adapted to local development NGOs has certain implications. circumstances. It is hoped by the authors that the While it has allowed human rights language into guide will serve as a starting point for employing the world of development programming, a more participatory techniques and tools to development which has been met with much deepen and entrench such an approach approval, sceptical voices argue that the throughout all operational areas of development development industry has taken the high-minded programming. concerns of human rights instruments and http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001510/ moulded them to its own purposes, and that not 151002e.pdf (accessed January 2008) much is likely to change in policies and programmes. Given the critique of the rights- 129 From the right to development to the rights- based approach on grounds of its refusal to based approach: how ‘human rights’ entered interrogate economic liberalization, its implied development reliance on the legal apparatus and its UVIN, PETER. Development in Practice exaggerated claims, it is open to question 17(2007)4/5, p. 597-606 ISSN 0961-4524 whether it will deliver development based on This article offers an intellectual genealogy of human rights. The concerns raised about the rights in development – from the formulation of a rights-based approach signal the need for caution ‘right to development’ to the rhetorical on the part of feminists, especially in the light of incorporation of rights within prevailing develop- how the development industry has digested ment discourse, to the articulation of a ‘rights- previous analyses and approaches. based approach’ to development. In the KIT Library shelf code E 1978-35(2004)4 conclusion it is suggested that if donors, be they http://www.cdra.org.za/articles/The%20Rights-Based governments, NGOs or international %20Approach%20to%20Development%20-%20Potential organizations, profess attachment to human %20for%20Change%20or%20More%20of%20the%20 rights in their development aims, they must be Same%20by%20Dzodzi%20Tsikata.doc (accessed willing to apply the rights agenda to all of their January 2008) own actions (the inward focus), and to the global political economy of inequality within which they 128 Operational guide on gender and HIV/AIDS: a occupy such privileged places (the outward rights-based approach focus). In the absence of such moves, the human UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team on Gender and rights focus is little more than a projection of HIV/AIDS, and Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), power. 2005, 48 p. ISBN 90-6832 KIT Library shelf code D 2672-17(2007)4/5 The objective of the operational guide is to make the relationship between gender, human rights 130 Rights-based approaches and beyond: and HIV/AIDS obvious to those working in the challenges of linking rights and participation development sector. It aims to be helpful to VENEKLASEN, LISA; MILLER, VALERIE; people working in the development sector, CLARK, CINDY; REILLY, MOLLY annotated bibliography whether they find themselves in government, IDS Working Paper 235. Brighton, Institute of international development organizations, NGOs Development Studies (IDS), 2004, 62 p. or community organizations. It specifically ISBN 1-85864-854-8 targets those working in the field of HIV/AIDS, As more and more development and human but also hopes to be of use to development rights organizations critically assess their impact programmers and practitioners in a more general and strategies, there is growing convergence in sense. The guide gives support by providing a the questions they raise about how to be most coherent conceptual framework and a set of effective in addressing structural, systemic guidelines/ checklists and tools. Checklists are causes of poverty and exclusion and thus, make a intended to provide HIV/AIDS programmers and positive difference in the lives of poor and other development practitioners with a tool to marginalized people. This paper explores the assess the extent to which their work contributes growing trend of ‘rights-based approaches’ to gender equality. The tools are meant to help (RBAs) to development, drawing on interviews development programmers deepen their with a range of primarily US-based international 149  human rights and development organizations as HRBA, and highlights requirements of human well as insights through the authors’ years of rights-based programming in the context of experience working with development and rights results-based management, a central concept in groups in the global south. While the theory of the work of UN development agencies. More RBA has been broadly embraced as key to detailed background information on CEDAW and getting at the root causes of poverty, many other human rights treaties, including links to organizations are struggling to make sense of the key documents, is also provided. significance of RBA in practice. A brief Part 1: http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/ discussion