With Legal pluralism, a state has more than one legal system in which rights can be attributed to citizens through private or religious actors. Lebanon has established religious family law through the constitutional charter, in which personal status is delegated to the country’s different confessions to govern. Citizens of different confessions are thus assigned different rights which particularly tends to affect the rights of women.  In this study, the impacts of Lebanon's legal pluralism on the legal status of women is being examined to give an understanding of how the legal system from a gender perspective, and to examine how the outcome affects women’s everyday life by the coexistence of religious and civil courts. The study also examines how Lebanon, with its current constitution, can fulfill the international law obligations stemming follow from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Through legal methods and semi-structured interviews made with civil society, legal and academic persons in Beirut - the current laws in Lebanon were analyzed based on the concepts of gender, male dominance, and private and public sphere to visualize the relationship of gender and its significance in the Lebanese legal system. The results of the study show that legal pluralism in Lebanon can be understood in relation to how the complex history of the country has influenced the formation of the judicial system in which a male norm is dominating. The rights of women have been thrust to the private sphere and a masculine norm permeates the Constitution, family law and civil laws, which creates gender segregation in society. Thus, gender affects the legal status of women and the impacts of legal pluralism affect their daily lives negatively as their legal status is subordinate to men regarding marriage and its dissolution, custody of children, and nationality.                       Regarding the Conventional right, the study shows that the current constitution allows for space to fulfill CEDAW. Thus, the protection of the Convention is not being fully implemented in neither the personal status related laws or civil laws. However, Lebanon has reservations towards key articles of the Convention which result in that the full potential of the Convention is not maintained. / Rättslig pluralism innebär att en stat har fler än ett rättssystem och att rättigheter tillämpas av statliga och privata aktörer. Libanon har genom konstitutionen etablerat religiös familjerätt som innebär att medborgare tillskrivs olika rättigheter efter trosbekännelse vilket särskilt påverkar kvinnor rättsliga ställning. I denna studie undersöks hur rättslig pluralism kan förstås ur ett genusrättsvetenskapligt perspektiv samt hur det påverkar kvinnors rättsliga ställning i Libanon. Studien undersöker även hur Libanon, med den nuvarande konstitutionen, kan uppfylla de internationella förpliktelser som följer av konventionen om avskaffande av alla former av diskriminering mot kvinnor (CEDAW). Genom rättsdogmatisk metod, genusrättsvetenskap samt semi-strukturerade intervjuer med civilsamhället, akademiker samt rättstillämpare i Beirut, har gällande rätt i Libanon analyseras utifrån begreppen genus, manlig dominans och privat och offentlig sfär för att visualisera förhållandet mellan kön och dess betydelse i det libanesiska rättssystemet. Resultaten visar att rättslig pluralism i Libanon kan förstås i förhållande till landets komplexa historia som har påverkat bildandet av det rättsliga systemet där en manlig norm präglar konstitutionen, familjerätten och civilrättsliga lagar vilket skapar könssegregering i samhället. Utfallet påvisar att det råder motsättningar mellan konstitutionella rättigheter vilket påverkar att kvinnors rättsliga ställning främst behandlas inom den privata sfären och blir undantaget som rättighetsinnehavare. I det dagliga samhället underordnas kvinnors rättsliga ställning avseende äktenskapet och dess upplösning, vårdnad av barn och nationalitet, i förhållande till den rättsliga ställning som män innehar. Avseende folkrättsliga förpliktelser visar studien att den nuvarande konstitutionen ger utrymme att uppfylla CEDAW. Dock följer av gällande rätt och Libanons reservationer mot centrala artiklar i konventionen hinder vilka innebär att konventionen inte upprätthålls.

For the last fifty years the liberal feminist approach has been gaining grounds on the national state level, instituting women’s agencies, gender quotas and gender mainstreaming within nation states. Encouraged by larger international institutions, such as the United Nations, liberal feminism has come to be adopted broadly world-wise advocating for a close relationship between the state and the civil society (Squires, 2007 and McBride & Mazur, 2013). In the advancement of liberal feminism, questions of genuine political parity between these two actors - the state and civil society organizations - has been raised, as well as the state’s capability to promote equal change in accordance with the organizations’ many agendas and beliefs. The aim of this study is to describe and gain understanding of the political environment of the women’s rights organizations in Argentina and the possibilities and challenges that they experience in relation to this development. By using an interpretive research design and theoretical perspectives of social movement theory, this study addresses the ways in which women’s rights organizations in Argentina experience their political opportunities to participate in decision-making processes. Particularly women’s rights organizations that have experience of the state on a national, provincial and local level in Argentina and across political parties in power are addressed in this study. This study presents a novel contribution to the discussion of State Feminism concerning the subject of working from the inside or outside the state, to social movement theory with the conceptualization on political opportunity and by instantiating the discussion with a case study in which it is contextualized and tested.

Muslim women’s rights, and gender equality in the Muslim world, are commonly discussed subjects within the academic world. Feminism, as a term, is often connected to this topic of discussion. This thesis aims to analyze two different perspectives concerning how these rights should be achieved: Islamic feminism, using internal resources, and Muslim feminism, using external resources. Islamic feminism, as a strategy, proposes that by interpreting the Quran, the ultimate revelation of God, Islam could provide the central and egalitarian meaning of the Quran. There is disagreement within the academic community whether Islamic feminism would enable these rights. Muslim feminism, as a counterpoint to Islamic feminism, proposes that the state must become secularized. Rendering Islam and the state as separate entities.    This thesis will utilize the theoretical perspective on Islam and feminism from five feministic academics. They all have different backgrounds, standpoints, and approaches towards the development of Muslim women’s rights, as well as what strategies they suggest to improve them. These strategies encounter different kinds of difficulties. The Islamic feminism, which uses the Quran, runs the risk of being too heavily associated with already established interpretations of the Quran. It may be seen as intertwined with existing fundamentalist views. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Muslim feminism may create a divide between Islam and women’s rights. This thesis aims to present the potential of different theoretical perspectives on Islam and feminism as well as the limitations on suggested strategies for improvement of Muslim women’s rights.

