International Law, Human Rights, International Organizations and Women and Criminal Justice

Chapter 3
International law, human rights,

international organizations and
women and criminal justice
International law
Most criminologists research only within the realm of domestic criminal law and
criminal procedure and national or local criminal justice systems, with some
exceptions (e.g. Savelsberg, 2010; Hagan & Rymond-Richmond, 2009; Rothe &
Mullins, 2006). Criminal justice scholars, reformers and practitioners who are
interested in women, crime and justice are used to conceptualizing women, crime
and justice at the level of domestic criminal justice systems, by studying the inter-
action between criminal law and the various organizations used within a country
to enforce, apply or interpret it: police, prosecutors, courts, corrections and victim
services. Feminist criminologists have leveled many criticisms of the criminal
justice system as a gendered institution – one largely created by men and for men.
They have found it unresponsive to women’s issues – be it through discriminatory
laws, inaccessible police and court services, harsh prison regimes or professions
that fail to recognize women criminal justice professionals and incorporate their
viewpoints. For most criminal justice scholars, analysis and reform of criminal
justice means working within police organizations, the judiciary or corrections or
working at local, state and national levels influencing legislative or executive
decision making.
Copyright © 2014. Taylor and Francis. All rights reserved.
Increasingly, feminists have broadened their claims to the international legal

sphere. This has to do in part with globalization: communications have sped up
the contacts among activists worldwide, and it is easier to keep abreast of inter-
national legal movements and decisions than before. There are key political and
legal reasons for this strategic move as well, which have to do with state as well
as individual accountability, increased media attention and efficiency. Very sim-
ply, working at the international level, if successful, means that change can affect
women and girls around the globe, not just in one local jurisdiction.
International law encompasses many bodies of law that are relevant to this
chapter: international criminal law, international human rights law and interna-
tional humanitarian law. Niemann (2014) differentiates among these three bodies
of law, clarifying that all three of them have been or still are an impingement on
state sovereignty but reflect international consensus on what acts are so egregious
Barberet, R. L. (2014). Women, Crime and Criminal Justice. : Taylor and Francis. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com
Created from webster on 2017-01-27 06:48:52.
52 Global forces
or unfair that states must be held accountable to the international community.

International criminal law is that which establishes definitions and procedures for
criminalizing acts internationally, with individual as well as state liability. Inter-
national human rights law includes sanctions against acts that are generally con-
sidered criminal as well as noncriminal, and generally holds the state accountable.
International humanitarian law applies to armed conflict whether external or
internal. It serves to level the playing field for combatants (‘Hague law’), as well
as to ensure the humanitarian treatment of civilians (‘Geneva law’, based on the
Geneva Conventions). Many forms of gender-based violence are or can be dealt
with by these bodies of law, as can the issues of criminal justice, crime prevention
and the treatment of women offenders and prisoners.
International law and criminal justice reform

Individual complainants, legal advocates and criminal justice reformers have
used international law by a variety of mechanisms to improve justice for women.
International law is particularly helpful in reform efforts in countries where local
(including customary) law, for which states are still responsible, is less developed,
less progressive or less forward thinking than international law as concerns
women, crime and justice; and especially, of course, where local law is in viola-
tion of treaty obligations or international human rights standards.
Accessing international treaties, either by ensuring that one’s state ratifies them
(after which the provisions of the treaty must be incorporated into national law)
or by raising claims through their compliance mechanisms (such as committees
that are responsible for ensuring that states parties to treaties comply with them),
is one way of reforming criminal justice systems. Under the optional protocol to
the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW; www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm), com-
plainants can bring cases to the CEDAW Committee for action. In 2007, the
CEDAW Committee made a decision on two cases of battered women of Turkish
origin in Austria, who, despite repeatedly seeking criminal justice remedies, were
eventually murdered by their husbands. The CEDAW Committee found that the
government of Austria had not implemented its legislation well. As a result, Aus-
tria put new measures in place and increased funding for the implementation of
the law (UN Women, 2011, p. 18). This case is representative of the increasing
responsibility of the state to perform ‘due diligence’ – to apply a standard of
care – with respect to preventing and responding to cases of domestic violence.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children, in the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized
Crime, was adopted by the General Assembly in 2000 and went into force in
2003. It defines human trafficking and makes special reference to protection of
women and children. We shall examine it in more detail in Chapter 6.
Using ad hoc international tribunals established after conflict, such as the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the
Law, human rights, and organizations 53
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to bring claims of injustice

to women is another way that reformers have used laws to gain redress but also
established jurisprudence for future cases. In these two situations (the conflict in
the former Yugoslavia, and the genocide in Rwanda), there were national courts
that had jurisdiction for atrocities committed during armed conflict. But the ad
hoc tribunals were reserved for the most serious crimes. Both the ICTY and the
ICTR are well known for their landmark decisions on rape committed during
those wars.1 They had a strong influence on the drafting of the Rome Statute,
which created the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002. Legal scholars and
activists used the opportunity of the Rome Statute to enshrine the redefinition of
rape in armed conflict as a crime against humanity.2 Many aspects of the judiciary
have become gender responsive in the ICC, in part due to lobbying on behalf of
advocates for these changes (Spees, 2003).
This kind of redefining of a crime that affects women has also been done
through efforts to get domestic violence conceptualized as a form of torture under
the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT). This approach to domestic violence
has been accepted by the CAT Committee, which has condemned “the prevalence
of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence” in its Con-
cluding Observations on Greece in 2004. The CAT consists of 10 independent
experts elected by states parties to the Convention Against Torture. The CAT
works to eradicate the practice of torture through its receipt of individual com-
plaints and the country reporting and monitoring process.
International legal advocates for women have also used existing international
guidelines (sometimes called soft law, because they are not binding like treaties,
which are called hard law) as the basis for drafting gender-specific guidelines. The
new UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Meas-
ures for Women Offenders (UN General Assembly, 2010) built off the existence
of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, drafted in 1955.
Gender mainstreaming is another way that international guidelines, resolu-
tions, even treaties can include gender provisions. For example, the UN Commis-
sion on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice adopted Guidelines on Crime

Prevention, in which gender considerations are mainstreamed.3
State feminists (such as those who work within UN Women) as well as legal
advocates collaborate to create ‘model legislation’. This effort is extremely useful
for developing countries, which do not have the resources to hire legal staff in
government to draft legislation from scratch. In 2010, the United Nations pro-
duced the Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women (for legislative
efforts similar to the US Violence Against Women Act of 1994, for example).
Inspections or visits are another way by which institutions can be reformed.
Sometimes local authorities do little to remedy situations of injustice, and it
becomes useful to call in international legal authorities. Some treaty monitoring
bodies, as well as some special rapporteurs, make visits to countries to inspect
institutions or meet with organizations or individuals who have claims. The
reports that ensue make recommendations for change at the national level.
54 Global forces
Criminal justice and human rights frameworks: A comparison

