Chapter 10

Enforcing Women’s International Rights at Home: International Law in Domestic Courts

On This Page

• Introduction to the Chapter
• Documents from the Chapter
  • Conventions and Documents
  • Cases
  • Other Relevant Conventions
• Links From the Chapter
• Other Developments

Introduction to the Chapter

No intro available.

Documents from the Chapter

Each document has its own box.  The box contains, on the top bold line, the name of the document. This is followed by the legal citation (not in bold).  Under these lines, the box contains one or more sources for opening the document.  In the left-hand column (“HTML”or “PDF”), the reader can access the official document copy, hosted on RossRights.  This permits rapid access to the document. In the right-hand column (“External Link”), the reader can access the same document on an official website.  This link will often take more time to appear than the PDF or HTML copy, but should be used for official legal citations. Where there is an asterisk (*) in the box, it indicates that there is an explanatory footnote directly below the box, which tells the reader how to access/locate the document.

For all United Nations Treaties, the source marked "Original" contains the UN General Assembly Resolution (G.A. res.) adopting the relevant treaty, which is found in the "Annex" following the Resolution.  The source marked "UN High Comm'r for Human Rights" contains the relevant treaty, without the G.A. res. When following a link that requires searching for a symbol, there are several preliminary steps: first, copy the listed symbol and click the link, second; select a language; third, clicking the "Simple Search" button; and fourth, paste the symbol into the "Symbol" blank and click the "Search" button.

Key:
Map(s) Available
Photo(s) Available

 

• Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
• Statute of the International Court of Justice
• Attorney General v. Unity Dow
• Vishaka v. Rajasthan
• Asakura v. City of Seattle
• African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

• Supplementary Slavery Convention
• Slavery Convention of 1926

• Protocol Amending the Slavery Convention
• DEDAW

 

Conventions and Other International Documents

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331, 8 I.L.M. 679, entered into force Jan. 27, 1980.
United Nations	PDF	External Link

 

Statute of the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice	HTML	External Link

Cases

Attorney General v. Unity Dow, [1992] LRC (Const) 628 (1992). (Appeal Court of Botswana)
RossRights	HTML	External Link*

*Note: This site provides all the high court documents, the court of appeals documents and annotated bibliography. The five judicial opinions begin on page 123 and end at 196. The page numbers are found at the bottom of each page.

Botswana is located in Southern Africa, north of South Africa.

• Population: 1,990,876 (July 2008 est.)
• Ethnic Groups: Tswana (or Setswana) 79%, Kalanga 11%, Basarwa 3%, other, including Kgalagadi and white 7%

• Religions: Christian 71.6%, Badimo 6%, other 1.4%, unspecified 0.4%, none 20.6% (2001 census)

• More information at the CIA World Factbook

 

Vishaka v. Rajasthan, [1997] 3 LRC 361(1997).
Supreme Court of India	HTML	External Link

India is located in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between

Burma and Pakistan.

• Population: 1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est.)
• Ethnic Groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
• Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

• More information at the CIA World Factbook

 

Asakura v. City of Seattle, 265 U.S. 332 (1924).
United States Reports	PDF

Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located in the U.S. state of Washington between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 96 miles (155 km) south of the United States–Canadian border in King County, of which it is the county seat. (Source: Wikipedia)

Other Relevant Conventions

African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force Oct. 21, 1986.
African Union	PDF	External Link

 

Supplementary Slavery Convention, 226 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force April 30, 1957.
UN High Comm'r for Human Rights	PDF	External Link

 

Slavery Convention of 1926, 60 U.N.T.S. 253, entered into force March 9, 1927.
UN High Comm'r for Human Rights	PDF	External Link

 

Protocol Amending the Slavery Convention, 182 U.N.T.S. 51, entered into force December 7, 1953.
UN High Comm'r for Human Rights	PDF	External Link

Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, G.A. Res. 2263, U.N. Doc. A/RES/2263 (Nov. 7, 1967).
UN Official Document System	PDF	External Link

 

Links from the Chapter

• International Association of Women Judges
• International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at Georgetown Law
• Indian Constitution
• Commonwealth of Nations

 

Other Developments

For a recent Supreme Court decision on self-execution versus non-self-execution, see the case below:   

 

Medellin v. Texas, 552 U.S. ____(2008).
United States Reports	PDF	External Link

 

For a report explaining possible meanings of Medellin and making recommendations, see below:

 

ABA/ASIL Joint Task Force on Treaties in U.S. Law, ABA/ASIL, March 16, 2009, available at http://www.asil.org/files/TreatiesTaskForceReport.pdf
ASIL/ABA	External Link

 

For a case in Bangladesh with a similiar result to Vishaka, see below:

Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) v. Govt of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) v. Govt. of Bangladesh and Others, [2009]
Supreme Court of Bangladesh: High Court Division	HTML