Page 37 - Demo

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“From women’s rights in the books to women’s rights as lived realities:
Can the disconnect be mended?”
One hundred and eighty-nine (189) governments around the world, including Jamaica, ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This means that they uphold and commit to comply with, and implement the standards put forward by this international human rights document, one of which calls attention to the social and cultural barriers to women’s full enjoyment of their human rights (Article 5(a)). Governments have the legal obligation to modify ascribed sex roles and the resultant stereotypical social and cultural patterns of conduct, so that women are protected from discrimination, including violence.
Yet, the lived realities of women are often disconnected from this agenda for women’s rights. The reality is that rights in the books often do not hit the ground. Despite efforts made by governments and civil society organisations worldwide to eliminate gender-based violence against women, it still affects the everyday lives of many women, and discriminatory sex roles and gender stereotyping persist in feeding into such experiences of violence. Obviously, there are ‘fissures between the global settings where human rights ideas are codified into documents and the local communities, where the subjects of these rights live and work’. (Merry 2006: 2-3) Rather than standard setting,
This article advances ideas that contribute in practical ways to the goal of reducing gender-based violence against women and realising women’s human right to a life free from violence.
Recognising Outstanding Researchers 2016