Despite advances in human rights law, violence against women is rampant across the globe due to the gap between legal principles and reality on the ground. This book investigates developments in international law on gender justice, local activism by women’s groups in various countries, as well the resistance such groups face within their own communities. The author uses the anthropological method to provide a macro as well as a micro view of a range of critical issues. She has been a close observer of UN diplomatic negotiations that led to the formulation of important policy documents on women’s rights as well as the process of monitoring compliance with CEDAW. Most significantly she has been witness to the work of grassroots feminist organizations in several countries, including India, Fiji, and Hong Kong, and the American State of Hawa’ii. Illustrated with a rich variety of insightful case studies, the book examines the deep roots that gender violence has in cultural and religious belief systems. It shows how perpetrators of violence use them as a means to resist change. It documents how international human rights language is transformed by feminist groups into the local idiom and successfully used to challenge social hierarchies and entrenched injustice. This volume will be essential reading for human rights activists, family law professionals, students and scholars of sociology, human rights law, gender studies, globalization studies, anthropology, cultural studies, and research methodology.
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