Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Human Rights of Minority and Indigenous Women

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
International Human Rights of Women

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

  • 1732 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines and critiques the human rights project through the existing literature, as it specifically focuses on women’s rights and minority and indigenous peoples’ rights, theories, and discourses. The sections on “Feminism and International Law” and “Islam and Women’s Human Rights” question how these value systems, theories, and ideologies have been constructed and appropriated to exert power and control on different constituencies. The following section on “Feminism, Gender, and Women’s Rights” then dissects the ways in which feminism critiques group rights. This section and the ensuing one on “Feminism and Group Rights” reveal how, as in many postcolonial contexts, the notion of feminism and who belongs to this category is emerging as a controversial and divisive issue. The concluding section on “Minority Rights Theories and Critiques” investigates what minority and indigenous discourses tell us about power. This section narrows in on approaches that defend group rights as a way to secure rights for specific communities and those that criticize group rights as an ineffective and detrimental way to empower some members over others within a given community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 449.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abu-Lughod L (2002) Do Muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others. Am Anthropol 104:783–790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Lughod L (2013) Orientalism and Middle East feminist studies. In: McCann C, Seung-Kyung K (eds) Feminist theory reader. Routledge, New York, pp 218–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Abusharaf A (2006) Women in Islamic communities: the quest for gender justice research. Hum Rights Q 28:714–728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Hibri A (1999) Is Western patriarchal feminism good for Third World/minority women? In: Okin SM (ed) Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 41–46

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Amos V, Parmar P (2005) Challenging imperial feminism. Fem Rev 80:44–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • An-Na’im A (1990) Human rights in the Muslim world: socio-political conditions and scriptural imperatives – a preliminary enquiry. Harv Hum Rights J 3:13–52

    Google Scholar 

  • An-Na’im A (1995) The dichotomy between religious and secular discourse in Islamic societies. In: Afkhami M (ed) Faith and freedom: women’s human rights in the Muslim world. IB Tauris, London, pp 51–60

    Google Scholar 

  • An-Na’im A (1999) Promises we should all keep in common cause. In: Okin SM (ed) Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 59–64

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Arat Z (2006) Forging a global culture of human rights: origins and prospects of the International Bill of Rights. Hum Rights Q 28:416–437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arshad A (2006–2007) Ijtihad as a tool for Islamic legal reform: advancing women’s rights in Morocco. Kans J Law Public Policy 16:129–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib S (2009) Claiming rights across borders: international human rights and democratic sovereignty. Am Polit Sci Rev 103:691–704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bobbio N (ed) (1996) The age of rights. (trans: Cameron A). Polity Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown W (2004) The most we can hope for…: human rights and the politics of fatalism. South Atl Q 103:451–463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan R, Johnson R (2004) The unforgiven sources of international law: nation-building, violence, and gender in the West(ern). In: Buss D, Manji A (eds) International law: modern feminist perspectives. Hart, Oxford, pp 1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke R (2011) Decolonization and the evolution of international human rights. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J (1999) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Castellino J (2013) No room at the international table: the importance of designing effective litmus tests for minority protection at home. Hum Rights Q 35:201–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charlesworth H (2002) The hidden gender of international law. Temple Int Comp Law J 16:93–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Charlesworth H, Chinkin C, Wright S (1991) Feminist approaches to international law. Am J Int Law 85:613–645

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cherif FM (2010) Culture, rights, and norms: women’s rights reform in muslim countries. J Polit 72:1144–1160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cobo JRM (1981) Study on the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations. UN Economic and Social Council, E/Cn.4/Sub.2/476, 30 July

    Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw K (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Rev 43:1241–1299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly J (2007) The relative universality of human rights. Hum Rights Q 29:281–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle K (2011) On fragile architecture: the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of human rights. Eur J Int Law 22:141–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eyadat Z (2014) Minorities in the Arab world: faults, fault-lines, and coexistence. In: Kymlicka W, Pföstl E (eds) Multiculturalism and minority rights in the Arab world. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 74–99

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Guessous N (2011) Genealogies of feminism: leftist feminist subjectivity in the wake of the Islamic revival in contemporary Morocco. PhD dissertation, Columbia University

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman K (2006) Berber language ideologies, maintenance, and contraction: gendered variation in the indigenous margins of Morocco. Lang Commun 26:144–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone R (2006) Feminist influences on the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. Hum Rights Q 28:148–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kandiyoti D (1995) Reflections on the politics of gender in Muslim societies: from Nairobi to Beijing. In: Afkhami M (ed) Faith and freedom: women’s human rights in the Muslim world. IB Tauris, London, pp 19–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapur R (2002) The tragedy of victimization rhetoric: resurrecting the ‘native’ subject in international/post-colonial feminist legal politics. Harv Hum Rights J 15:1–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy D (2002) International human rights movement: part of the problem? Harv Hum Rights J 15:101–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Kukathas C (1992) Are there any cultural rights? In: Kymlicka W (ed) The rights of minority cultures. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 228–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka W (ed) (1989) Liberalism, community and culture. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka W (ed) (1995) The rights of minority cultures. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka W (1999) Liberal complacencies. In: Okin SM (ed) Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 31–34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Landy D (2013) Talking human rights: how social movement activists are constructed and constrained by human rights discourse. Int Sociol 28:409–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer AE (2000–2001) A ‘benign’ apartheid: how gender apartheid has been rationalised. UCLA J Int Law Foreign Aff 5:237–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Mernissi F (1995) Arab women’s rights and the Muslim state in the 21st century: reflections on Islam as religion and state. In: Afkhami M (ed) Faith and freedom: women’s human rights in the Muslim world. IB Tauris, London, pp 33–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Moghadam V (2009) Global feminism, citizenship, and the state. In: Benhabib S, Resnik J (eds) Migrations and mobilities: citizenship, borders, and gender. New York University Press, New York, pp 255–276