on critical considerations for groups CEDAW_HRBA_guide_pt1_eng.pdf (accessed January as they advance rights-based work begins to 2008) unravel some key concerns. Next, the focus is on Part 2: http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/ clarifying meanings, offering definitions of what CEDAW_HRBA_guide_pt2_eng.pdf (accessed January seem to be critical components of RBA, namely 2008) participation, rights, and power. A summary follows of some of the current thinking and 132 Constitutional engineering: what practice among international human rights and opportunities for the enhancement of gender development organizations that are deepening rights? their work in RBA. This includes some of the key WAYLEN, GEORGINA. Third World Quarterly tensions, challenges and opportunities they are 27(2006)7, p. 1209-1221 ISSN 0143-6597 encountering. Finally, in building on forgotten The gender implications of the constitutional experiences and innovations, a handful of changes that have taken place as part of recent practical experiences from the past offers ‘third wave’ transitions to democracy are valuable insights and lessons as groups seek to assessed to further an understanding of its maximize the full practical potential of RBA. potential as a tool to enhance gender rights. Some KIT Library shelf code D 3443-(2004)235 feminist political scientists have already tried to http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp235.pdf answer the question of how transitions to (accessed January 2008) democracy can result in positive gender outcomes – since transitions are often seen as 131 CEDAW and the human rights based failing women. South Africa is one of the case approach to programming: a UNIFEM guide studies often considered to have resulted in more WALDORF, LEE. United Nations Development positive gender outcomes than many, if not all, Fund for Women (UNIFEM), New York, NY, 2007, other well-known transitions. To assess the extent 2 parts, 22 p.; 27 p. to which the process of constitutional design in Adoption of the human rights-based approach transitions to democracy can offer opportunities (HRBA) to programming by United Nations (UN) to enhance gender rights, some cases are agencies, funds and programmes is considered to examined that demonstrate a range of outcomes. have great potential for further enhancing the Evidence from four ‘third wave’ transitions – impact of the human rights standards on the Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Poland –form ground. Especially over the past decade, the UN the bulk of the empirical material. The focus is system’s commitment to the HRBA has primarily on the processes of constitutional g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t intensified, and the principle that development change rather then on their outcomes and cooperation should further the realization of subsequent attempts to operationalize any new human rights has now gained wide acceptance. rights. Two more recent experiences, the At the same time, the UN is tackling the processes of constitution drafting in Iraq and in challenge of fully translating this commitment the EU, are briefly discussed. It appears that, in into concrete, operational programming terms. order for constitutional change to be an effective This publication is a practical guide to the HRBA strategy to enhance gender rights, it is necessary to programming for UNIFEM staff and partners, not only to have a favourable political with a particular focus on the UN Convention on opportunity structure, but also to have women the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination activists who are able to play a key role both Against Women (CEDAW). Starting with an inside and outside institutional arenas. Even then, overview of why it is important to understand constitutional change can only be one part of a gender equality as a human rights issue, the multi-pronged strategy to enhance gender rights. guide explains the ‘UN common understanding of KIT Library shelf code E 2401-27(2006)7 the human-rights-based approach’ and how this is reflected in UNIFEM’s multi-year funding framework. It discusses the concrete 150 implications for programming of applying the 133 Interpreting Islam and women’s rights: technical or procedural one, because it entails implementing CEDAW in Pakistan confronting the structural inequalities that WEISS, ANITA M. International Sociology underlie the negation of rights. Understanding 18(2003)3, p. 581-601 ISSN 0268-5809 how rights can shift power relations is essential The gendering of Muslim civil society is raising to realizing the potential of rights to contribute to profound questions regarding women’s social change. A rights perspective, when understood roles and rights, resulting in conflicting images within particular contexts and linked to concerning what constitutes women’s rights, who strategies to shift power relations, has the is to define these rights, where responsibility lies potential to confront some of the most dominant for ensuring them, and the