Featured Articles and Reports

• 2010 Symposium Gender-Based Violence and Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Areas
  Cornell International Law Journal Special Conference Issue. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011).

• Access to International Criminal Justice for Victims of Violence Against Women Under International Family Law
  Mohamed Y. Mattar, 23 EMORY INT'L L. REV. 141 (2009).

• Child Sex Abuse Within the Family in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Change in Current Legal and Mental Health Responses
  By Cynthia Grant Bowman & Elizabeth Brundige. 47 CORNELL INT’L L.J. 233 (2014). Copyright 2014 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• Gender, Discourse, and Customary Law in Africa
  By Johanna E. Bond. 83 S. Cal. L. Rev. 509-574 (2010). Reprinted from Southern California Law Review, Volume 83. Copyright 2010 Southern California Law Review.

• Gender-Based Violence and Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Areas
  By Rashida Manjoo and Calleigh McRaith. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• Greasing the Palm: An Argument for an Increased Focus on Public Corruption in the Fight Against International Human Trafficking
  By Virginia M. Kendall. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• Human Rights at Home: Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Violation

• Judging Women
  By Stephen J. Choi, Mitu Gulati, Mirya Holman, & Eric A. Posner. 8 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 504-532 (2011).

• Left Out in the Cold: Trafficking Victims, Gender and Misinterpretation of the Refugee Convention's “Nexus" Requirement
  By Martina Pomeroy. 16 Mich. J. Gender & L. 453 (2010). Reprinted from the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Volume 16. Copyright 2010 by University of Michigan Law School.

• Reparations, Microfinance, and Gender: A Plan, with Strategies for Implementation
  By Anita Bernstein and Hans Dieter Seibel. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• Rescuing trafficking from ideological capture: prostitution reform and anti-trafficking law and policy
  By Janie A. Chuang. 158 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1655-1728 (2010). Reprinted from University of Pennsylvania Law Review Volume 158. Copyright 2010 University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

• Returning Home: Women in Post-Conflict Societies
  By Naomi Cahn, Dina Haynes and Fionnuala Ni Aolain. 39 U. Balt. L. Rev. 339 (2010). Reprinted from University of Baltimore Law Review, Volume 39. Copyright 2010 by the University of Baltimore School of Law.

• Sustainable Development
  By Sandra Day O'Connor & Kim K. Azzarelli. 44 CORNELL INT’L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments
  By Valerie Oosterveld. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

• The Sexual Assault Counselor-Victim Privilege: Jurisdictional Delay into an Unclaimed Sanctuary
  Hon. Armand Arabian, 37 PEPP. L. REV. 89 (2009). Reprinted from Pepperdine Law Review, Volume 37, Special Issue. Copyright 2010 by the Pepperdine University School of Law.

• The United Nations Responses to the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Women and Girls by Peacekeepers during Peacekeeping Missions

• Using international law to promote millennium health targets: a role for the CEDAW optional protocol in reducing maternal mortality
  By Margaux J. Hall. 28 Wis. Int'l L.J. 74-107 (2010). Reprinted from Wisconsin International Law Journal, Volume 28. Copyright 2010 Wisconsin International Law Journal.

• Wartime Female Slavery: Enslavement?
  By Patricia Viseur Sellers. 44 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 1 (2011). Copyright 2011 by the Cornell International Law Journal.

Return to top of page

• "Now, The World Is Without Me": An Investigation of Sexual Violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
  A Report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative With Support from Oxfam America, April 2010

• "The Ten-Dollar Talib" and Women's Rights: Afghan Women and the Risks of Reintegration and Reconciliation
  Human Rights Watch, July 13, 2010.

• "They are Destroying Our Futures" Sexual Violence Against Girls in Zambia's Schools
  A report by the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School, Women and Law in Southern Africa-Zambia, and the Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic examining the problem of sexual violence against girls in school in Zambia.

• “I Am Not Dead, But I Am Not Living" Barriers to Fistula Prevention and Treatment in Kenya
  Human Rights Watch report describing the situation of women with fistula in Kenya, including the increased risk of stigma and violence and the impact of a health system that fails to properly address the problem of fistula. July 15, 2010. Copyright 2010 Human Rights Watch.

• 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report
  The U.S. State Department's 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report covers the status of efforts against human trafficking in countries around the world, including the United States, and highlights key trends in human trafficking.

• Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence – An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice
  Report by UNIFEM, United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, on best practices and emerging elements for a more effective response by peacekeepers to women's security concerns in conflict situations (2010).

