Feminist perspectives on the human rights act: Two cheers for incorporation

Res Publica

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 21-40

  Easton, Susan M ^a  

^a BRUNEL UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Discrimination; European Convention; Feminism; Rights

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248068095     PISSN: 13564765     EISSN: 15728692     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1014258828576     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. See, for example, R. Clayton and H. Tomlinson, The Law of Human Rights (Oxford: University Press, 2000).
2. Engel et al v Netherlands, (No. 2) (1976) 1 EHRR 706 and Marckx v Belgium (1979) 2 EHRR 330. In Handyside the Court stressed that "the machinery of protection established by the Convention is subsidiary to the national system of safeguarding human rights".
3. Belgian Linguistics Case (No. 2) [1968] 1EHRR 252.
4. See Dudgeon v UK (1981) 4 EHRR 149. However, there have been cases where Article 14 has been given independent status but still has to be relevant to another Convention Right: in Abdulaziz, Article 8 was held not to be infringed, while nevertheless the rule was discriminatory because a group was treated less favourably without justification.
5. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.
6. Language may be seen as the key to understanding the other rights, although, in practice, the drift has been towards English: see V. Sacks, "Can Law Protect Language? Law, Language and Human Rights in the South African Constitution", International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 4, 4 (2000), 343-68.
7. Measures which give priority to women for promotion in areas where they are under-represented do not breach the Equal Treatment Directive provided that all candidates are assessed and that women are not given automatic and unconditional priority over men. This constitutes a significant shift away from the ECJ's approach in Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Brennan [1996] 1 CR 314: Article 119 has also been amended to allow for positive action.
8. Thlimmenos v Greece [2000] Appl. No. 34369/97.
9. Ibid. See for example H. Fenwick, Civil Rights: New Labour, Freedom and the Human Right Act (London: Longman, 2000).
10. Belgian Linguistics Case (No. 2) (1967) 1 EHRR 252.
11. See G. Moon, "The Draft Discrimination Protocol and the European Convention of Human Rights: A Progress Report", EHRLR (2000) 49-53, p. 49.
12. T.H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class (London, Pluto Press, 1992);
13. see also L.T. Hobhouse, Liberalism (Oxford: University Press, 1964).
14. See S. Easton, "The Meaning of Citizenship", in C. Willett, ed., Public Sector Reform and the Citizen's Charter (London: Blackstone Press, 1996), 11-24.
15. R. Titmuss, Commitment to Welfare (London: Allen and Unwin, 1968).
16. This was reflected in the debates of the 1990s over the concept of citizenship, as the New Right tried to reduce the citizen to a consumer and exclude social rights, while the Left tried to equate citizenship with social inclusion, while facing a loss of working class support for welfare.
17. K. Ewing, "Social Rights and Constitutional Law", Public Law (1999), 104-23.
18. K. Ewing and C. Gearty, "Rocky Foundations for Labour's New Rights", EHRLR (1997) 691.
19. Marckx v Belgium (1979) 2 EHRR 330.
20. X and Y v The Netherlands (1986) 8 EHRR 235, para 23.
21. K. Marx, "On the Jewish Question", Collected Works III (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1975), 146-74, p. 168.
22. J. Bentham, "Anarchical Fallacies", reprinted in J. Waldron, ed., Nonsense upon Stilts: Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man (London: Methuen, 1987), 46-76.
23. See S. Sedley, "Human Rights: a Twenty-First Century Agenda", Public Law (1995), 386-400.
24. C. MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified (Harvard: University Press, 1987).
25. See Z. Arslan, "Taking Rights Less Seriously: Postmodernism and Human Rights", Res Publica 5, 2 (1999), 195-215.
26. See A. Diduck, "Legislating Ideologies of Motherhood", Social and Legal Studies 2 (1993), 461-85.
27. A. McColgan, "Women and the HRA", NILQ51, 2 (2000), 417-44
28. and Women under the Law: the false promise of human rights (London: Longman, 2000).
29. K. Engle, "Female Subjects of Public International Law: Human Rights and the Exotic Other Female", New England Law Review 26 (1992), 1509-26.
30. J. Conaghan, "Reassessing the Feminist Theoretical Project in Law", Journal of Law and Society 27, 3 (2000), 351-85.
31. J. Fudge, "The Effect of Entrenching a Bill of Rights upon Political Discourse: Feminist Demands and Sexual Violence in Canada", International Journal of the Sociology of Law 17 (1989), 445-65.
32. R v Seaboyer (1991) 83 Dom LR (46th) 193.
33. R v Darrach (2000) 191 Dom LR (4th) 539.
34. R v Osilin (1993) 4 SCR 595.
35. In addition the rules of evidence and procedures themselves rest on assumptions which lead to prejudice against women: see M. Childs and L. Ellison, eds, Feminist Perspectives on Evidence (London: Cavendish, 2000).
36. G. Durston, "Cross-examination of rape complainants: ongoing tensions between conflicting priorities and the criminal justice system", JCL 62 (1998), 91-104, p. 91.
37. D. Birch, "A Better Deal for Vulnerable Witnesses?" Crim LR (2000), 233-49, p. 223.
38. R v A [2001] 3 All ER 1, R v Y [2001] Crim LR 389. See also N. Whitty, T. Murphy and T. Livingstone, Civil Liberties: The Human Rights Era (London: Butterworths, 2001).
39. For example, by gendered speech patterns: see K. Mack, "Continuing Barriers to Women's Credibility: a feminist perspective on the proof process", 4 Criminal Law Forum (1993), 327-53.
40. Sedley, Criminal Law Forum (op. cit., 386.
41. S. Easton, "Taking Women's Rights Seriously: Integrity and the 'Right' to Consume Pornography", Res Publica 1 (1995), 183-98.
42. A similar shift is taking place on the part of the public. Schoolchildren, for example, are already well versed in their right under Article 3 not to be subjected to corporal punishment following the case of A (1998) 27 EHRR 611.
43. The right of freedom of expression also deemed to be violated in Bowman v UK (1998) 26 EHRR 1, when an anti-abortion campaigner was prosecuted for distributing leaftlets to the electorate, written in emotive language, setting out the candidates' position on abortion.
44. See SW & CR (1995) 21 EHRR 363.
45. See S. Millns, "The Human Rights Act 1998 and Reproductive Rights", Parliamentary Affairs: A Journal of Comparative Piatics 54, 3 (2001), 475-94.
46. Silver and others v UK (1983) 5 EHRR 347, Golder v UK (1975) 1 EHRR 524.
47. P & Q v Secretary of State for the Home Department, The Times, August 1st, 2001.
48. O.H., W.B.R. v UK. (1987) 10 EHRR 29.
49. See, for example, Payne v Payne, The Times, March 9th, 2001.
50. Doorsen v Netherlands (1996) 22 EHRR 330.
51. However, if women who kill in such circumstances use a self-defence plea then the test in Convention law - no more force than absolutely necessary - is stricter than the English test of reasonable force: see McCann v UK (1995) 21 EHRR 97.
52. E. Kingdom, "Citizenship and Democracy: Feminist Politics of Citizenship and Radical Democratic Politics", in S. Millns and N. Whitty, eds, Feminist Perspectives on Public Law (London: Cavendish, 1999) 149-79;
53. and "Transforming Rights: feminist political heuristics", Res Publica 2 (1996), 63-75.