The impact of international human rights law ratification on local discourses on rights: the case of CEDAW in Al-Anba reporting in Kuwait

George, Rachel (2020) The impact of international human rights law ratification on local discourses on rights: the case of CEDAW in Al-Anba reporting in Kuwait. Human Rights Review, 21 (1). 43 - 64. ISSN 1874-6306

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Abstract

By most measures, the impact of international human rights law ratification in the Arab Gulf region primarily in the 1990s and 2000s has been minimal. Scholars have found little evidence of correlation between ratification of the core human rights conventions with the minimal improvements in human rights practice in the region. Ratification of most human rights instruments Arab Gulf states in recent decades has, however, offered new cases from which to explore the impact of international human rights law in countries where human rights monitors find protections to be most limited. Using the case of Kuwait’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), this article examines the impact of ratification in 1994 on discourses on discrimination against women in national press on human rights in the country. Through analysis of reporting in national newspaper Al-Anba, the article identifies how ratification has shaped the language used in national press reporting on women’s rights to increasingly reference the convention and frame rights violations in the language of “discrimination.” In tracing these connections between the convention and related content in local press, the article identifies new avenue to explore the “impact” of human rights treaty ratification, even when formal changes in laws and policies so far have been limited.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/journal/12142
Additional Information:	© 2019 The Author
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform K Law > K Law (General)
Date Deposited:	05 Dec 2019 14:42
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2024 19:30
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/102795

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