Recent developments at both the local and international levels suggest an alterna-
tive or parallel arena for reform: utilization of human rights law. Depending on
each country, this system operates at various levels. For example, New York City
has a Human Rights Commission and New York State has the Division of Human
Rights. These agencies monitor and receive complaints and conduct inquiries on
discrimination against protected categories of people. At the federal level, the US
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal anti-discrimination
laws in the area of employment. The US Department of Housing and Urban
Development enforces federal anti-discrimination laws related to housing. It is
also possible to access international human rights law. Human rights advocates in
the United States hold the US government accountable to human rights treaties by
engaging in advocacy and litigation in US courts and before international bodies.
In the UK, the 1998 Human Rights Act is of major importance in criminal justice.
The Human Rights Act obliges all courts and tribunals in the United Kingdom to
interpret legislation in a way compatible with the rights laid down in the European
Convention on Human Rights. Brazil’s 2006 Maria da Penha Law on domestic
and family violence came about through human rights advocacy. It is a conse-
quence of Maria da Penha Fernandes v Brazil, a case taken to the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights, of Brazil’s compliance with the Organization of Ameri-
can States Convention to Prevent, Punish, and Eradicate Violence against Women
(Convention of Belém of Pará) and CEDAW.
The essential difference between a criminal justice response and a human
rights response resides in the different bodies of law and their accompanying
institutional frameworks, as well as perpetrator responsibility rather than state
accountability. Thus, the criminal justice system holds the perpetrator responsi-
ble for crime, whether this is an offender or group of offenders, a corporation or
a workplace (in the case of sexual harassment). Similarly, it holds women perpe-
trators accountable for their crime commission. The international human rights
framework holds the state ultimately responsible for violations of human rights
and the pursuit of justice, peace and security.

Because the international human rights framework is statist, political science
has typically been the scholarly arena for human rights research and activism.
However, criminal justice scholars are increasingly examining the human rights
framework. Both human rights activists and criminal justice reformers need each
other. In the long run, those who implement state reforms or are called upon by
states to advise or work more effectively in criminal justice are typically agents
of the criminal justice system (police, judiciary and prisons). For example, if a
country is ‘named and shamed’ for not adhering to international norms or fulfill-
ing criminal justice–related obligations enshrined in a human rights treaty, sooner
or later officials from the criminal justice system will be involved in reform
efforts, because they are ultimately responsible for implementing reforms on the
ground. For international criminal justice scholars, international human rights are
a potent common ‘language’ of justice. Although not all violations of human

rights are crimes, many are social harms – structural or institutional violence – as
discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. They are thus related to crime causation or are
important in and of themselves.
Nevertheless, there have been strong critiques of international human rights
from gender scholars, such as those from non-Western societies, who question the
Western-centric notion of individual rights. In many non-Western societies, rights
are collective, not individual. Still other scholars have argued that there has been a
historical bias against including women’s rights as human rights and that rights on
paper have not translated to the defense of those rights in reality. Charlotte Bunch
(2006), a longtime international feminist scholar and activist, provides a historical
view of the linkage of human rights to women’s rights. The reluctance to make this
linkage, she argues, “follow[s] one or more of these lines: (1) sex discrimination
is too trivial, or not as important, or will come after larger issues of survival that
require more attention; (2) abuse of women, while regrettable, is a cultural, private
or individual issue and not a political matter requiring state action; (3) while appro-
priate for other action, women’s rights are not human rights per se; (4) when the
abuse of women is recognized, it is considered inevitable or so pervasive that any
consideration of it is futile or will overwhelm other human rights mechanisms”
(p. 59). Bunch attributes the male-defined norms of the human rights community
as responsible for much of the reluctance to link women’s rights to human rights.
A feminist transformation must occur in the human rights concept so that it is
made responsive to women’s needs. Much of this transformation is under way, but
there are antecedents that make it possible, which the next section will review.
Setting the scene: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and

other instruments
The first question the reader might ask, then, is whether the human rights response
to crime and justice is more gender sensitive than domestic criminal justice deci-
sion making and reform. It is thus first important to clarify that the current human
rights perspective builds on the philosophy of natural rights, a current of thinking

that originated in the eighteenth century, which was very much a man’s domain.
Natural rights scholars were not necessarily inclusive of women or any other
marginalized group. Human rights emerged from natural rights, as enshrined in the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR; www.un.org/en/documents/
udhr/index.shtml#a1). Human rights are thus legal rights, as the UDHR is consid-
ered to be international (soft) law. It is generally acknowledged that international
human rights law is respectful of women and equality. Article 2 says:
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Decla-
ration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth
or other status.
56 Global forces
Other articles in the UDHR establish rights that are relevant to this text, such as
access to justice, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and peace, safety
and security.
Article 16 of the UDHR says:
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality
or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled
to equal rights as to marriage during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the
intending spouses.
And finally Article 17 says, “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special
care and assistance.”
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights again
guarantees freedom from discrimination according to sex and the equal right of
men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the equal
right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil and political rights and
guarantees equality before the law.
The International Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees rights to
each child within its jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, regardless of
the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, dis-
ability, birth or other status. It asks states parties to take measures to ensure that
the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the
basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions or beliefs of the child’s parents,
legal guardians or family members.
These guarantees pervade other instruments and guidelines dealing with
women, crime and justice.
Relevant human rights agencies

Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council is a body within the United Nations responsible for
the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing
situations of human rights violations. It has the ability to discuss all thematic
human rights issues and situations. It meets at the UN Office in Geneva. The
council is made up of 47 United Nations member states, which are elected by the
UN General Assembly.
The Human Rights Council has a Universal Periodic Review mechanism,
which serves to evaluate the human rights situations in all United Nations mem-
ber states; an advisory committee, which provides expertise and advice; and a
complaint procedure, which allows individuals and organizations to bring human
rights violations to the attention of the council.
The Human Rights Council also works with UN special rapporteurs, special
representatives, independent experts and working groups that monitor, advise and
report on thematic issues or human rights in specific countries. Special rappor-
teurs and working groups conduct country visits, act on individual cases and
broader issues by sending reports on violations or abuses to states and others,
conduct studies and convene expert consultations, assist in the development of
international human rights standards, engage in advocacy, increase public aware-
ness and advise on technical assistance. They report annually to the Human
Rights Council.
Of the thirty-six thematic special rapporteurs, two are particularly relevant to
this text: Joy Ngozi Ezeilo (Nigeria) is the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in
persons, especially in women and children; and Rashida Manjoo is the Special
Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences. Under the
same procedures that govern special rapporteurs are working groups. There is cur-
rently a working group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and
in practice. Depending on the particular expertise and zealousness of the special
rapporteurs, they can be quite instrumental in achieving justice for women.
Commission on the Status of Women