role states are playing assumptions of development orthodoxy—and in articulating and clarifying what is acceptable emerging agendas of security. and unacceptable within a Muslim context. The http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/confe efforts of Pakistan to implement the United rences/documents/Winners%20and%20Losers%20Paper Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All s/Wheeler.pdf (accessed January 2008) Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are discussed to show how that state 135 The winners and losers from rights-based and local civil society groups are grappling with approaches to development (21-22 February identifying what should be women’s rights, and 2005) the dilemmas the state faces in securing these The abstracts and papers presented at ‘The rights. The focus is on the debate around what winners and losers from rights-based constitutes discrimination against women, how approaches’ conference held at IDPM, University the state might act to eliminate discrimination of Manchester, UK, on 21-22 February 2005 are against women in the legal sense and in the social presented. A central question explored focused sense, the roles being played by the various on who stands to win and who stands to lose from groups within the women’s movement to a rights-based approach to development. Some facilitate the process of adherence to CEDAW, argue that rights-based approaches to policies and other challenges being faced as Pakistan such as social protection offer the poorest people attempts to eliminate discrimination against the best guarantee of livelihood support. women. This underscores the challenge of However, others argue that rights-based transforming prevailing Islamic interpretations approaches are an inappropriate strategy for of women’s legal rights into ones acceptable to working with the poorest and most vulnerable, local mores and values adhering to the who may feel more secure in entering (often requirements of CEDAW. informal) negotiations rather than in making KIT Library shelf code E 3024-18(2003)3 demands. In terms of institutional relationships, rights-based strategies may be difficult to 134 Whose rights? Examining the discourse, reconcile with an interest in greater partnership context and practice of rights-based approaches and collaboration between groups that have to development. Paper presented at The Winners traditionally had antagonistic relationships. In and Losers from Rights-Based Approaches to other words, there is both a politics and a Development Conference, 21-22 February 2005 political economy to adopting a rights-based WHEELER, JOANNE; PETTIT, JETHRO. 2005, approach to development that needs to be 14 p. urgently explored. Papers are presented on these Two questions underlie this paper. First, why the and other related questions from academics, rights-based approach, and why now? There are policy makers within bilateral and multilateral annotated bibliography important historical and geo-political forces development agencies, NGO practitioners and behind the timing and framing of the rights- social movement activists. based discourse, which bear careful examination. http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/ Secondly, whose rights count? Between formal conferences/winnersandloserspapers.htm (accessed legal formulations of rights and the actual January 2008) experiences of making rights substantive, questions about whose rights are being defined 136 Women, girls, boys, and men: different needs and claimed, by whom, and how, all become – equal opportunities crucial. Empirical research into actual situations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), 2006, in which rights are contested and claimed reveals 126 p. the central importance of history and context in This handbook sets forth standards for the understanding how rights, and efforts to realize integration of gender issues from the outset of a them, are experienced in practice. The process of new complex emergency or disaster, so that the making rights real is a political one, rather than a humanitarian services provided neither 151  exacerbate nor inadvertently put people at risk; 138 Workshop on development effectiveness in so that they reach their target audience and have practice: applying the Paris Declaration to maximum positive impact. The first part includes advancing gender equality, environmental four chapters covering the core principles, sustainability and human rights, Dublin, Ireland, mandates, definitions and frameworks for gender 26-27 April 2007. Key messages and summary equality, including the rights-based approach. record The second part provides sector- and cluster- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and specific guidance. Together the chapters Development (OECD), Paris, 2007, 16 p. represent a practical tool for ensuring that The purpose of the Workshop was to increase gender equality programming is undertaken and mutual knowledge and understanding of how monitored in each sector at field level. practitioners