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“From women’s rights in the books to women’s rights as lived realities: Can the disconnect be mended?”
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the field of human rights law is challenged by the “tribulations of realisation” of rights on the ground. (De Gaay Fortman 2011: 39) In this article Biholar is concerned with addressing these “tribulations of realisation” so that the disconnect between women’s human rights in the books and their everyday lived realities is bridged. She discusses the national process of implementation and realisation of the human rights standards set in Article 5(a) in order to eliminate gender-based violence against women and thus benefit women’s lives in concrete ways. Literature argues that governmental actors and civil society organisations are the ones that make the connection between the international arena of human rights production and national/local contexts, being the active implementers of human rights standards, while the rights holders seem to be perceived as passive recipients of these set standards. They become cognisant subjects of rights only when they lodge a police report or make a court claim. Otherwise, the attention afforded to rights holders within the process of implementation and realisation appears to be marginal.
Therefore, the writer argues that the ‘tribulations of realisation’ of women’s human rights are rooted in the omission of rights holders as instrumental actors who can take an operational position in the process of implementing and realising human rights. Rights holders’ realities stand as proof that the constant problem with human rights in general, and women’s rights in particular, is that their incorporation in national legal and policy instruments does not automatically lead to their successful application to rights holders’ lived realities. However, once rights holders’ views and understandings are taken into consideration in the make-up of the human rights implementing measures and actions, those measures, taken at the governmental and civil society levels, will resonate with their realities, and will have the potential to trickle down and positively impact on rights holders. In other words, for human rights to be realised, the participation of rights holders in the implementation process must be considered and encouraged. Therefore, the article brings attention to the rights holders as active implementation actors with the potential to contribute as much as the governmental and civil society actors to the fulfilment of the women’s rights standards set in CEDAW.
The article sheds light on the complex synergies among the government, civil society organisations and rights-holders. It advances the understanding that, for challenging social and cultural barriers, in order to eliminate violence and realise women’s human rights, the implementation and realisation of human rights must be a dynamic and organic interconnection between top-down and bottom-up approaches, by which the endeavours of the State are complemented not only by initiatives and strategies undertaken by civil society organisations, but also by the active participation of rights holders. Actions and strategies taken at the governmental level need to reflect people’s realities and provide adequate solutions to their problems. Therefore, a continuous interaction between all the relevant actors, as early as legislation, policies and programmes are developed and drafted, is required so that the measures in the legal instruments, policy and programmatic texts are intimately connected to, and resonate with life realities. In this way, rights will acquire concrete meaning for people, and will further be ‘embedded in everyday social practices, shaping the rules people carry in their heads’. (Merry 2006: 3)
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. It engages not only with the academia, but also with the practitioners’ daily work, providing meaningful resource tools for suitable actions, initiatives and strategies that have the potential to bring about the social and cultural transformation needed to successfully eliminate gender-based violence against women in Jamaica.
(Published in: The Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Mensenrechten/ NJCM-Bulletin/The Netherlands Journal of Human Rights, 39 (5), 2014, 572-587 [Kluwer Navigator NTM-NJCMBull. 2014/40])
1 Although CEDAW does not explicitly address gender-based violence against women in its provisions, such violence is the most pervasive form of discrimination against women, which must be considered under CEDAW. See CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19, UN Doc. A/47/38, reprint UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.9 (Vol. II), 1992.
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