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), established in 1946, is part of
the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and focuses exclu-
sively on gender equality and the advancement of women. The CSW was estab-
lished to prepare recommendations and reports to the Human Rights Council. Out
of it grew the main United Nations convention on women’s rights, CEDAW. In
1987 its mission was expanded to include promoting, monitoring, reviewing and
appraising progress made at the national, subregional, regional and global levels.
The CSW is one of the main venues for women’s issues within the United
Nations. It meets annually in New York, and every 4 years organizes world con-
ferences on women, although the last one was in 1995. Partly out of its work
emerged the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in

1993 (www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm). Following the well-
known 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the UN General
Assembly mandated the CSW to integrate into its program a follow-up process to
the conference and to develop its important role in mainstreaming a gender per-
spective into United Nations activities. In the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action (UN Women, 1995), the following areas were identified as being of
critical concern, many of which are related to crime and justice:
• The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women

• Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to education and
training
• Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to health care and related
services
58 Global forces
• Violence against women

• The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those
living under foreign occupation
• Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of productive
activities and in access to resources
• Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision
making at all levels
• Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women
• Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human
rights of women
• Stereotyping of women and inequality in women’s access to and participation
in all communication systems, especially in the media
• Gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the safe-
guarding of the environment
• Persistent discrimination against and violation of the rights of the girl-child
The CSW consists of one representative from each of the 45 member states
elected by ECOSOC on the basis of geographical distribution: 13 members from
Africa, 11 from Asia, 9 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 8 from western
Europe and other states and 4 from eastern Europe.
CEDAW and CEDAW Committee

CEDAW is the main human rights convention for women’s equality. It was
adopted in 1979. It has been ratified by 186 out of 193 United Nations member
states but is the convention with the largest number of reservations. Reservations
are annotations by states parties that express a reluctance to comply with parts of
the convention.
CEDAW was a landmark document because it did away with a piecemeal
approach by the United Nations to women’s rights. It examined inequality in the
public sphere as well as the private sphere and recognized the role that culture and
religion play in undermining human rights. While not expressly mentioning vio-
lence against women, CEDAW prohibits it in its guarantees against sex discrimi-
nation. The recommendations of the CEDAW Committee, which interprets and
enforces CEDAW, clearly envision violence against women as prohibited by the
convention (General Recommendation No. 19, 11th session, 1992).
The only Western developed country not to have ratified CEDAW is the United
States. President Carter signed CEDAW but it has never been introduced on the
Senate floor. It coincided historically with the failed Equal Rights Amendment as
well as with heated debates about abortion. Many of the reservations held about
CEDAW have since diminished or vanished, and many hope that CEDAW will be
ratified in the second term of the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and, most recently, Secretary of State John Kerry have both been
supporters of CEDAW. The failure of the United States to ratify CEDAW makes
many question the US commitment to women’s human rights both internally and
abroad. The US Department of State now has an Ambassador-at-Large for Global
Women’s Issues, but it seems hypocritical to many for the United States to be
giving lessons to other countries that it does not follow at home.
The CEDAW Committee, an expert body established in 1982, is composed of
23 experts on women’s issues from around the world. The committee monitors
the progress of women made in those countries that are the states parties to the
CEDAW. At each of its sessions, which alternate between Geneva and New York,
the committee reviews reports submitted by the states parties. These reports
recount action taken to improve the situation of women and are presented by
government representatives. In discussions with these officials, the CEDAW
experts comment on the reports and obtain additional information. The committee
also makes recommendations on any issue affecting women to which it believes
the states parties in general should focus more attention.
The 23 members of the CEDAW Committee, acknowledged as experts “of high
moral standing and competence in the field covered by the Convention” (Arti-
cle 17, paragraph 1 of CEDAW), are elected by states parties to CEDAW. These
elections have to meet the convention’s demands for geographical distribution in
membership and the requirement that CEDAW members represent “different
forms of civilization as well as principal legal systems” (Article 17, paragraph 1).
UN Women
In 2010, the UN General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations
entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women came
about as part of the UN reform agenda, thanks to the work of the feminist activist
community, which we will discuss in Chapter 4. It merges and builds on the
important work of four previously separate parts of the UN system: the Division
for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training
Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the Office of the Special
Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) and the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
UN Women supports intergovernmental bodies, such as the CSW, in formulat-
ing policies, standards and norms. It helps member states implement these stand-
ards, by providing technical and financial support to those countries that request
it, working with civil society in partnership. Finally, UN Women holds the UN
system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, through regular
monitoring. UN Women’s first executive director was former President of Chile
Michelle Bachelet. Its current director is Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka from South
Africa. UN Women has a number of priority areas, including peace and security,
violence against women, political participation, economic empowerment and
HIV/AIDS.
60 Global forces
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

An often forgotten element of the United Nations human rights system is the
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ). The commis-
sion is a subsidiary body of ECOSOC. It was preceded by the more technically
focused Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, formed in 1971 to replace
an earlier expert advisory committee and tackle a broadened scope of UN interest
in criminal justice policy. ECOSOC established the CCPCJ in 1992. Its mandated
priority themes are:
• international action to combat national and transnational crime, including

organized crime, economic crime and money laundering, and promotion of
the role of criminal law in protecting the environment;
• crime prevention in urban areas, juvenile crime and violent crime; and
• efficiency, fairness and improvement in the management and administration
of criminal justice systems.
The CCPCJ develops, monitors and reviews the implementation of the UN crime
prevention and criminal justice program and facilitates the coordination of its
activities. The CCPCJ provides substantive and organizational direction for the
UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which is held every
5 years. The CCPCJ acts as the governing body of the UN Crime Prevention and
Criminal Fund, which provides resources for promoting technical assistance in
crime prevention and criminal justice carried out by the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime. The CCPCJ consists of one representative from the 40 member states
elected by ECOSOC for 3-year terms.
The CCPCJ is assisted by the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Pro-
gram Network, which consists of a number of interregional, regional and national
institutes. (For example, the National Institute of Justice in the United States
contributes to the work of the Program Network, as does the Australian Institute
of Criminology.)
The aspect of the CCPCJ’s work that relates the most to this text is the
propagation of standards and norms in criminal justice (see Compendium of
United Nations Standards and Norms in Crime Prevention and Criminal Jus-
tice, www.unodc.org/unodc/en/justice-and-prison-reform/compendium.html).
Since the 1950s, the CCPCJ has regularly issued standards in a variety of areas
(police, prosecution, courts, torture and inhuman forms of punishment, pris-
ons, alternatives to imprisonment, victims’ rights, juvenile justice, capital
punishment, crime prevention, violence against women), and most of these
norms make references to equality between the sexes, to the need to abolish
discriminatory practices or to the need to respond to women in a gender-
sensitive way. The most recent addition to the collection of standards and
norms are the Bangkok Rules (UN General Assembly, 2010), which we will
discuss in Chapter 8.
Security Council
It seems strange to discuss the UN Security Council last, but even though this is
a very important and powerful mechanism within the United Nations, its work
does not really encompass women or criminal justice. However, because of its
role in mediating conflict, in recent years it has made strides in the area of
women, conflict and postconflict. In 2000, the Security Council adopted UNSC
Resolution 1325, a landmark on women, peace and security. More recently,
UNSCR 1820, adopted in 2008, affirms that sexual violence in armed conflict can
be a war crime, a crime against humanity or genocide (paragraph 4). Two addi-
tional resolutions, 1888 and 1889, both adopted in 2009, strengthen both
UNSCRs 1325 and 1820. In 2010, the Security Council approved UNSCR 1960,
and in 2013, UNSCR 2106. This collection of resolutions has been key to linking
women to peace and security issues, preventing and demanding accountability for
the use of sexual violence in armed conflict, involving women in peacebuilding
and recruiting more women peacekeepers (to be discussed in Chapter 5).
The international human rights framework is largely unknown to criminal jus-
tice scholars and students, yet presents a sophisticated mechanism for ensuring
gender equality and justice for women worldwide. Only through such intergov-
ernmental machinery can gender equality be a universal goal. Familiarity and
engagement with the bodies that draft, interpret and enforce international human
rights law and with the texts that specify nondiscriminatory provisions is a grow-
ing necessity for the international community of scholars concerned about women
as offenders, victims and criminal justice professionals. Of equal interest is inter-
national humanitarian law and international criminal law as instruments for
reform and redress of crimes against women.
Global women’s activism