are applying the Paris Declaration’s http://ochaonline.un.org/OchaLinkClick.aspx?link= overarching principles to advance gender ocha&docid=1007002 (accessed October 2007) equality, environmental sustainability and human rights. The long term goal is to demonstrate how 137 Working from a rights-based approach to attention to these issues enhances development health service delivery to sex workers effectiveness. This document is addressed to Exchange on HIV/AIDS, Sexuality and Gender Workshop participants, policy makers and aid (2007)1, 4 p. ISSN 1871-7551 practitioners in partner and donor countries. It The issue focuses on the relationship between conveys: (1) emerging main messages; (2) lessons HIV and sex workers’ rights. Most of the articles learned in implementing the Paris Declaration; have been produced in the framework of the (3) Opportunities to enhance collaboration with a Oxfam Novib KIC project ‘Knowledge view to further advancing the aid effectiveness Infrastructure with and between Counterparts’ agenda in the run-up to the 2008 Accra review of (KIC). The first article outlines the elements of a the Paris Declaration and beyond; and (4) IV. the rights-based approach to sex work, while the workshop proceedings. second article gives an example of an http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/20/38933324.pdf organization in Hong Kong working from such an (acessed January 2008) approach. The third article focuses on self- organizing of sex workers in Cambodia and the fourth on decriminalization of sex work, as promoted by SWEAT, a sex workers’ support organization in South Africa. The last article is about working with brothel owners and managers to promote HIV prevention. http://www.kit.nl/net/KIT_Publicaties_output/Show File2.aspx?e=1277 g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t 152 Author index Forti, Sarah, 040 Friedman, Elisabeth, 042, 043 (numbers refer to abstract numbers) Garzon, Pauline, 066 Gaventa, J., 069 Gawaya, Rose, 044 Abramovitch, Victor, 001 Gideon, Jasmine, 045 Albert, Sarah C., 076 Gokal, S., 124 Ali, Saida, 062 Goonesekere, Savitri, 046 Angarita, Ana, 004 Gready, Paul, 047 Appleyard, Susan, 006 Grossman, Anna, 048 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Groves, L., 036 Development, 019 Gruskin, Sofia, 049 Asia Pacific Regional Resource Centre for Human Rights Education, 113 Hames, Mary, 050 Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Harcourt, Wendy, 051 064, 115 Harris-Curtis, Emma, 052 Harrison, E., 126 Banerjee, Upala Devi, 009 Hawkins, Kirstan, 053 Barton, Carol, 010 Hayes, Ceri, 054 Benedek, Wolfgang, 011 Hinton, R., 036 Bennoune, Karima, 012 Hoensbroech, Anja-Rosa, 073 Blackburn, James, 013 Holcombe, S., 094 Bond, Johanna, 014 Holland, Jeremy, 013 Booth, David, 039 Hughes, Alexandra, 056 Bradshaw, Sarah, 015 Braig, M., 016 Igras, Susan, 062 Brocklesby, Mary Ann, 013, 017 Interagency Standing Committee, 136 Burke, Mary Anne, 018 International Women’s Rights Project, 005 Care International, 106 Jochnick, Chris, 066 Carlson, Cindy, 053 Johnson, Nadia, 048 Center for Reproductive Rights, 108 Johnson, Tina, 031 Clark, Cindy, 020, 021, 077, 078, 130 Joint Community of Practice, 008 Cohen, David, 022 Jonsson, Urban, 067 Conway, Tim, 082 Cook, Rebecca, 023 Kabeer, N., 034, 068, 069 Copper, Diana, 024 Kapur, Aanchal, 070 Cornwall, Andrea, 025, 025a, 026, 027, 092, 126 Kelleher, David, 111 Craske, Nikki, 028 Kerr, Joanna, 021, 071 Crawford, Sheena, 013, 017 Kisaakye, Esther M., 011 Departmend for International Development, 117 Lazar, Sian, 080 Dodhia, Dineshi, 031 Leslie, Agnes George Ngoma, 072 Drinkwater, Michael, 032 Lisy, Kerstin, 073 Duran, Lydia Alpizar, 021 Duvvury, Nata, 070 Manji, Firoze, 085 Marks, Stephen P., 074 Earth, Barbara, 033 Meer, Shamim, 075 author index Eichler, Margrit, 018 Milani, Leila Rassekh, 076 Ensor, Jonathan, 047 Miller, Valerie, 077, 078, 130 Eyben, R., 034, 035, 036, 056 Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 038 Ezeilo, Joy Ngozi, 088 Mitlin, Diana, 079 Mohammed, Faiza Jama, 085 Ferguson, C., 036, 082 Molyneux, Maxine, 025, 025a, 028, 080, 081 Filmer-Wilson, E., 037 Moser, Caroline, 082 Finke, Emanuela, 073 Mukasa, Rosemary Semafumu, 044 153 Foresti, Marta, 039 Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee, 083, 084  Musa, Roselynn, 085 Salazar-Volkmann, Christian, 120 Musyoki, S., 093 Sarelin, Alessandra Lundstrom, 121 Muteshi, Jacinta, 062 Schneider, A., 122 Mwanza, Iris Chiseche, 086 Scott-Villiers, Patta, 056 Shetty, Salil, 123 Neuhold, B., 087 Sidhu, Gretchen, 048 Newman, Karen, 053 Sprenger, Ellen, 021, 071 Nnaemeka, Obioma, 088 Symington, Alison, 071, 124 Norton, Andy, 082 Nyamu-Musembi, I., 026, 027, 089, 090, 091, 092, Theis, J., 125 093 Thomas, Deborah, 053 Tsikata, Dzodzi, 126, 127 Oberleitner, Gerd, 011 OECD, 002, 030, 065, 138 UK Inter-Agency Group, 003 Offenheiser, R.C., 094 UNAIDS, 128 Office of the High Commissioner, 041, 057, 116 UNDP, 059, 063, 107 O’Neill, Tammie, 039, 103 UNFPA, 007 Oxfam America, 118 UNICEF Regional Office for