• Afraid and Forgotten: Lawlessness, Rape, and Impunity in Western Côte d'Ivoire
  Human Rights Watch Report documenting the often brutal physical and sexual violence in the western administrative regions of Moyen Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes in the Cote d'Ivoire (2010).

• African Statistical Journal: A Special Issue on Gender
  Special journal issue of the African Development Bank focused on gender statistics.

• After the guns fall silent: Sexual and gender-based violence in Timor-Leste
  Report by Timor-Leste Armed Violence Assessment, examining the scale and magnitude of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) directed against women and girls in Timor-Leste (November, 2009).

• Aftershocks: Women speak out against sexual violence in Haiti's camps
  Report by Amnesty International highlighting the protection needs of women and girls in camps in Haiti after the earthquake (2011).

• An Agenda For Change: Implementing the Platform of Action against Human Trafficking
  Organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe's Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, 2009.

• Bottom of the Ladder: Exploitation and Abuse of Girl Domestic Workers in Guinea
  Human Rights Watch Report documenting how girls as young as 8 years old work up to 18 hours a day as domestic workers in Guinea, frequently without pay, and are often insulted, beaten and raped by their employers (2007).

• Burnt Not Defeated
  Report by Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW) on acid attacks in Karnataka, India.

• CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws
  Report published by MUSAWAH for Equality in the Family on States' parties justifications for their failure to implement CEDAW with regard to family law and practices that discriminate against Muslim women.

• Combating Acid Violence in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India
  A Report by the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School, the Committee on International Human Rights of the New York City Bar Association, the Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic, and the Virtue Foundation.

• Costing and Financing 1325
  Global Network of Women Peacebuilders report on the Resources Needed to Implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 at the National Level as well as the Gains, Gaps and Glitches on Financing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

• Elected to Rape: Sexual Terror in Mugabe's Zimbabwe
  AIDS-Free World, December 2009.

• Evaluation: Strengthening of Prosecution of SGBV Offences through support to the Sexual and Gender Based Violence Crimes Unit (SGBV CU) [in Liberia]
  UNFPA Report presenting the findings, analysis and recommendations from the Evaluation of the SGBV Crimes Unit, which has as its purpose to prosecute perpetrators of gender and sexual based violence, particularly rape, in Liberia (November 2010).

• Exclusion of women from the legal profession in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and South Africa
  Although great strides have been made in breaking down the barriers that have previously kept women from being able to have the same rights and privileges to work in the legal profession that men enjoy, there is still progress to be made.

• From Protection to Punishment: Post-Conviction Barriers to Justice for Domestic Violence Survivor-Defendants in New York State

• GENDER 2010 Report Card on the International Criminal Court
  Report by The Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice assessing the implementation by the ICC of the Rome Statute, Rules of Procedure, Evidence and Elements of Crimes, and in the gender mandates they embody.

• Gender Issues and International Legal Standards: Contemporary Perspectives

• Global Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Women: a Human Rights Perspective
  Report by Programme on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR)on a South Asian Regional workshop hosted by PWESCR, UNWomen and Heinrich Boll Foundation, presenting a gendered view of human rights in South Asia (2010).

• Global Gender Gap Report 2010
  Report published by the World Economic Forum presenting the scope of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress by providing benchmarks of national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria (2010).

• Guatemala's 8 Law: Progress Against Impunity?
  Guatemala Human Rights Commission releases report one year after Guatemalan Law Against 8 passed.

• Handbook for Legislation on Violence Against Women
  Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for the Advancement of Women

• He Loves You, He Beats You
  Report by Human Rights Watch documenting violence against women and girls by husbands, partners, and family members in Turkey, and the survivors' struggle to seek protection (2011).

• Hidden in the Mealie Meal
  Human Rights Watch Report on the Zambian government's failure to meet its international obligations to combat violence and discrimination against women. The report documents abuses that obstruct women's ability to start and adhere to HIV treatment regimens, including violence against women and insecure property rights (2007).

• Human Rights and Gender Equality in Health Sector Strategies: How to Assess Policy Coherence
  Report providing a tool to consider practical options and posing critical questions for policy-makers to identify gaps and opportunities in the review or reform of health sector strategies as well as other sectoral initiatives. Developed by the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (2011).

• In Pursuit of Peace
  Launched in tandem with the June 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; includes recommendations for improving gender sensitivity at the ICC, and particular statements by activists from DR Congo, Central African Republic and Uganda.

• Lessons Learnt and Experiences Gained in the UNFPA Supported WPC Project on Addressing Sex Selection
  During a three-year project (2008-2011) in India, the WPC assessed the circumstances surrounding and methods to address growing sex selection in India. A systematic process was put into place to set up multiple local-level implementing partners to collect data; increase education and awareness; and launch and maintain programs to induce long-term change of the traditional practices that lead to sex selection.

