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Women Human Rights Defenders

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International Human Rights of Women

Part of the book series: International Human Rights ((IHR))

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Abstract

In 1998, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms or as it is most commonly referred to as the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (DHRD). Following a 13-year drafting process, the adoption of the DHRD was hailed as a “milestone” by the international human rights community. The term “human rights defender” (HRD) encompasses those who, “individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights” (OHCHR 2004, 2). This chapter outlines the evolution of the HRD framework since 1986 and explores the space allocated to women within it, referred to as “women human rights defenders” (WHRDs). Conversations about “gender” and “women” in popular HRD discourses tend to rely on essentialized ideas about women as inherently susceptible to gender-based forms of violence. Building on feminist critiques of human rights practice and analyses of the women’s human rights movement of the 1990s, this chapter considers how narrow gendered discourses have promoted a masculine ideal that tends to marginalize women’s identities and experiences in the wider HRD framework.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Political Science, National University of Ireland – Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Amie Lajoie

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  1. Amie Lajoie
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Correspondence to Amie Lajoie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Niamh Reilly

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Lajoie, A. (2019). Women Human Rights Defenders. In: Reilly, N. (eds) International Human Rights of Women. International Human Rights. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8905-3_15

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