Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives

10. Toward a More Effective Guarantee of the Enjoyment of Human Rights by Women in the Inter-American System

Chapter 10 Toward a More Effective Guarantee of the Enjoyment of Human Rights by Women in the Inter-American System Cecilia Medina Introduction Before addressing the substance of my chapter, I thinkit useful to state my position on some points. First, I have consciouslychanged the title of my chapter and refrained from using the expression "women's rights." My starting point is that human rights are those rights that each and every human being has on the sole merit of being human; thus it does not seem possible to use an expression that suggests the idea that some human beings, women,have different rights from those of other human beings, men. A first consequence of this position isthat I find in the existence of human rights the moraljustification to fight for women. I can think of no other reason that I should be entitled to plead for the improvement of women's lot in life. Consequently, my approach is that the struggle for women forms part of the general struggle to develop respect for the dignity of allhuman beings, and itis from the latter that it obtains the necessary force and legitimacy that will ultimatelyensure its success. A second consequence of this approach is that, in order to justify enjoyment by women of their rights, I do not find it necessary to point out that some characteristics inherent to women are better than those of men for an adequate functioningof society,or to argue that women have a higher morality or a higher intellect than men and that their serving in leading positions in societywill result in an improved form of community life. In my view, women do not need to "earn" human rights; they should be encouraged, not hindered, to achieve leading positions in society, and have their fair share of power, education, 258 Cecilia Medina financial resources, and so forth, only because they are human beings, and discrimination on any basis is not tolerated by international law. This notwithstanding, in the struggle to improve the situation of any sector of society that has been postponed in terms of human rights, itis legitimate and useful to create new formulations for existing human rights and/or establish actions one wishes to combat as specific violations of human rights, even though they might be subsumed within the general norms. In this way, women could acquire useful instruments to achieve the final aim they pursue, namely, nondiscrimination in the enjoyment of human rights. Thus, at this point in history, there is a need for stronger international human rights lawespeciallyfor women and there is a need for women to make this happen. This statement may appear self-evident, but it isnot without controversy . So far, women have not really enjoyed human rights and, perhaps influenced by this fact, some sectors of the women's movement question the validity or the usefulness of resorting to human rights to carry out their struggle.1 In this respect, and as a second point, I think it useful to state briefly my perception of international human rights law to explain why I think it is wrong to discard that body of law as a main arena in which to fight for the improvement of women's lot in society and, above all, for fairness in treatment. Societies usually try to embody in legal provisions the values they cherish, and I conceive international human rights law as a response of the community to the violation of, or ever-present threat to, the dignity of human beings throughout the world. As a consequence, I consider catalogues of human rights as historically determined, thus containing what at a certain moment of history appears to be threatening this core, whichis human dignity. The historical character of the catalogue makes international human rights law essentially evolutionary: on the one hand, new categories of individuals may accede to the status of human beings in the eyes of the community (something that blacks and women are finally achieving); on the other hand, the community may perceive new threats or lower its threshold of tolerance toward intrusions or omissions of the state concerning their human dignity. A perfect example is the development of the concept of privacythrough the progressive interpretation of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights by the European Court of Human Rights.2 Thus the negative situation of women vis-a-vis international human rights law—largely due to the absence of women's participation in its creation and interpretation...