• Meeting Minutes: Expert Group Meeting on the Causes, Consequences and Conditions of Women's Imprisonment
  On May 14th, The Avon Global Center and the University of Chicago Law School co-hosted a meeting of experts on the causes, conditions and consequences of women’s imprisonment globally. About 35 experts from the U.S., U.K., Russia, and Argentina participated in the meeting, including policy advocates, impact litigators, scholars, service providers, and senior department of corrections officials.

• Minority Rights: International Standards And Guidance for Implementation
  Report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)(2010).

• Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support & Assure Justice for Darfuri Women
  By Physicians for Human Rights with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

• Our Bodies are Still Trembling - Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape
  IJDH, MADRE, TransAfrica Forum, and the Universities of Minnesota and Virginia law schools author report to ensure more effective protection and promotion of women's human rights in Haiti.

• Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009: Who Answers to Women?
  UN Women report presenting innovative measures states and international institutions are taking to increase accountability to women, focusing on politics and governance, access to public services, economic opportunities, justice, and the distribution of international assistance for development and security (2008).

• Rape and sexual violence: Human rights law and standards in the International Criminal Court
  Report by Amnesty International on identifying how the crimes of rape and sexual violence must, as a requirement of its own statute and a matter of international human rights law, be interpreted and applied with equality between men and women by the International Criminal Court (March, 2011).

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women its causes and consequences on her visit to the United States of America
  Report by Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, on her mission to the United States of America (2011).

• Report on the Adoption of UNSCR 1960 (2010)
  UN Security Council Report on the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1960 (2010) requesting detailed information on suspected perpetrators of sexual violence during armed conflict.

• Sexual Violence in Haiti's IDP Camps: Results of a Household Survey
  Report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice presenting preliminary data from a survey of households, focusing on reported incidents of sexual violence (2011).

• Silence is Violence
  The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights exposes the abuse of women in Afghanistan, July 9, 2009.

• Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone
  Human Rights Watch Report documenting persistent sexual violence by the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the limited impact of government and donor efforts to address the problem (2009).

• Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Thematic Report
  Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences submitted a thematic report on reparations to women subjected to violence in conflict and post-conflict. April 19, 2010.

• Staying Alive
  Lawyer's Collective of India Report evaluating the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act of 2005 in India.

• Staying Alive: Fourth Monitoring & Evaluation Report 2010 on the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (India) [pdf].
  Report by Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative (LCWRI), International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women on the implementation of India’s domestic violence law since its establishment in 2005 (2010).

• The Dynamics of Social Change: Towards the Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Five African Countries
  Report by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre highlighting solutions and examples of communities ending the practice of female genital mutilation. The report examines what conditions are necessary for a consensus to abandon FGM/C and identifies strategies for sustainable abandonment (2010).

• The Role of the Judiciary in Promoting Gender Justice in Africa (English)
  Report of the Partners for Gender Justice Conference, Accra, Ghana 19-21 Nov. 2008. English version.

• The Role of the Judiciary in Promoting Gender Justice in Africa (French)
  Report of the Partners for Gender Justice Conference, Accra, Ghana 19-21 Nov. 2008. French version.

• The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics
  A United Nations report highlighting the differences in the status of women and men in eight areas – population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty.

• They Took Me and Told Me Nothing
  Human Rights Watch report on female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

• Trafficking for sexual exploitation: Victim protection in international and domestic asylum law
  Research Paper No. 206 by Tyler Marie Christensen for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (April, 2011).

• UNIFEM: Progress of the World's Women
  This UNIFEM Report focuses on the urgent need to strengthen accountability to women.

• Violence is not Just a Family Affair: Women Face Abuse in Tajikistan
  Amnesty International Report EUR 60/001/2009, November 24, 2009.

• WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women
  Report by the World Health Organization documenting the prevalence of intimate partner violence and its association with women's physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Peru, Namibia, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania (2005).

• Women in Prison in Argentina: Causes, Conditions, and Consequences
  Report by the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and International Human Rights Clinic, University of Chicago Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, and the Public Defender's Office in Argentina finding that women and their families are disproportionately affected by the harsh penalties imposed for low-level drug offences in Argentina.

• Women's control over economic resources and access to financial resources, including microfinance
  UN Women 2009 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development (2009).

• Women's Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business
  UNIFEM report offering practical guidance to business and the private sector on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community (2010).

• You Dress According to Their Rules
  Report by Human Rights Watch documenting acts of violence, harassment, and threats against women in Chechnya to intimidate them into wearing a headscarf or dressing more "modestly."

Return to top of page