A discussion of international law can hardly occur without a discussion of global
women’s activism. Chapter 1 highlighted how feminism and feminist criminology
see activism as a part of the scholarly enterprise. This chapter discusses global
women’s activism broadly and as it relates to women, crime and justice. Many
feminist criminologists are scholar-activists, either overtly within their research,
pedagogical or practitioner settings or accompanying these activities, through
their support of political or service organizations or through consulting with gov-
ernmental organizations, providing knowledge or policy input as outsiders.
Because criminology is still focused mainly on the local or national level, most
pursue their activism at those levels. However, increasingly, feminist criminolo-
gists are interested in activism that takes place beyond their borders. Global
women’s activism has a rich history that has been explored by scholars in political
science, women’s studies and social movements. It has many lessons for feminist
criminologists. There is also much that feminist criminology can contribute to
global women’s activism.
62 Global forces
Activists try to affect political or social change. They work generally outside
of authority structures such as institutions, in order to hold them accountable to
their mandates or to change them, their laws or their policies. Activists also work
directly with other people to change attitudes and raise awareness of certain
issues. Sometimes, activists work to change the status quo; other times, activists
work to stop change to the status quo. There are many ways that activists work.
Quite simply, they organize and mobilize people so as to draw attention to social
problems or injustices. They protest and hold rallies, sit-ins, marches and boy-
cotts. They observe, bear witness and gather testimony. They research, monitor
and fact check. They educate and train. And they provide alternative services to
those of governments or the private sector, either by charging for them or fund-
raising to offer them.
Feminist activists work to achieve rights for women or gender equality. They
believe that most authority structures are biased against women’s interests, either
blatantly or subtly, through institutionalized sexism. Society, in general, is sexist
as well. Women need to be empowered to change it, and men also need to change,
because in the long run, sexism is harmful to everyone. Because injustice is often
masked as something else, much work needs to be done to bring inequalities and
abuses to light and to raise consciousness so that people work to challenge injus-
tice. For example, much of gender injustice results from the idea that women’s
subordinated role is naturally or culturally appropriate, or simply ‘tradition’.
Most feminist activists work in what are termed grassroots organizations –
those that emerge spontaneously from commonly felt sentiments in a community.
These organizations sometimes solidify into nonprofit or volunteer organizations,
which in national or international spheres are often called civil society organiza-
tions (CSOs) or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
In some contexts, feminist activism has permeated government and is called
state feminism. This can be seen in many European, Latin American and African
countries, which have created Ministries for Women’s Affairs. These governmen-
tal agencies work within the branches of government to mainstream gender equal-
ity and push for reform. Oftentimes, their leaders come from the ranks of
nongovernmental feminist activism. Sometimes, state feminism is co-opted by
state interests and ceases to be fully feminist or activist in orientation. Some
believe that the term state feminism is an oxymoron. But others believe it is the
best way to ensure that change occurs, because it is from within. State feminism
is also sometimes aided by nonstate feminist activism, but in other instances, state
feminism attempts to replace or hinder nonstate feminism. Many national efforts
to combat violence against women and to help reintegrate women offenders have
benefited from the laws, policies and programs supported through state feminism
(Research Network on Gender Politics and the State, http://libarts.wsu.edu/pppa/
rngs/index.html; McBride & Mazur, 2011).
Of course, there are gender-equality or women’s activists who are not feminist.
Some religious organizations, for example, actively advocate for women’s issues
but stop short of advocating for radical change or change that affects reproductive
rights, family structure, motherhood roles or lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/

questioning populations. And even among feminist organizations, there can be
important disagreements and contradictions. For example, prostitution, sex work
and trafficking for sexual exploitation are issues that divide feminists in many
ways. Some see these activities as women’s right to do what they choose with
their bodies. Others see them as intrinsically exploitative of women. We will
revisit these debates in Chapter 6. The rich diversity of women’s activism that
comes from a global examination has much to teach us about how issues are for-
mulated and framed, as well as which techniques work to achieve social change.
Global women’s activism in the area of women, crime and justice is an unex-
plored research avenue for feminist criminologists.
Transnational activism
In the 1990s, scholars became interested in studying the new phenomenon of the
transnationalization of activism. In Chapter 2, we saw how one advantage of
globalization for many activists was the facilitation of a global resistance move-
ment fueled by the ease of global communications. (Of course, one wonders if
this would have occurred without the pernicious effects on various sectors of the
world population of globalization itself.) Transnational activists have added new
techniques to those already used locally, trying to unite both local and global
strategies.
The intersection of social movements that have transnationalized is one way
women find each other and discover commonalities by gender. Many social
movements are globalized, and given that women are often part of other struggles
against oppression, they sometimes find themselves while advocating in other
organizations. Ferree and Mueller (2004) demonstrate that women frequently
advocate for many causes – anti-poverty campaigns, nationalism, anti-racism,
anti-colonialism, self-determination, democracy, children’s rights, pacifism, the
environment. It is within these movements that women sometimes discover that
layers of oppression operate and that women’s issues are pushed to the margins.
Additionally, some social movements are male dominated, and women some-
times realize their own marginalization as women within other types of transna-
tional activism, or question the process of decision making and authority within
an organization, which may mirror male authority structures in wider society.
Antrobus (2004) notes that consciousness raising across borders is key to trans-
national activism. Meeting and discussing common issues, and realizing that
despite cultural differences, the issues are really the same, facilitates transnational
activism. In fact, while diversity can sometimes divide social movements, schol-
ars suggest it can also facilitate strength (Motta, Flesher Fominaya, Eschle &
Cox, 2011). But despite these realizations, Antrobus argues that for a movement
to really have ‘globality’, local activists must realize that transnational trends are
at the root of many local problems or issues. The idea of a spiral illustrates this
kind of consciousness raising (Antrobus, p. x). This spiral might start with a
64 Global forces
woman who is a survivor of gender-based violence, who meets another woman

