Citation

Miller AM. Health Hum. Rights 2004; 7(2): 16-47.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Harvard School of Public Health, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights)

DOI

10.2307/4065347

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although women's rights advocates came to human rights demanding accountability for all human rights, this demand has been stymied. Specific elements of violence against women (VAW) as a human rights issue, coupled with sexual harm's particular operation to make VAW visible, produced a parodox: the harms themselves are not yet effectively responded to, yet women's sexual vulnerability is now firmly on the global agenda. This piece explores the state-oriented focus of rights work on the suffering body, its reliance on criminal law, and its failure to develop a theory of economic justice. Health and human rights work must consider the complexities of portraying women as sexual agents, targets of abuse and citizens at the same time, if it seeks to fulfill its original promise.