Denial Of Equal Rights Research Articles

'I should not feed such a weak woman'. Intimate partner violence among women living with podoconiosis: A qualitative study in northern Ethiopia.

BackgroundIntimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a serious, preventable public health problem that affects millions of people worldwide. Research indicates that adults suffering from long term, disabling conditions are more likely to be victims of IPV due to the intersection of disease-associated stigma and discrimination. IPV in turn is known to worsen the overall health and wellbeing of those affected by it. Little research however explores the relationship between neglected tropical diseases such as podoconiosis and IPV. This study explores the relationship between IPV and podoconiosis in northern Ethiopia with the aim of identifying new avenues for limiting disability and promoting the wellbeing of people affected by this neglected tropical disease.MethodsThe study was conducted in East and West Gojjam zones, located in the Amhara Regional State of Ethiopia. Research participants were first screened using the domestic violence screening tool Hurt-Insult-Threaten-Scream (HITS). Data were collected by native speakers of the local language (Amharic) in the form of semi-structured interviews during January and February 2016. Thematic and content data analysis was carried out, using the Open Code 3.4 qualitative data analysis software for coding.ResultsA total of 15 women living with podoconiosis and experiencing IPV were interviewed (aged 31 to 75). Women experienced different forms of IPV, including beatings (with or without an object), insults, name calling, undermining, denial of equal rights over common assets, movement monitoring, cheating, abandonment, forced divorce, obstruction of health care access, inhibition of decision-making and sexual coercion. Podoconiosis increases the frequency and severity of IPV and in occasions shapes a change from physical to psychological and financial violence. In turn, frequent episodes of IPV worsen disease outcomes and contribute to disease persistence in the region, in that these impede women’s ability to manage the disease and help perpetuate the conditions of poverty that influence disease onset.ConclusionsWomen living with podoconiosis are victims of various, overlapping forms of IPV that negatively impact their health and wellbeing. Poverty, scarce IPV prevention services in the area together with a social acceptance of IPV and these women’s decreased ability to work due to the debilitating effects of podoconiosis and childcare responsibilities frequently prompt these women to tolerate IPV and remain in abusive relationships. Tackling disease-associated taboo and stigma, developing accessible IPV interventions, working towards greater gender equality at the household and societal levels and developing sustainable strategies for improving the socio-economic assets of women affected by podoconiosis are all necessary to both prevent IPV and to improve disease outcome.

Frigide Barjot; homophile malgré tout?

Frigide Barjot is the dethroned leader of the Manif pour tous movement that saw hundreds of thousands take to the street to protest against the gay marriage and adoption bill in France from late 2012 onwards. Despite what many claimed to be the self-evident homophobia of the movement, through the denial of equal rights to all, Barjot ferociously maintained and proclaimed her homophilic proclivities, and instead shrouded her arguments against gay marriage and adoption in notions of protection of natural ‘filiation’, the rights of the child and ultimately the promotion of the heterosexual (one man/one woman) family unit above all others. It is through this overt heterosexism, however, that one could perfectly well oppose gay marriage and remain a homophile, or in the least attempt to divest oneself of the charge of homophobia. This paper explores the extent to which this homophilic/homophobic split was maintained by Barjot through the analysis of three of her published works, before, during and after the Manifs pour tous, and the extent to which this split was borne out by other members of the movement, and places this within shifting notions of French republicanism. To read or download this article, please follow this link: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1502292 DOI: 10.14324/111.2057-2212.063

Rethinking Settler Colonialism

Our article is a response to a previous article published in American Quarterly (2010), by Laura Pulido and David Lloyd, “On the Long Shadow of the Settler: On Israeli and US Colonialism.” By engaging in this discussion, we hope to provide further historical information, clarifying some salient differences between nineteenth-century settler colonialism in the United States and Israeli twenty-first-century settler colonialism on the West Bank. Recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that have left over two thousand Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, and current Israeli plans to take over more lands on the West Bank call for world condemnation of these tragic events, an end to the siege of Gaza, and an end to US support of Israel to the tune of $3 billion in military aid annually.

Institutional Disparities: Considerations of Gender in the Commutation Process for Incarcerated Women

Clemency, or relief from a criminal sentence by means of commutation, is a critical component of the US system of justice. The granting of commutation—a power vested solely in the office of the head of state—generally reduces a life sentence, after conviction, to time served. The review process at a commutation hearing allows for the extenuating circumstances of a case to be considered and constitutes the final opportunity for redress of unfair trials, excessive sentences, and the denial of equal rights that may result from systemic injustice on the basis of gender, race, or sexual bias. In highlighting the patterns of control, confrontational conduct, and biased assumptions that form the framework of the eleven commutation hearings in this study, the authors argue that, rather than providing women prisoners with equitable access to a process that fairly evaluates their rehabilitation and any new evidence pertinent to their petitions, the commutation process only compounds the institutionalized disparities that haunted their trials and reinforces the retributive criminalization of women.

