Intersection of Human Rights and Violence Against Women

The journal Violence Against Women has published online a study suggesting that a human rights approach is more holistic.  As I have blogged before, a human rights approach to violence against women prevention is common everywhere in the world except the United States.

What do you think?  Would the rape and domestic violence prevention movement benefit from a human rights approach?

The full citation and link to the abstract of the article from SafetyLit follows the jump.

“How Would That Help Our Work?”: The Intersection of Domestic Violence and Human Rights in the United States.

Morgaine K. Violence Against Women 2009; ePublished October 22, 2009.

Click here for the article or for the DOI:

(Copyright © 2009, Sage Publications)

This qualitative study explores whether individuals working within the domestic violence (DV) field in the United States have utilized a human rights framework and identifies potential benefits of this framework. Using the critique and experiences of women of color as a focal point, data were gathered through interviews with key individuals working with national and regional DV and human rights organizations. This article focuses on challenges within the mainstream DV movement and how a human rights approach could potentially ameliorate some of these concerns by supporting a more holistic approach to DV and increasing coalition building and community engagement.

2 responses to “Intersection of Human Rights and Violence Against Women”

1. “a human rights approach to violence against women prevention is common everywhere in the world except the United States.”

   I’ve talked to so many women from around the world and we in the united states here have the best care and advocate services from what they tell me. Now as far as making it a human rights issue, gosh I’ve been supporting and helping people for twenty years and one of our basis is that we are human beings not property owned. I guess I’m just taken back with the short piece here because we’ve all done better for women here then any where else I’ve talked to. LadyJ

2. Why can’t we use both the human rights approach and the individual rights approach to domestic violence? It’s still a crime – just like child abuse, child sexual exploitation, trafficking and any other abuse. Maybe for some audiences, the more holistic human rights approach works better; and for others, the appeal to the rights of an individual. The human rights approach seems more basic and at the same time, embraces the larger cultural goal for us all. We are all human beings, deserving of respect.