similar to herself in background and discovers that her problem is not hers alone
but related to policy and politics. Together, they band with others to take action.
When and if these women meet women from other countries, they might realize
that their problems transcend boundaries and are common to women around the
globe. The final step is when transnationalized groups realize that their issues are
more complex than can be represented by a simple summation and start to exam-
ine what global trends are at the root of these issues: for example, international
gender regimes, politics (including global trends in criminal justice policy) and
economics. It is at this point that a movement has truly gone global.
Transnational organizing, then, involves consciousness raising and networking;
women’s circles, coalitions and caucuses; and the mounting of global confer-
ences, campaigns and petitions. It is facilitated by women-friendly international
media and clearinghouses; international artists, poets, actors, musicians; philan-
thropists willing to fund international causes; and research and monitoring of
state accountability (Antrobus, 2004). More recently, much of this occurs virtu-
ally, through social media, blogging and the many and varied ways of meeting up
in cyberspace. Transnational activist networks (TANs) – global networks of activ-
ist organizations with similar concerns – have received a good amount of schol-
arly attention. Transnational networks are related to a movement’s globality and
often emerge either when one organization wants a louder, global voice or when
domestic organizations find it hard to organize at the local level because of repres-
sive regimes. In this latter case, then, they ‘skip’ the level of local organization
and focus on transnational activist work. Keck and Sikkink (1998), in their book
Activists Beyond Borders, analyzed the particular strategies of transnational activ-
ism, such as the dynamics of TANs and the ‘boomerang’ effect. These strategies
combine the local and the global and play forces off of each other. The boomer-
ang effect involves groups in one country who seek redress from their government
or a solution to a local problem. They formulate a claim to citizens of another
country through a TAN; these citizens then put pressure on their own government
to pressure the government of origin. More recently, in related fashion, some

governments have realized that funding and recognizing grassroots women’s
movements in other countries is beneficial to changing policies and politics in
those countries, both in areas related to women and girls and in areas related to
participatory democracy. This kind of diplomatic move avoids direct confronta-
tion and aims at locally driven sustainable change.
The global women’s movement

The women’s movement dates back to the 1800s, but scholars define it as a global
movement since the latter half of the twentieth century, facilitated to a great extent
by empowering efforts of the United Nations. The UN International Women’s
Year in 1975, the UN Decade for Women (1975–1985) and the women’s confer-
ences held in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and
Beijing (1995) gave political voice to the growing global women’s movement,
along with the Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993 where women’s
rights were clearly linked to human rights. These efforts by the United Nations
allowed grassroots women’s organizations the opportunity to interface with each
other. Milwertz (2003) and Zhang (2009), among others, note how important this
interface at the 1995 World Conference for Women in Beijing was for budding
women’s activists against domestic violence in the People’s Republic of China.
Although many women’s activists of this era regard the interface with each other
as most important, it is also obvious that the contact between activists and repre-
sentatives of world governments at the women’s conferences gave them unprec-
edented access to power. Many of the grassroots organizations attending these
conferences were not even recognized or acknowledged by their own govern-
ments. Thus, they were able to gain recognition once they stepped outside their
countries’ borders. Often, their local knowledge, reflected in such things as
‘shadow reports’ (those that parallel official government reports and frequently
highlight discrepancies with the ‘official story’), delivered on the global stage of
the United Nations, served as a powerful mechanism to hold governments
accountable to their citizens and to the world community.
The initial concerns of the global women’s movement, curiously enough, did
not include violence against women, even though in the 1970s, women’s grass-
roots organizations were aware of this problem. But grassroots leaders were not
convinced that this issue, because it occurred in the private sphere, could be tack-
led in the public sphere. The United Nations was and still is a male-dominated
institution. The first women’s conference, in 1975, coincided with the Interna-
tional Women’s Year and had the themes of equality, development and peace.
Initial issues that were brought forth at the women’s conferences were literacy,
education and training; health, nutrition and population; family, household and
marriage; employment and economics; housing, political participation, human
rights and peace. The second women’s conference (1980) had as its themes educa-
tion, employment and health but took these issues more politically, embracing
others such as apartheid, refugee and displaced women and the Arab-Israeli con-
flict. It did feature discussions of domestic violence and sexual violence, includ-
ing female genital cutting. The third women’s conference (1985) was more
explicitly feminist and diverse than the previous two (Antrobus, 2004) and tackled
violence against women and children, pornography and legal redress for women.
But violence against women turned into a global movement in the 1990s after
the 1993 Human Rights Conference in Vienna and the 1995 World Conference
for Women in Beijing. In 1993 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declara-
tion on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and violence against women
became part of the 1995 women’s conference agenda. Intense mobilization
occurred prior to the 1993 conference, much of it coordinated by Charlotte Bunch
at the Center for Global Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University in New Jersey
in the United States. A global petition was launched to conceptualize women’s
rights as human rights. The Global Tribunal on Violations of Women’s Human
66 Global forces
Rights collected testimony of abuses toward women from around the world. A
special rapporteur on violence against women was also an important outcome of
the 1993 conference: this new figure would monitor progress on the Declaration.
The 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing produced an important out-
come document, the Beijing Platform for Action, which included violence against
women as a strategic objective, as well as the human rights of women. To this day,
the Beijing Platform for Action shapes the agenda of the annual sessions of the
Commission on the Status of Women in New York City, around which thousands
of activists from around the world organize parallel events, much in the same way
they organized NGO forums at the world women’s conferences.
It was not until the human rights framework was feminized – and feminists
realized that the state, by its actions as well as omissions, could be held respon-
sible for the private violence against women – that the ‘glass ceiling’ was broken
and violence against women was truly brought onto the global political stage.
There is ongoing debate about whether a universalist discourse such as human
rights should be applied to violence against women, because this discourse is said
to mask Western imperialism and thus render the diversity of women’s oppres-
sions invisible, but the language of human rights is adaptive and can and has been
used within many local contexts. It became at this point a new paradigm for think-
ing about and combating violence against women.
Since 1995 there have been no more world women’s conferences, and there has
yet to be a generational turnover to younger activists to carry on the activities that
were started in the 1970s. Backlash against feminism and the success of neolib-
eral economic policies in debilitating the energy of women prevented the nurtur-
ing of a younger generation of activists as the older generation grew tired and
retired. The War on Terror and the rise of fundamentalism have also changed the
political stage. There is the sensation as well that much has been achieved, cer-
tainly on paper, and that the activist community has made as much headway as it
can at the United Nations. The politics at the moment are much more about
accountability – holding governments responsible for their obligations, imple-
menting what is on paper, and monitoring and evaluating outcomes, as well as