My Brother's Keeper: Regulation of the Brother–Sister Relationship in the Religious Personal Laws of India

This article analyses the continued denial of equality to women in India's religious personal laws by focusing on the rights of brothers and sisters to illustrate the repeated failures of law. Although this failure has been normalised by deploying various conceptual tools, these theoretical trends need to be challenged. This article examines the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act which, although giving women extensive property rights, still gave sisters lesser rights than their brothers. It demonstrates that the concept of religious personal laws is a construct which is often used uncritically, and that it legitimises the denial of equal rights to women. The paper combines critical geography scholarship and legal feminist insights to argue that the law must be aware of spatial practices and that it is essential for legal thinkers to engage with the law in more than an instrumental sense. It analyses the processes of knowledge production and explores how the constitutive aspects of legal knowledge can be better integrated into legal scholarship. It thus aims to make visible the many spaces of the law: where laws are made; where ideas about men and women as owners of property are normalised; and where the law is expected to be implemented. It argues for legal scholars to be present and engaged in the contestation of meanings of the law.

The Homosexual Witch-Hunt: Using Fear to Shift Focus in a Time of Crisis

In times of crisis, be them economic or otherwise, the powers that be inevitably look to a scapegoat. They need to be able to shift the focus from their own mistakes to the actions of others so as to take the spotlight off the current crisis and their own shortcomings. It may be no coincidence that during the latest economic crisis, the rhetoric against homosexuals and same-sex marriage has been ratcheted up. While the expected politicians and religious leaders continue the fight against same-sex marriage rights, the more surprising trend has been the success of ballot initiatives against same-sex marriage. With the recent repeal by ballot votes in California and Maine, we have seen the populace shoot down state approved same-sex marriage. Interestingly, public backlash against same-sex marriage comes at a time where support for same-sex marriage rights continues to rise across the country. However, even in the face of polling data which suggests public support, we still see politicians such as those in New York City vote against same-sex marriage rights under the guise of “the will of the public.” Where the denial of equal rights comes from may vary from state to state, but whether coming from the legislature or the protesters on Main Street, you are likely to hear the same rationale: Same-sex marriage will ruin the institution of marriage, it will ruin families, it will ruin society, the next step is marrying animals, the list goes on and on. The question becomes: is there a scientific, logical, or legal basis for these arguments? Perhaps more so than with any other social issue, the politics of fear and blame are utilized, often successfully. It is an issue where we see a break from attacks based on science and statistics, with a shift to using hypothetical situations as ammunition. Is there any actual threat to the institution of marriage from the recognition of same-sex marriage, and are these arguments sufficient to justify the denial of equal rights?I argue that the arguments against same-sex marriage rights are fear tactics used against a growing minority to distract the populace. I argue that: (1) data indicates either a strengthening of, or non impact on, familial institutions in nations that granted same-sex marriage or union rights; and (2) the purported state interests in denying same-sex marriage rights do not pass Constitutional muster under any standard of review. I further argue that the recent backlash against homosexuals arises from the politics of fear being implemented by Conservative politicians, leaders, and community members to create a new political underclass that can be focused on in a time of crisis. In short, the current backlash against equal rights of homosexuals is a witch-hunt that uses ballots and pulpits instead of torches and pyres.

Denial of Equal Civil Rights for Lesbians and Gay Men in the Netherlands, 1980–1993

ABSTRACT In six national samples (a total of 11,863 respondents) of the Dutch population, aged 16 and over, the denial of equal rights (in housing, inheriting, and adoption) for lesbians and gay men decreased from 1980 and 1985, and remained stable between 1985 and 1993. The denial of equal rights for lesbians and gay men was subscribed to more strongly by social categories that have been exposed to traditional socializing agents and socializing circumstances in which traditional norms prevailed: membersofdenominations, people who frequently attend church, and older cohorts, especially the ones born before 1948, as well as by those who have presumably not dissociated themselves from these traditional norms, i.e., the lower educated.

La focalización en el régimen subsidiado de salud: elementos para un balance

Based on the results of the project "Evaluation of the Processes of the Subsidized health regime" in Colombia, a reflection is presented about the beneficiary selection system--Sisben as a tool to affiliate people to the subsidized health regime. The multiple interpretations which have been given to the Sisben as an instrument to focalize the health services in the poorest populations, are documented and analyzed. This has been interpreted, amongst others, as a measure of the magnitude of poverty, as an approximate indicator of resources or income, or as an evaluation of fulfillment of needs. It was found that amongst the 19 million of poor people living in Colombia in 1997, less than half of them, 8.9 million, have been included in levels 1 and 2 of Sisben, which represents an exclusion error of 53.1%. Of the 10.6 million persons classified in these levels, 1.6% are not poor, giving an inclusion error of 14.9%. The exclusion errors are much more serious than the inclusion ones, because they mean a denial of equal rights and services for all those who are in similar conditions, according to the criteria for assignation of subsidies.

Application of Herek's Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale in the Netherlands

A national sample of 921 respondents from the Dutch population completed the translated, slightly modified version of Herek's Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale, originally developed in the USA for the assessment of attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. The present study was the first attempt to test the applicability of the scale in the Netherlands. In line with previous American findings, all scale items loaded highly on one factor. The scores also correlated with another measure of attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, namely, 'denial of equal rights' (r = .76), and with 'traditional view of women' (r = .48), 'importance of traditional marriage' (r = .53), and 'authoritarianism' (r = .31). Data support the scale's acceptable reliability and construct and discriminant validity.

Denial of Equal Rights to Religious Minorities and Non-Believers in the United States

Denial of Equal Rights to Religious Minorities and Non-Believers in the United States