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore-Gilbert B (ed) (1997) Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Nazir S (2005) Challenging inequality: obstacles and opportunities towards women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa. J Inst Justice Int Stud 5:31–42

    Google Scholar 

  • OHCHR (2010) Minority rights: international standards and guidance for implementation. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Okin SM (1998) Feminism and multiculturalism: some tensions. Ethics 108:661–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okin SM (ed) (1999) Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Okin SM (2002) ‘Mistresses of their own destiny’: group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit. Ethics 112:205–230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otto D (2006) Lost in translation: re-scripting the sexed subjects of international human rights law. In: Orford A (ed) International law and its others. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 318–356

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Otto D (2013) International human rights law: towards rethinking sex/gender dualism and asymmetry. In: Davies M, Munro V (eds) The Ashgate research companion to feminist legal theory. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp 197–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Pagden A (2003) Human rights, natural rights, and Europe’s imperial legacy. Political Theory 31:171–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peyron M (2010) Recent cases of incomplete academic research on Morocco’s Berbers. J North Afr Stud 15:157–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pholsena V (2006) A liberal model of minority rights for an illiberal multiethnic state? The case of the Lao PDR. In: Kymlicka W, He B (eds) Multiculturalism in Asia. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 80–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollis A, Schwab P (eds) (1979) Human rights: cultural and ideological perspectives. Praeger, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawitri S (2000) Female autonomy and cultural imperative: two hearts beating together. In: Kymlicka W (ed) The rights of minority cultures. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 224–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheinin M (2005) Indigenous peoples’ rights under the ICCPR. In: Castellino J, Walsh N (eds) International law and indigenous peoples. Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, pp 3–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott J (1988) Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism. Fem Stud 14:33–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shachar A (2000) Should church and state be joined at the altar? Women’s rights and the multicultural dilemma. In: Kymlicka W, Wayne N (eds) Citizenship in diverse societies. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 199–222

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Shachar A (ed) (2001) Multicultural jurisdictions: cultural differences and women’s rights. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Shachar A (2008) Privatizing diversity: a cautionary tale from religious arbitration in family law. Theor Inq Law 9:573–607

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah N (2006) Women’s human rights in the Koran: an interpretive approach. Hum Rights Q 28:868–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaheed F (1995) Networking for change: the role of women’s groups in initiating dialogue on women’s issues. In: Afkhami M (ed) Faith and freedom: women’s human rights in the Muslim world. IB Tauris, London, pp 78–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Spivak GC (1987) In other worlds: essays in cultural politics. Methuen, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamatoupolou E (2012) Monitoring cultural human rights: the claims of culture on human rights and the response of cultural rights. Hum Rights Q 34:1170–1192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steans J (2007) Debating women’s human rights as a universal feminist project: defending women’s human rights as a political tool. Rev Int Stud 33:11–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swepston L (2005) Indigenous peoples in international law and organizations. In: Castellino J, Walsh N (eds) International law and indigenous peoples. Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, pp 53–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamir Y (1999) Siding with the underdogs. In: Okin SM (ed) Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 47–52

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Teson FR (1992) Feminism and international law: a reply. Virginia J Int Law 33:647–684

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornberry P (2005) The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, indigenous peoples and caste/descent-based discrimination. In: Castellino J, Walsh N (eds) International law and indigenous peoples. Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, pp 17–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomasi J (1995) Kymlicka, liberalism, and respect for cultural minorities. Ethics 105:580–603

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UN General Assembly (1992) Declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. UN Doc A/RES/47/135

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (1997) Report of the economic and social council for the year 1997 (a/52/3/Rev.1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dyke V (1995) The individual, the state, and ethnic communities in political theory. In: Kymlicka W (ed) The rights of minority cultures. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 31–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Venkatraman BA (1994–1995) Islamic states and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: are the shari’a and the convention compatible? Am Univ Law Rev 44:1949–2015

    Google Scholar 

  • Volpp L (2001) Feminism versus multiculturalism. Columbia Law Rev 101:1181–1218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xanthaki A (2016) Against integration, for human rights. Int J Hum Rights 20(6):815–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Žižek S (2005) Against human rights. New Left Rev 34:115–131

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Silvia Gagliardi

Authors
  1. Silvia Gagliardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Gagliardi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Niamh Reilly

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Gagliardi, S. (2019). The Human Rights of Minority and Indigenous Women. In: Reilly, N. (eds) International Human Rights of Women. International Human Rights. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8905-3_35

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation