The proposed human rights-centred concept of femicide combines a doctrinal analysis of select cases with feminist legal theory. I have taken human rights bodies' and scholars' most daring thoughts about feminism and the law to propose this concept. Femicide should be conceptualized in human rights law for many reasons. For one, the social and historical phenomenon of femicide continues unabashed. The term femicide 'denote[s] an old practicein its modern development,' as Lemkin mentioned with respect to genocide. The analysis in this book has revealed that femicide consists of widespread and serious violence which targets a female social group on the basis of their gender, in order to objectify, humiliate, and/or instil fear in women and girls, ultimately placing them in a subordinate social status, where such violence remains unpunished by the State. Femicide has four main aspects: (1) the human rights violations in femicide are widespread and gender-based; (2) they rise to the level of torture and/or killings; (3) they concern the female social group; (4) state authorities fail to react to femicide, creating impunity.
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