Asia, 060 Uvin, Peter, 129 Painter, Genevieve Renard, 095 Panda, P., 096 Veneklasen, Lisa, 021, 077, 078, 130 Patel, Sheela, 079 Vizard, Polly, 082 Pettit, Jethro, 097, 134 Piron, Laure-Helene, 098, 099, 100, 101, 102, 103, Waldorf, Lee, 131 104 Watkins, Francis, 104 Powell, Marie, 105 Waylen, Georgina, 132 Principe, T., 124 Wheeler, Joanna, 020, 056, 097, 134 Purushotma, Karina, 076 Whitehead, A., 126 Weiss, Anita M., 133 Rama, Sharmia, 114 Wölte, S., 016 Rand, Jude, 109 Woldemariam, Asmelash, 062 Randriamaro, Z., 110 Rao, Aruna, 111 Zuniga-Hamlin, Rebecca, 122 Razavi, Shahra, 081, 112 Reilly, Molly, 020, 130 Richter, Linda M., 114 Rozga, Dorothy, 119 g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t 154 Geographical index Laos, 009 Latin America, 001, 023, 028, 042, 080, 081 Malawi, 003, 013, 121 (numbers refer to abstract numbers) Mexico, 069 Middle East, 081 Mozambique, 067 Afghanistan, 047 Africa, 011, 023, 032, 044, 073, 085, 088, 108, 114 Nepal, 009, 047 Algeria, 012 Nicaragua, 015, 038 Argentina, 132 Nigeria, 069 Asia, 032, 113, 125 Pacific, 009, 113, 125 Bangladesh, 003, 009, 068, 069, 106 Pakistan, 133 Bolivia, 106 Peru, 003, 013, 034, 069, 106, 122 Botswana, 072 Philippines, 009 Brazil, 028, 047, 069, 132 Poland, 132 Burundi, 106, 109 Rwanda, 047, 106 Cambodia, 009, 106, 137 Canada, 023 Sierra Leone, 106 Chile, 028, 045 Somalia, 106 Colombia, 023 South Africa, 050, 069, 075, 109, 132, 137 South Asia, 023, 060, 081 East-Central Europe, 081 South East Asia, 081 Ethiopia, 038, 062 Sub-Saharan Africa, 081, 090 European Union, 132 Sudan, 023 Ghana, 014, 023, 086 Tanzania, 014, 067 Guatemala, 106 Thailand, 033, 106 Honduras, 106 Uganda, 014, 040, 047, 086, 109 Hong Kong, 137 United Kingdom, 069 United States, 069 India, 009, 023, 047, 069, 070, 083, 096, 106, 109 Uruguay, 028 Indonesia, 009 Iran, 112 Venezuela, 028 Iraq, 132 Vietnam, 009, 109, 120 Ireland, 047 Zambia, 086 Kenya, 062, 093 Zimbabwe, 067 geographical index 155  Web resources Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and CREA (Creating Resources for Empowerment in Development (APWLD) Action) http://www.apwld.org (accessed March 2008) http://web.creaworld.org/home.asp (accessed March 2008) Asia-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) Equal in Rights, Human Rights-Based Approach http://www.arrow.org.my (accessed March 2008) http://www.equalinrights.org/content/hrba_ approach.html (accessed March 2008) Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) ESCR-Net: International Network for Economic, http://www.awid.org/ (accessed March 2008) Social & Cultural Rights (ESCR) http://www.escr-net.org/ (accessed March 2008) BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights http://www.baobabwomen.org (accessed March Fiji Women’s Rights Movement 2008) http://fwrm.org.fj (accessed March 2008) Care International, Rights Based Approaches Eldis search on Gender and Human Rights http://www.careinternational.org.uk/?lid=6215 http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource- (accessed March 2008) guides/gender/human-rights (accessed March 2008) Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), Wits University, South Africa Global Justice Center http://www.law.wits.ac.za/cals/ (accessed March http://www.globaljusticecenter.net/ (accessed 2008) March 2008) Challenging fundamentalisms: a web resource Human Rights Education Association (HREA) for women’s human rights http://www.hrea.org (accessed March 2008) A joint project of AWID, Droits et Démocratie, g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t and Women Living under Muslim Laws Human Rights Information and Documentation 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http://www.unicef.org/rightsresults/index.html http://www.iwraw-ap.org/ (accessed March 2008) (accessed March 2008) Just Associates (JASS) UNIFEM (United Nations Fund for Women), http://www.justassociates.org/ (accessed March Gender Issues, Human Rights 2008) http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/human_ rights/ (accessed March 2008) Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM) United Nations Division for the Advancement of http://www.cladem.org/english/ (accessed March Women (DAW) 2008) http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/ (accessed March 2008) MADRE http://madre.org/ (accessed March 2008) University of Toronto, Bora Laskin Law Library, Women’s Human Rights Resource Programme Office of the High Commissioner for Human http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/ (accessed Rights (OHCHR) March 2008) http://www.ohchr.org/english/ (accessed March 2008) Women’s Action & Resource Initiative (WARI), Bangkok, Thailand Organisation for Economic Co-operation and http://geocities.com/wari9/index.htm (accessed Development (OECD), Human rights and March 2008) development, Governance and Capacity Development, Development Co-operation Women for Women International Directorate http://www.womenforwomen.org (accessed http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,3343,en_2649_ March 2008) 