General information

Call No.:

392-2-12:3/1

Part of series

HU OSA 392-2-12 Video Recordings of WITNESS: WITNESS Partners' Raw Footage: Women's Caucus for Gender Justice

Located at

DVD-ROM #3 / No. 1

Digital ver. identifier

HU OSA 392-2-12_003

Date of production

1999-12-04

Date

1999

Level

Item

Primary Type

Moving image

Language

English

Duration

38 min.

Content

Form/Genre

Raw material

Contents Summary

Footage is of a Women's Caucus meeting that is exploring issues of awareness about the gendered nature and limitations of international criminal justice. There are lectures, discussions and participant exercises on the topic. There is much discussion about the issues involved with using the western paradigm of women's rights when in other countries.

The Women's Caucus was formed in February 1997, to intervene in the ongoing Preparatory Committee meetings for the establishment of an International Criminal Court at the United Nations. Women realized that without an organized caucus, women's concerns would not be actively defended in the documents and process of creation of an International Criminal Court. The legal issues in the ICC are complex and sensitive. They require people from different legal systems and cultures to arrive at a consensus on specific issues that may challenge local traditions or beliefs. The gender-related issues are particularly sensitive, as they are not as well understood. Gender-related crimes are often perceived to be private or individual crimes that do not rise to the level of international human rights law, or that are perceived to be taken care of by a "neutral" statute. However, the experience of women has been that neutrality usually results in leaving out crimes against women and the ways that women, because of their socially constructed roles in society, are disproportionately affected. It was these concerns that the Women's Caucus sought to address in the process of creation of an International Criminal Court. By advocating the codification of crimes of sexual, reproductive and gender violence, and inclusion of gender sensitive processes and criteria for personnel, the Caucus tried to ensure that the Court has capacity to implement justice for women.

Context

Associated Names

WITNESS (Copyright holder)

Women's Caucus for Gender Justice (Copyright holder)