mainstreaming gender. Nevertheless, there is a burgeoning generation of young
women who have never attended a single world women’s conference, who net-
work in cyberspace but very much want to have their political moment. They have
been clamoring for another World Conference for Women, to the chagrin of older
women who fear that much that has been gained could very well be lost through
another conference – especially if the activists who attend it have not been fully
trained. At this point, the main focus of attention is on the culmination of efforts
toward the Millenium Development Goals and the post-2015 development
agenda, where women’s activists hope to find renewed grounds for joining devel-
opment efforts with those reinforcing women’s rights.
There is both anecdotal and empirical evidence that the activist community has
been successful in changing government policies on violence against women.
Htun and Weldon (2012) analyzed data from 1975 to 2005 in 70 countries to
isolate the determinants of government policies on violence against women. They

found that autonomous feminist activism was key. They describe autonomous
movements as those not governed by other political agencies and those that are
not wings of larger mixed sex associations. They describe activism as occurring
in a variety of ways: through lobbying, lawsuits and briefs at international meet-
ings, protests, networking, ‘everyday politics’ (daily practices such as the use of
nonsexist language), the organization of conferences, cultural events and sympo-
sia and the publication of women’s magazines (Htun & Weldon, p. 554).
While much work has been done and is being done globally on women’s rights
and violence against women, there is very little activism on recruiting, promoting
or nurturing women in criminal justice professions or on safeguarding the rights
of women as offenders and prisoners. Indeed, the vast majority of NGOs that
work on women’s issues now have some component related to violence against
women. But those that focus on the recruitment or promotion of women in crimi-
nal justice or the rights of women offenders are in the minority. This reflects a
global tendency to see women as innocent victims of violence, as opposed to
defenders of their rights even as wrongdoers (offenders and prisoners) or cham-
pions of law enforcement. The former task has been undertaken by the very small
prisoners rights activist community, sometimes located within larger human
rights organizations, and the latter by women in legal professions and by profes-
sional associations. There are certainly advantages to mobilizing against violence
against women: all countries share this problem, albeit in different ways. How-
ever, an important consequence is reifying the vulnerability of women as victims
of violence. From the viewpoint of feminist criminology, women as survivors of
violence, women offenders or prisoners and women in the legal professions are
interrelated issues. An analysis of the particular tactics of activists who work in
areas of women, crime and justice is in order.
Activism related to women, crime and justice

What sort of activism takes place under the rubric of women-centered or feminist
organizations? Most organizations take on more than one goal and combine advo-
cacy with the provision of services, education and awareness raising. Most
organizations expand to create sister organizations or join national, regional and
transnational networks to pool money and energy.
Internationally, these organizations try to change laws and policies, as well as
hold governments accountable for the laws and policies that are on the books and
support women’s rights. Comprehensive violence-against-women laws have
become a common goal of many groups working at the national and international
levels. According to the 2006 UN Secretary General’s Report on Violence
Against Women, approximately half of the countries in the world have adopted
comprehensive legislation to address the problem of violence against women.
Even though the actual policies may vary from country to country, there is a gen-
eral similarity in the overall goal of this legislation: to define, eradicate and
68 Global forces
prevent the different forms of violence against women. In most countries, anti-
violence legislation evolved from the persistent demands of feminists and women-
centered human rights activists who raised awareness of the impact and
implications violence has on the lives of women and girls. In some countries,
governmental agencies responsible for the status of women have sheltered such
efforts. Partial reforms that were enacted from the 1970s onward – mandatory
arrest policies, specialized courts, the funding and development of hotlines, wom-
en’s refuges and programs for male batterers – led to the idea in the 1980s and
1990s that comprehensive reform might be the ultimate solution. Comprehensive
reform is understood in different ways and in different national contexts; it includes
an intersection of legal reforms (civil, criminal, administrative) along with meas-
ures designed to change attitudes (public awareness campaigns, school-based
educational programs, training programs for health and criminal justice personnel,
restrictions on sexist advertising and pornography), increased funding for treatment
of survivors and perpetrators and the creation of partnerships, such as multi-agency
teams or domestic violence courts that seek to provide ‘one-stop’ services. In many
states, the influence and pressure of the national and international activist commu-
nity has been instrumental in influencing domestic reforms. Some activist organi-
zations educate the public as well as criminal justice officials, whether through the
provision of education and training to police, prosecutors and judges or through
pressure exerted externally on these organizations to elicit change.
Apart from laws and policies on violence against women, many activist organi-
zations seek to offer services that the government either cannot afford to offer,
refuses to offer or wishes to outsource to an organization with more expertise.
These services include counseling, legal aid and the provision of hotlines and
shelters. Seager (2009, p. 29) offers a timeline of when the first shelters for bat-
tered women were set up in various countries of the world. The early 1970s saw
the birth of shelters in the UK, Canada, the USA, Netherlands and Australia.
Tunisia, Namibia, Russia, Mongolia and China did not have their first shelters
until the 1990s. Laos got its first shelter in 2006, and Afghanistan in 2007.
Gender-sensitive crime prevention is another area of activity for activist organi-

zations. Much of this work has been directed at the built environment. The Cana-
dian association METRAC (the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence
Against Women and Children) has been active in the field of crime prevention for
women, in part through safety audits. Safety audits are observations done by com-
munity members of the built environment, to check to what extent it is friendly to
the use of space by women. There is a wealth of research on fear of crime among
women and on cues or triggers in the built environment (buildings, blocks, city
streets) that foster either fear and/or crime (Shaw, 2002, 2004; Whitzman et al,
2013). Crime prevention is also being undertaken by younger activists who seek
to use social media and new technologies to prevent crimes to women. Break-
through, a human rights organization in India and the United States, has cam-
paigned against violence against women via the Bell Bajao campaign (‘Ring the
Bell’ in Hindi). Based on the principles of bystander interruption, the campaign
urges men and women to interrupt domestic violence scenarios by such a simple
action as ringing the neighbors’ doorbell (www.bellbajao.org/).
There are relatively few activist organizations around the world that work
with women offenders and women in prison, compared with those that work with
women who are survivors of violence, but they provide important services. They
often run prison programs for women and offer alternatives to incarceration as
well as reentry programs such as mentoring schemes. Given that research now
indicates that many women in prison have been abused, women’s organizations
also work to ensure that those women receive treatment and protection. Activists
work to ensure that women prisoners know their rights and are afforded the same
opportunities in education, work training and family visits as men are. They run
transportation schemes so that family members can visit their incarcerated female
relatives. And they work with the children of incarcerated women to ensure their
well-being. In countries where women are incarcerated for their own protection
against ‘honor’ crimes committed by their families, assisting women in prison
becomes even more important.
Finally, some professional organizations for women criminal justice practition-
ers (police officers, judges, prison officers, peacekeepers) offer a range of services
and advocacy, to encourage recruitment, promotion and networking and to fight
against sexual harassment. These can be considered activism because the goal is
to achieve social change by increasing the number of women in these professions
and creating a more gender-sensitive workplace.
Case studies of organizations

