Intersectionality in the Human Rights Legal Framework on Violence against Women: At the Centre or the Margins?

While gender has become a cornerstone of the current human rights framework on violence against women (VAW), a new theoretical concept has been gaining ground and becoming increasingly visible: intersectionality. In response, this book clarifies three main aspects of the incorporation of intersectionality: it identifies the theoretical and practical implications in relation to VAW; it reveals to what extent intersectionality is incorporated in the current human rights framework on VAW; and it provides empirical evidence of the potential benefits and advantages for cases of VAW derived from the application of intersectionality. This book presents a comprehensive view of approaches within three jurisdictions (the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the Inter-American System) and it will appeal to human rights scholars, lawyers and other practitioners, particularly those interested in VAW and diversity.

Lorena Sosa is a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. She is a human rights lawyer and specializes in gender, focusing on intersectional discrimination and violence. She has previously worked as a researcher and lecturer at Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands and the International Victimology Institute, Tilburg (INTERVICT). She has participated in a number of European Union projects in the field of violence against women and has given lectures on human rights, gender and law, and victimology. Her dissertation received the Max van der Stoel Award on Human Rights in 2015.