WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS: THE INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW CASEBOOK by Ross, Susan Deller - 2009

University of Pennsylvania P., 2009. Paperback. Near Fine. According to Susan Deller Ross, many human rights advocates still do not se e women's rights as human rights. Yet women in many countries suffer from l aws, practices, customs, and cultural and religious norms that consign them to a deeply inferior status. Advocates might conceive of human rights as i nvolving torture, extrajudicial killings, or cruel and degrading treatment- -all clearly in violation of international human rights--and think those is sues irrelevant to women. Yet is female genital mutilation, practiced on mi llions of young girls and even infants, not a gross violation of human righ ts? When a family decides to murder a daughter in the name of "honor," is t hat not an extrajudicial killing? When a husband rapes or savagely beats hi s wife, knowing the legal authorities will take no action on her behalf, is that not cruel and degrading treatment? Women's Human Rights is the first human rights casebook to focus specifical ly on women's human rights. Rich with interdisciplinary material, the book advances the study of the deprivation and violence women suffer due to disc riminatory laws, religions, and customs that deny them their most fundament al freedoms. It also provides present and future lawyers the legal tools fo r change, demonstrating how human rights treaties can be used to obtain new laws and court decisions that protect women against discrimination with re spect to employment, land ownership, inheritance, subordination in marriage , domestic violence, female genital mutilation, polygamy, child marriage, a nd the denial of reproductive rights. Ross examines international and regional human rights treaties in dep.