34565_35901653_1_1_1_1,00.html (accessed March 2008) Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) – New Ways People’s Movement for Human Rights Education http://www.wwhr.org/ (accessed March 2008) (PDHRE) http://www.pdhre.org/index.html (accessed Women’s Human Rights net (a project of the March 2008) Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Sahayog, India http://www.whrnet.org/ (accessed March 2008) http://www.sahayogindia.org/ (accessed March 2008) Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace UNESCO Bangkok, UN Interagency Asia-Pacific http://www.learningpartnership.org/ (accessed Lessons Learned Project on the Human Rights March 2008) Based Approach (HRBA) to Development http://unescobkk.org/index.php?id=5587 (accessed March 2008) web resources 157  About the authors Cathi Albertyn is a professor of law and the director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is a constitutional and human rights lawyer with a particular specialization in equality and women’s human rights. Cathi was fortunate to be able to participate in the development of South Africa’s new Constitution through her work on the legal working group of the Women’s National Coalition and as a technical expert in the Constitutional Assembly. Since 1994 she has been involved in several policy development and law reform processes, as well as litigation on equality and women’s rights. She has also researched and written extensively on equality rights, including chapters on ‘Equality’ in two of South Africa’s leading constitutional law books. She has co-edited a special edition of Politikon (2005) on ‘Feminism and Democracy: Women engage the South African State’, as well as Gender, Law and Justice (Juta 2007), a comprehensive text on gender and the law in South Africa for students, academics and practitioners. Between 1997 and 1999, Cathi was a part-time Commissioner for the Commission on Gender Equality and in 2007 she was appointed as a Commissioner for the South African Law Reform Commission. Sarah Bradshaw is a principal lecturer in Development Studies at Middlesex University, UK. She spent a number of years living and working in Nicaragua where she returns every year to work with the Nicaraguan feminist organization, Puntos de Encuentro. Her work is supported by the British NGO Progressio (formerly known as CIIR/International Cooperation for Development). Her recent publications have focused on women’s movements and their responses to international policy initiatives, g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t such as the World Bank-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy process, and their responses to international development discourses, including ideas around rights and rights-based development. Vilma Castillo Aramburu holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Mexico and in 2002 also undertook a Masters in Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Nicaragua linked to Umea University, Sweden. She is a co-founder of Puntos de Encuentro, a Nicaraguan feminist NGO, and currently a member of the Board of Directors. Since 2002 she has worked as a consultant, specializing in gender, development and organizations. She was co-author of the first study undertaken in Nicaragua about violence against women in the home (1986), and has done research on family dynamics that influence adolescent pregnancy (2005). More recently, her work has focused on sexual and reproductive rights (2006). 158 Ana Criquillion is a long-time French-Nicaraguan feminist activist and the founder and current executive director of the Central American Women’s Fund. She is founder and chair of the Board of Directors of Puntos de Encuentro (‘Common Ground’), a Nicaraguan non-profit organization created in 1990 to work for the defence and promotion of women’s and young people’s rights. Ana also serves as President of the Board of the International Network of Women’s Funds. She was selected in 2005 by Ashoka as a new Fellow, an award which honours social entrepreneurs from all over the world. Her publications include various essays and research reports on women’s issues, gender, development aid and organizational capacity-building. Jashodhara Dasgupta is an activist and researcher working in northern India since 1986. She is the coordinator of an NGO working on women’s health and gender equality called SAHAYOG, and is part of the movement around women’s human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights in India. She was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for Population Innovations in 1995 for three years, and was a Visiting Fellow with the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, United Kingdom, in 2006. She was awarded a Gold Medal in University, but opted to become a rural health worker and educator, and continues to work on supporting rural women’s organizations as well as bringing rural women’s voices into policy arenas. Shamim Meer is a feminist activist who has worked as a researcher, writer and organizational development practitioner in South Africa and internationally since mid-1994. Her work has been with NGOs in rural development, urban development and human rights, with women’s organizations and trade unions. Prior to 1994 she worked as a political and feminist activist within organizations challenging apartheid, and was a co-founder of the feminist publications ‘SPEAK’ and ‘Agenda’. Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, PhD, is a social anthropologist specialized in social development with a focus on gender and development. She has twenty-five years of experience and expertise in social and institutional analysis, citizenship and rights in development, and integration of equity concerns across sectors in policy development, programme and project planning, monitoring and evaluation. Dr. Mukhopadhyay has worked for the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) as head of the KIT Gender programme for ten years and is at present the Area Leader for Social Development and Gender Equity in the Department of Development Policy and Practice at KIT. She is responsible for the development of the programme for her area with a special focus on gender, citizenship and governance and rights-based approaches in development. She is involved in building partnerships, capacity and agendas to undertake action research; advisory work in social development; about the authors conducting international and regional training programmes on gender and development; and publications. Hania Sholkamy is an Egyptian anthropologist with a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, The University of London, UK. She is currently assistant research professor at the Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo (AUC) and is also affiliated with the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program of the university. Prior to her current position she has been employed as assistant professor of anthropology in the department of anthropology of 159  the American University in Cairo (AUC), has been a research associate at the International Population Council, and was the Ioma Evans Pritchard Junior Research Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford University, UK. Her research interests and publications are mainly in the fields of health, particularly reproductive health, gender, population, and qualitative methods. She has been a member of various professional associations, including The Reproductive Health Working Group (current), the Committee on Anthropology and Demography of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (1998-2002), and the Advisory Committee of the Middle East Awards program of the International Population Council (2002/3). She is a member of the executive committee of the Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies of the AUC, a fellow of the Economic Research Forum, and a member of the International Faculty of the Arab Gulf University in Bahrain. She is currently regional coordinator of the ‘Pathways to Women’s Empowerment Research Consortium’ in partnership with the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK. Goya Wilson is currently programme officer at Oxfam-Canada, Central America. She holds a BA in Sociology from the Central American University in Nicaragua and an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands. Her Masters thesis was a critique on the PRSP in Nicaragua and how the construction of the poverty discourse helped determine the role of civil society actors in the process. Active in the women’s movements in Nicaragua since an early age, she has worked for 15 years as an independent researcher for both local NGOs and international organizations in Nicaragua. Her work focuses on topics related to gender, politics and development and she has contributed to many published reports and papers, including the 1999 study ‘Exploring our changes’ that examined the impact of gender training on women’s groups in Nicaragua. Everjoice J. Win is a feminist from Zimbabwe. She was educated at the University of Zimbabwe, and graduated with Honours in Economic History. Most of her working life has been with the women’s movement in Zimbabwe and the African continent. She is currently the Head of Women’s Rights with ActionAid International. Action Aid works in over 45 countries globally, and she is responsible for leading the organization’s work on Women’s Rights. Everjoice has been an active leader in social g e n d e r, r i g h t s a n d d e v e l o p m e n t justice movements in Zimbabwe and internationally. She is also a regular columnist and contributor to newspapers, magazines, and journals. Henk van Dam, and Minke Valk are information specialists within the Information & Library Services (ILS) of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They are editors of the Gender, Society & Development series of reference publications. Henk, Ilse and Minke are also involved in the production of thematic internet resources called dossiers and information portals. Contact: E: h.v.dam@kit.nl; m.valk@kit.nl W: www.kit.nl/ 160