International feminists are divided over how to deal with discrimination perpetuated against women by traditional cultures and systems of governance. These spheres cannot be viewed as simple tools of patriarchy. In order to confront such issues, inno vative strategies are needed, and this article offers a new 'expanded integrationist' approach. It applies this approach to the conflicts between the rights of aboriginal women and the suggested forms of aboriginal self-government in Canada. These con flicts reveal the deeper tensions of different visions of culture and society, and require both creative, multifaceted solutions, and difficult reinterpretations of the meanings of 'rights' and 'culture'.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Amnesty International (1995) Human Rights Are Women's Rights, Action/Technique Document ACT 77/001/1995 , as available on http://www.amnesty.se/women/242e.htm on 24 February 1997.
2.
Amnesty International (1996) A Role for Amnesty International in the Global Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation, Action/Technique Document ACT 77/003/1996, as available on http://www.amnesty.se/women/2462.htm on 24 February 1997.
3.
Anaya, S.J. (1990) 'The Capacity of International Law to Advance Ethnic or Nationality Rights Claims', Iowa Law Review75: 837-44.
4.
An-Na'im, A.A. (1994) 'State Responsibility Under International Human Rights Law to Change Religious and Customary Laws', in R. J. Cook (ed.) Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives, pp. 167-88. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
5.
Berry, D.S. (1998a) 'Contextualising International Women's Rights: Canadian Feminism, Race and Culture', forthcoming in C. McGlynn (ed.) Legal Feminisms: Theory and Practice, pp. 119-34. Aldershot: Dartmouth.
6.
Berry, D.S. (1998b) 'Interpreting Rights and Culture: Extending Law's Empire', forthcoming in Res Publica4 (1).
7.
Charlesworth, H., Chinkin, C. and Wright, S. (1991) 'Feminist Approaches to International Law', The American Journal of International Law85: 613-45.
8.
Coomaraswamy, R. (1994) 'To Bellow Like a Cow: Women, Ethnicity, and the Discourse of Rights', in R. J. Cook (ed.) Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives , pp. 39-57. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania .
9.
Donnelly, J. (1989) Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. London: Cornell University.
10.
Donnelly, J. (1995) 'State Sovereignty and International Intervention: The Case of Human Rights', in G. M. Lyons and M. Mastanduno (eds) Beyond Westphalia? State Sovereignty and International Intervention, pp. 115-46. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
11.
Dworkin, R. (1986) Law's Empire. Cambridge, Ma .: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
12.
Elshtain, J.B. (1995) 'Exporting Feminism', Journal of International Affairs48: 541-58.
13.
Engle, K. (1992a) 'Female Subjects of Public International Law: Human Rights and the Exotic Other Female', New England Law Review26: 1509-26.
14.
Engle, K. (1992b) 'International Human Rights and Feminism: When Discourses Meet', Michigan Journal of International Law13: 517-610.
15.
Funder, A. (1993) 'De Minimis Non Curat Lex: The Clitoris, Culture and the Law', Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems3: 417-67.
16.
Hart, H.L.A. (1961) The Concept of Law. Oxford: Clarendon.
17.
Kingdom, E. (1991) What's Wrong With Rights ? Problems for Feminist Politics of Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University.
18.
Kingdom, E. (1996) 'Transforming Rights: Feminist Political Heuristics' , Res Publica2: 63-75.
19.
Kirkness, V. (1993) 'Emerging Native Woman', in T. B. Dawson (ed.), Women, Law and Social Change: Core Readings and Current Issues, 2nd edn, pp. 250-53. North York, Ontario: Captus.
20.
Lewis, H. (1995) 'Between Irua and "Female Genital Mutilation": Feminist Human Rights Discourse and the Cultural Divide', Harvard Human Rights Journal8: 1-55.
21.
Macklem, P. (1995) 'Normative Dimensions of an Aboriginal Right of Self-Government', Queen's Law Journal21: 173-219.
22.
Mahoney, K. (1996) 'Theoretical Perspectives on Women's Human Rights and Strategies for their Implementation', Brooklyn Journal of International Law21: 799-856.
23.
Mayer, A.E. (1995) 'Cultural Particularism as a Bar to Women's Rights: Reflections on the Middle Eastern Experience', in J. Peters and A. Wolper (eds) Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives , pp. 176-88. New York: Routledge.
24.
Mercredi, O. and Turpel, M.E. (1993) In the Rapids: Navigating the Future of First Nations . Toronto: Penguin Books Canada .
25.
Nahanee, T. (1993) 'Dancing With a Gorilla: Aboriginal Women, Justice and the Charter', in Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples and the justice System: Report of the National Round Table on Aboriginal Justice Issues, pp. 359-82. Canada: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
26.
O'Hagan, T. (1984) The End of Law? Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
27.
Rao, A. ( 1995) 'The Politics of Gender and Culture in International Human Rights Discourse', in J. Peters and A. Wolper (eds) Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, pp. 167-75. New York: Routledge.
28.
Romany, C. (1996) 'Black Women and Gender Equality in a New South Africa: Human Rights Law and the Intersection of Race and Gender', Brooklyn Journal of International Law21: 857-98.
29.
Ross, R. (1992) Dancing with a Ghost: Exploring Indian Reality . Markham, Ont.: Octopus Publishing Group.
30.
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996 ) Bridging the Cultural Divide: A Report on Aboriginal People and Criminal justice in Canada. Ottawa: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
31.
Sanders, D. (1994) 'Developments at the United Nations: 1994', Canadian Native Law Reporter4: 12-16.
32.
Slaughter, M.M. (1994) 'The Multicultural Self: Questions of Subjectivity, Questions of Power', in M. Rosenfeld (ed.) Constitutionalism, Identity, Difference, and Legitimacy: Theoretical Perspectives, pp. 369-80. Durham: Duke University .
33.
Tabak, F. (1990) 'Obstacles to Implementing Equal Rights in Third World Countries', in A-J. Arnaud and E. Kingdom (eds) Women's Rights and the Rights of Man, pp. 149-57. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University.
34.
Tennant, C. (1994) 'Indigenous Peoples, International Institutions, and the International Legal Literature from 1945-1993', Human Rights Quarterly16: 1-57.
35.
Toro, M.S. (1995) 'Popularizing Women's Human Rights at the Local Level: A Grass-roots Methodology for Setting the International Agenda', in J. Peters and A. Wolper (eds) Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, pp. 189-94. New York: Routledge.
36.
Webber, J. (1993) 'Individuality, Equality and Difference: Justifications for a Parallel System of Aboriginal Justice', in Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples and the Justice System: Report of the National Round Table on Aboriginal Justice Issues, pp. 133-60. Canada: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
37.
Werther, G.F.A. (1992) Self-Determination in Western Democracies: Aboriginal Politics in a Comparative Perspective. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press.
38.
York, G. (1992) The Dispossessed: Life and Death in Native Canada . Toronto: Little, Brown and Company (Canada).