Watchdog organizations
A classic example of a watchdog organization is the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
Scholars are never able to categorize this organization neatly, but I consider it a
part of the women’s movement because it involves mainly women and uses femi-
nist activist techniques. This group was created in Buenos Aires during Argenti-
na’s ‘dirty war’. A true grassroots movement, it was formed when mothers of
desaparecidos – people who had mysteriously disappeared – decided to organize
and demand accountability from the military dictatorship. They found each other
in Buenos Aires’ main square across from the presidential palace and met every
Thursday to walk together around the square. These accidental activists – family
members of victims of human rights violations – learned how to be politically
savvy, in many ways learning vicariously from their children, most of whom were
never found. They taught women around the world the importance of rage and
showed women that activism comes from the heart but overtakes the mind and
spirit. Because they were mostly middle-aged middle- and lower-class women,
and because they were both persistent politically as well as interpersonally sup-
portive and nurturing of each other, their group served as a model for many other
associations of mothers for diverse causes around the world. These women found
70 Global forces
their political voice, but also psychological support, from their common experi-
ence and mobilization to find out what had happened to their children (Abreu
Hernandez, 2002).
Another example of a watchdog organization is the Women’s Initiatives for
Gender Justice (www.iccwomen.org), an international women’s human rights
group that works through the ICC as well as through national mechanisms. They
work with women in conflict situations under investigation by the ICC, seated in
the Hague in the Netherlands. The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice works
in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, the Central African
Republic, Kenya, Libya and Kyrgyzstan.
The watchdog activities of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice include
“monitoring the ICC to ensure implementation of the Rome Statute, including the
gender-inclusive provisions; ensuring sexualized violence and gender based
crimes are a priority in the investigations and prosecutions of the ICC; advocating
for women victims/survivors to benefit from the reparations mechanisms and
processes of the Court; promoting the international gender standards of the Rome
Statute and supporting national law reform to advance women’s human rights
through use of the Statute and implementing legislation; and influencing and
strengthening the gender competence of the ICC through training and the recruit-
ment and appointment of women, including experts on gender and sexual vio-
lence amongst the personnel of the Court” (www.iccwomen.org/aboutus/mission.
php; Cakmak, 2009; Spees, 2003).
Every year, the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (2012) produces a Gen-
der Report Card on the ICC. The eighth report card appeared in 2012 and totaled
over 300 pages, covering the structures and institutional development of the ICC
and the substantive jurisdiction, work and procedures of the ICC. The report notes
milestones for women as well as many recommendations. There are few reports
done by NGOs that are as detailed and consistently produced.
Women prisoners/reentry
Very globally active in promoting the rights and fair treatment of women prison-
ers is the Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends. In Canada, a women’s
prison reform organization founded in 1939 in Vancouver named itself after the
Quaker Elizabeth Fry. In the 1970s, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry
Societies was established and now incorporates 26 member societies. The goals
of Elizabeth Fry Societies are to “increase public awareness and promotion of
decarceration for women; reduce the numbers of women who are criminalized
and imprisoned in Canada; increase the availability of community-based, publicly
funded social service, health and educational resources available for marginal-
ized, victimized, criminalized and imprisoned women; and increase collaborative
work among Elizabeth Fry Societies and other women’s groups working to
address poverty, racism, and other forms of oppression” (www.elizabethfry.ca/
egoals.html).
Each Elizabeth Fry Society offers a variety of services. For example, the Eliza-
beth Fry Society in Montréal, Québec offers counseling and referral services,
paralegal assistance in court, a documentation center, a stop-shoplifting program
for women, a food bank, a prerelease program, an anger management program
and a volunteer training program at Joliette prison, research, a residential halfway
house, prison visits and a newsletter published twice a year on women in conflict
with the law, a promotional and informational tool for the society.
Violence against women

Southall Black Sisters
As mentioned previously, there are many activist organizations around the world
that focus either partially or totally on violence against women. Southall Black
Sisters in England is a model organization that works with victims of domestic
violence in the London Borough of Ealing from the South Asian, African-Caribbean
and other minority ethnic communities. Southall Black Sisters provides informa-
tion, advice, assistance, advocacy and counseling to women and children who are
experiencing domestic and sexual violence. They term their services holistic in
that they aim to help women escape violence and abuse and deal with other, related
problems such as forced marriage, honor crimes, rape and sexual abuse, sexual
harassment, dowry-related abuse, immigration and asylum, depression, mental
health, suicide and self-harm, suspicious deaths and racism. They provide their
services in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu.
Southall Black Sisters has championed a number of landmark cases through
very visible campaigns. In 1989, the group successfully defended Kiranjit Ahlu-
walia, a woman imprisoned for killing the man who had repeatedly battered her.
This case has been described in a book and a film, Provoked. Currently, Southall
Black Sisters has launched the Nosheem Azam campaign. Nosheem Azam com-
mitted suicide after being abused repeatedly, as is a common outcome in domestic
violence cases. Southall Black Sisters is advocating for a new law to ensure that
those who are responsible for causing someone to attempt or commit suicide are
held accountable by the state (www.southallblacksisters.org.uk).
Women Living Under Muslim Laws

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) is an international network offer-
ing information and support for women whose lives are conditioned by laws and
customs said to derive from Islam. It was founded in 1984 and now includes more
than 70 countries. The name challenges the falsehood of one, homogeneous ‘Mus-
lim world’. It was founded in response to three cases in Muslim countries and
communities in which women were being denied rights by reference to laws said
to be ‘Muslim’ requiring emergency mobilization. The network aims to strengthen
women’s individual and collective struggles for equality and their rights,
72 Global forces
especially in Muslim contexts. Its priority areas include peacebuilding, exposing

