Intersectionality and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo, will present a thematic report to the Human Rights Council in June 2011. Manjoo’s report will focus on intersectional forms of discrimination in the context of violence against women. Manjoo, who has held the appointment of Special Rapporteur since 2009, comes to the office with impressive credentials from her years as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, as the former South African Parliamentary Commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality, and as an accomplished activist focusing on violence against women within South Africa.
The Special Rapporteur should be applauded for undertaking the research to produce a report on intersectionality and violence and to bring it to the attention of the Human Rights Council. Not since the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, has the Special Rapporteur’s office engaged with issues of intersectionality in such a meaningful way. In 2001, the then-Special Rapporteur, Radhika Coomaraswamy, issued a report in preparation for the World Conference that was important in challenging the U.N.’s historical tendency to compartmentalize human rights abuses as either the result of gender discrimination or racial discrimination -- but not both. In the past, I have critiqued the U.N. human rights treaty bodies’ tendency to neatly compartmentalize forms of discrimination rather than explore their intersections. I am encouraged to see the Special Rapporteur’s office undertake to study the myriad ways in which women are targeted for violence based not only on gender but also on their membership in ethnic, religious, sexual, and other minority communities.

Experts at Law: War & conflict, ICL & IHL

(One in a series on Experts at Law)

Inspired by Diane Marie Amann's post on female international law scholars with expertise in the field of national security law, IntLawGrrls has created a new series entitled Experts at Law. Organized by field of expertise, this series of posts aims to provide easily accessible information to conference organizers, media, and others who seek expert opinions on a variety of subjects while ensuring gender balance. The list below provides institutional affiliations for as well as links to the bios and publications of and blog posts by or about our Experts at Law, who are comprised of IntLawGrrls bloggers, guests, and alumnae and presented in alphabetical order. Some offer specific areas of expertise within the broader topic presented.
If you'd like to find this series again in the future, it's easy -- just scroll down the page until you find the "IntLawGrrls series" menu on the right, and click on "Experts at Law."
Today's list focuses on female international law scholars with expertise in areas of law relating to war and conflict, including international criminal law, international humanitarian law, national security law, terrorism, and transitional justice. If you seek an expert in another field of international law, not to worry -- additional areas of expertise will be listed in posts over the next two weeks.

International criminal law and transitional justice
Diane Marie Amann, Univ. of California at Davis, (publications, blogs): international and transnational criminal justice
Elena Baylis, Univ. of Pittsburgh, (publications, blogs): post-conflict justice
Doris Buss, Carleton Univ., Ottawa (publications, blogs)
Margaret deGuzman, Temple Univ., Philadelphia, (publications, blogs)
Chimene Keitner, Univ. of California, Hastings (publications, blogs)
Linda M. Keller, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, (publications, blogs)
Fiona de Londras, Univ. College Dublin, (publications, blogs): feminist critiques of international criminal tribunals
Carmen Marquez-Carrasco, Univ. of Seville, (publications, blogs): the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity, history of international criminal law, the International Criminal Court, international criminal jurisdictions, reparations, universal jurisdiction
Valerie Oosterveld, Univ. of Western Ontario, (publications, blogs): gender issues in international criminal justice
Noëlle Quénivet, Bristol Law School, (publications, blogs): genocide, war crimes
Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Temple Univ., Philadelphia, (publications, blogs): transitional justice
Susan Harris Rimmer, Australian National Univ., (publications, blogs): feminist theory and transitional justice
Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Univ. of California, Hastings (publications, blogs): post-conflict and transitional justice, universal jurisdiction
Susana SaCouto, War Crimes Research Office, American Univ., Washington DC (publications, blogs): international criminal tribunals
Amy Senier, Foley, Hoag LLP, Boston, (publications, blogs): transitional justice
Beth Van Schaack, Santa Clara Univ., (publications, blogs)

International humanitarian law
Diane Marie Amann, Univ. of California at Davis, (publications, blogs)
Stephanie Farrior, Vermont Law School, (publications, blogs)
Carmen Marquez-Carrasco, Univ. of Seville, (publications, blogs): gender and IHL, humanitarian assistance
Monica Hakimi, Univ. of Michigan, (publications, blogs)
Noëlle Quénivet, Bristol Law School, (publications, blogs)
Susan Harris Rimmer Australian National Univ., (publications, blogs)
Beth Van Schaack, Santa Clara Univ., (publications, blogs)

National security and terrorism
See also Diane Marie Amann's list of experts here
Diane Marie Amann, Univ. of California at Davis, (publications, blogs)
Elena Baylis, Univ. of Pittsburgh, (publications, blogs): the "war on terror"
Karima Bennoune, Rutgers-Newark, (publications, blogs): terrorism
Monica Hakimi, Univ. of Michigan, (publications, blogs): the "war on terror" including detentions, mistreatment, questions on the applicable (U.S. and international) law, and renditions
Kristine A. Huskey, Univ. of Texas, (publications, blogs): national security law, the "war on terror"
Fiona de Londras, Univ. College Dublin, (publications, blogs): terrorism and counter-terrorism
Susan Harris Rimmer Australian National Univ., (publications, blogs): rights-based approaches to counter-terrorism law
Beth Van Schaack, Santa Clara Univ., (publications, blogs): the "war on terror"

War and conflict
Elena Baylis, Univ. of Pittsburgh, (publications, blogs): ethnic conflict and minority rights
Karima Bennoune, Rutgers-Newark, (publications, blogs): armed conflict, child soldiers, religious extremism
Doris Buss, Carleton Univ., Ottawa (publications, blogs): rape and sexual violence against women in conflict settings
Naomi Cahn, George Washington Univ., (publications, blogs): child soldiers, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration, post-conflict transition
Monica Hakimi, Univ. of Michigan, (publications, blogs): armed conflict
Kristine A. Huskey, Univ. of Texas, (publications, blogs): United Nations draft convention regarding mercenaries, the use of private military/security companies in armed conflict
Carmen Marquez-Carrasco, Univ. of Seville, (publications, blogs): humanitarian intervention, prohibition on the use of force, Security Council powers and practice, right to self-defense
Noëlle Quénivet, Bristol Law School, (publications, blogs): girl soldiers, peacekeeping operations, rape and sexual violence against women in conflict settings, right to self defense

Secession & ethnicity in Kosovo

Following on my post last week about the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence, readers interested in this subject might want to take a look at these views of the legality debate from our colleagues at Opinio Juris. And to balance those relatively secession-friendly outlooks, consider this skeptical assessment of the legality of unilateral secession, written in the context of the Quebec Secession case.
In considering these questions, I am troubled by the history of deliberate manipulation of ethnic populations in Kosovo in light of the role that Kosovo's current ethnic composition plays in assessments of its independence claim. Of course, the Serbian attempt at ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population from Kosovo was one of the reasons for NATO’s intervention and UN administration of the province. But under the UN administration, other efforts at manipulation have continued. On the one hand, periodic riots and attacks on Serbian enclaves by Albanians have pushed out most of the few Serbs who stayed after 1999. On the other hand, Serbia has provided considerable support to the Serbian enclaves to persuade the Serbs there to remain within Kosovo. When a claim to self-determination depends on an ethnic group's claim to be a people in possession of a territory, there are strong and dangerous incentives for all concerned to try to shape the ethnic composition of that territory, and certainly those have been at work here.

(credit for 2005 map of Kosovo ethnic makeup, based on data from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)

Ethnic conflict in Ethiopia

From Ethiopia, there are new reports of government troops forcing civilians out of their homes and burning and looting their property in the eastern Somali region, where the Ethiopian army is in active conflict with the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front. These reports are distressing evidence that Ethiopia’s innovative constitutional design, intended to prevent inter-ethnic strife, is not succeeding. With more than 80 ethnic groups and a history of inter-ethnic conflict, Ethiopia took the controversial step in its 1994 constitution of openly acknowledging ethnicity in its political structure. This openly ethnic model was defined by two elements: (1) “ethnic federalism,” the division of the country into regional states according to ethnicity, and (2) an inter-ethnic dispute resolution system centered in the upper house of the Ethiopian federal parliament, to which representatives are elected from each recognized ethnic group. The constitution also gave ethnic groups the rights to self-government, statehood, and even secession, through constitutionally defined processes. But a genuine trial of this experiment has yet to begin, for it can have no hope of succeeding without some modicum of good faith participation. Instead, the Ethiopian government has been criticized for oppression of ethnic groups that are inconveniently located near valuable resources or prone to political opposition, while the ONLF has relied on use of force in pursuit of its aspirations of independence.