fundamentalism, encouraging debate about women’s bodily autonomy and pro-
tecting women’s legal equality. Violence against women is a cross-cutting theme.
WLUML circulates and initiates international alerts for action and campaigns.
It also provides concrete support for individual women in the form of information
on their legal rights, assistance with asylum applications, links with support insti-
tutions and psychological support. WLUML collects, analyzes and circulates
information regarding women’s diverse experiences and strategies in Muslim
contexts (www.wluml.org).
Tostan
Tostan, meaning ‘Breakthrough’ in Wolof, is an African-based community
empowerment organization. It has been credited with reducing the incidence of
female genital cutting in a number of African countries. Tostan was founded by
an American exchange student, Molly Melching, and now works in eight African
countries. As we will see in Chapter 4, female genital cutting is an interesting case
of an act that has been criminalized and is certainly a harmful cultural practice in
the eyes of the international human rights community, but it is embedded within
local traditions and has the opposite meaning among those who practice it. It
therefore defies much of what conventional criminologists define as crime. Efforts
to eradicate female genital cutting through conventional means – criminalization,
public health awareness, education – have largely failed because they were heav-
ily resisted by those who believed outsiders wished to destroy traditions. Tostan
employs a community development model that is nonconfrontational and enables
communities to make their own decisions. They have been evaluated twice with
positive results. A recent UNICEF study on female genital mutilation delivers
surprisingly mediocre results, however, of their efforts. Nevertheless, this model
suggests that practices can be changed nonconfrontationally by allowing com-
munities to become more self-aware (www.tostan.org).
Peacebuilding
The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) is a coalition of over 60
women’s groups and other civil society organizations from Africa, Asia/Pacific,
South Asia, West Asia, Latin America and eastern and western Europe. It focuses
on advocacy and action for the implementation of UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 on
women and peace and security, including the supporting resolutions 1888, 1889 and
1960 at the local, national, regional and international levels. As mentioned previ-
ously, these resolutions deal with the presence of women at peace talks, the impor-
tance of women to the peace process and the cessation of sexual violence in armed
conflicts. The aim of GNWP is to bridge the gap between policy/implementation
and action on the ground on women, peace and security issues. GNWP engages in
policy advocacy, training, local legislative advocacy and research (www.gnwp.org).
Human trafficking
Since 2001, the La Strada network has been working in eight member countries:
Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedo-
nia, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine, with an international headquar-
ters in Amsterdam. All eight La Strada members work according to the same
basic program – however, the exact services offered can vary. The three basic
areas of the La Strada program are information and lobbying, prevention and
education and assistance and support. La Strada develops complete care programs
for trafficked persons, operates local helplines to provide anonymous consulta-
tions and advice, advocates for the special needs and interests of trafficked per-
sons, develops international networks of NGOs and other institutions to offer safe
return to countries of origin and establishes local and national networks of ser-
vices that support trafficked persons and affected groups.
Maiti Nepal is an influential anti-trafficking organization in Nepal (Kaufman &
Crawford, 2011). It advocates for women and children, particularly those who
have been exploited or who are at risk of exploitation. It runs transit houses for
those it rescues and safe migration programs and awareness camps for those at
risk. It intercepts trafficking attempts at the Nepal border. Founded in 1993 by a
group of professionals, it is active throughout Nepal (www.maitinepal.org).
Organizations for criminal justice professionals

The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) is a nonprofit organiza-
tion of more than 4,000 members at all judicial levels in more than 103 nations in
five regions. It was formed in 1991. The IAWJ’s main activity is support for
women in the judiciary. It hosts international conferences every other year for
members to network and support each other. The IAWJ encourages young women
to seek careers in law and the judiciary, encourages governments to select and
promote women as judges and believes that women should be represented at all
levels of courts, whether domestic, regional or international. It publicizes open-

ings for women in international fora and responds to requests for judicial experts.
The IAWJ also works with its national associations in its five regions to
develop and carry out training on issues concerning discrimination and violence
against women. Its most well known judicial training initiative is the Jurispru-
dence of Equality Program. Other recent and current educational programs focus
on such topics as gender-based violence, human trafficking and the abuse of
power through sextortion (www.iawj.org).
Men’s groups
The most well known men’s group that works globally for the eradication of
gender-based violence is the White Ribbon Campaign. In 1991, this NGO of
Toronto origin asked men to wear white ribbons as a pledge to never commit,
74 Global forces
condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. Since then, the
White Ribbon has spread to over 60 countries around the world. The group
engages in education, awareness raising, outreach, technical assistance, capacity
building, partnerships and campaigns (www.whiteribbon.ca/who-we-are).
Conclusions
International law and global women’s activism go hand in hand to spur reforms
related to women, crime and justice. Both are underexplored areas of research for
feminist criminology. The decisions of intergovernmental bodies as they relate to
women, crime and justice offer enormous opportunities for research and theory
on international criminal justice decision making and women. Direct observations
of these bodies provide even more opportunities for research (Connell, 2005;
Fleetwood & Haas, 2011; Merry, 2006; Zhang, 2009). There is enormous varia-
tion in the goals and activities of organizations that work to end violence against
women, improve the treatment of women offenders and prisoners and advance
and promote women criminal justice professionals. It is particularly striking how
much the work that activists undertake is both local and global, while the different
organizations share similar approaches. Feminist criminology has an important
contribution to make in this arena. Many grassroots organizations around the
world are in need of research support in program design and evaluation. More
research needs to be done on the effectiveness of organizations as well as the
strategies they employ. The comparative study of intergovernmental decision
making in the area of women, crime and justice, as well as its linkages with trans-
national feminist activism, has much to teach us about the possibilities of global
change in justice for women.
Notes
1. Prosecutor v Tadic; Prosecutor v Funrunzija; Prosecutor v Kunarac et al; Prosecutor
v Akayesu; Prosecutor v Delalic; and Prosecutor v Krstic (UN Women, 2011, p. 21).
2. Part 2, Article 7, “Crimes against humanity: For the purpose of this Statute, ’crime
against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a wide-
spread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of
the attack: . . . (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy,
enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity.’ ”
http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm
3. This mainstreaming is evidenced in paragraph 14: “Differentiation: Crime prevention
strategies should, when appropriate, pay due regard to the different needs of men and
women and consider the special needs of vulnerable members of society”; paragraph
27: “Governments and civil society should endeavour to analyse and address the links
between transnational organized crime and national and local crime problems by, inter
alia: . . . (c) Designing crime prevention strategies, where appropriate, to protect
socially marginalized groups, especially women and children, who are vulnerable to the
action of organized criminal groups, including trafficking in persons and smuggling of
migrants”; and paragraph 28: “In promoting international action in crime prevention,
Member States are invited to take into account the main international instruments
related to human rights and crime prevention to which they are parties, such . . . the
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (resolution 48/104).”
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Chapter 3

International law, human rights,

Increasingly, feminists have broadened their claims to the international legal

or unfair that states must be held accountable to the international community.

International law and criminal justice reform

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to bring claims of injustice

sion on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice adopted Guidelines on Crime

Criminal justice and human rights frameworks: A comparison

and the pursuit of justice, peace and security.

a potent common ‘language’ of justice. Although not all violations of human

Setting the scene: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and

rights perspective builds on the philosophy of natural rights, a current of thinking

Relevant human rights agencies

Commission on the Status of Women

emerged the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in

• The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women

• Violence against women

CEDAW and CEDAW Committee

Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

• international action to combat national and transnational crime, including

Global women’s activism

rights, family structure, motherhood roles or lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/

woman who is a survivor of gender-based violence, who meets another woman

to pressure the government of origin. More recently, in related fashion, some

The global women’s movement

menting what is on paper, and monitoring and evaluating outcomes, as well as

isolate the determinants of government policies on violence against women. They

Activism related to women, crime and justice

Gender-sensitive crime prevention is another area of activity for activist organi-

Case studies of organizations

Violence against women

Women Living Under Muslim Laws

especially in Muslim contexts. Its priority areas include peacebuilding, exposing

Organizations for criminal justice professionals

levels of courts, whether domestic, regional or international. It publicizes open-

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