In Lebanon exists fifteen different religious courts treating personal status laws i.e., laws regarding marriage and divorce, one of these is the ja’farite court. The purpose of this essay is to clarify the process of marriage and divorce within the ja’farite court and to further investigate in which ways the ja’farite court violate women’s human rights. To answer these questions the research method used is a text analysis through a qualitative method where the analysis and the conclusion present the results of the research. The result and the conclusion present that the ja’farite court violate several articles from the CEDAW; Lebanon as a state has ratified CEDAW and is obligated to commit to their undertakings. Therefore, Lebanon should first and foremost engage in the abolishment of the religious courts but also establish adequate oversight mechanism to guarantee women’s human rights.

This study aims to analyze the development of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia by examiningthree reforms dated between the years of 2011 to 2022. The reforms revolve the progressmade within the subject and are therefore relevant to our paper. Furthermore, the reforms areanalyzed from the perspective of two theories: late rentierism and liberal feminism. Themethodology in the essay aims to seek motives behind decisions made by the state, thus beingappropriate to use in our case. In the analysis we connect the found motives with the chosentheories and draw conclusions regarding how the motives can be explained by each theory.Our findings show that the progress of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia can be connected tothe theory of late rentierism, where the reforms all indicate that the state of Saudi Arabia hastheir best economic interest in mind when implementing the reforms analyzed. A certainconnection with the theory of liberal feminism can be drawn as women’s rights are legalizedto a larger extent, as well as their rights in family matters that appear to be of larger interest tothe state today.

<p><strong>Varför har FN inte kunnat erkänna våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott?</strong></p><p>Denna studie har ägnats åt att upplysa användning av våldtäkt och andra former utav sexuella övergrepp under krig och dess konsekvenser för utsatta kvinnor. Studien har tillämpat en kvalitativ och litterär metod. Den största delen av materialet har tagits ur diverse artiklar, dokument och tidsskrifer. Uppsatsen upplyser kvinnors rättigheter inom den internationella arenan och studien ifrågasätter varför Förenta Nationerna (FN) har dröjt (ca.50 år) med att identifiera våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott inom internationall lagstiftning.</p><p>Första delen av uppsatsen kommer att presentera de underliggande teorierna som preciserar konceptet sexuellt övergrepp och mer djupgående, också förklara anledningar bakom anvädning av våldtäkt, därav begränsa dess anvädning inom krigsförhållanden.</p><p>Andra delen av uppsatsen sätter fokus på termen våldtäkt och dess utveckling inom den juridiska ramen. Den behandlar folkrätt, och framhäver även orsaker till FN’s svaghet och svårighet att kunna erkänna, inte bara våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott, utan också andra frågor som är problematiska för FN att kunna hantera. Eftersom begreppet ’våldtäkt’ är relativt brett, faller det både under kvinnors rättigheter och i sin tur under mänskliga rättigheter. Av denna anledning kommer uppsatsen att ta upp de möjliga anledningar om varför det har dröjt för FN, men också dess svårighter, att kunna erkänna anvädning av våldtäkt som ett vapen inom krig.</p><p>Tredje delen av uppsatsen tar upp några av de möjliga problem som är ohanterliga för FN, bland annat kulturella skillnader och individuella åsikter mellan medlems staterna, vilket medför brist på konsensus. Uppsatsen ifrågasätter även om kvinnors rättigheter är del av mänskilga rättigheter. Utöver det kommer även uppsatsen resonera kring FN’s dilemma att kunna särskilja sin roll som ett mellanstatligt och transnationellt organ. Och sist men inte minst kommer suveräniteten, som varje stat har rätten till att erhålla, att diskuteras. Denna punkt kommer att klargöra den oenighet som förekommer mellan medlems staterna, vilket ännu än gång har resulterat i det dröjsmål som uppstått i att kunna indentifiera våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott.</p> / <p><strong>Why haven’t the UN been able to recognise rape as a weapon of war?</strong></p><p>The thesis enlightens the usage of rape in war and the consequences this has brought on women who have been subjected to rape. The bulk of the information is taken from various articles, documents and journals and the method used is of a qualitative nature. The thesis sheds light upon women’s rights in the international arena and questions why it took so long (almost 50 years) for the United Nations (UN) in addressing rape as a war crime within international law.</p><p>The first part of the thesis will present various theories that elucidate the word sexual violence and more accurately ‘rape’ in the context of war. The second part generates the judicial part that will depict the difficulty for the international community to address rape as a war crime within international law.</p><p>Furthermore the thesis takes the approach in presenting obstacles faced by the UN, within the framework of human rights, to handle delicate issues such as rape and sexual violence. Since rape is, to a large extent, complicated and a broad concept, and since it falls under the category of women’s rights and under human rights, the thesis will explain reasons behind the dawdling and the hurdles faced by the UN in accepting rape under the category of war crime.</p><p>The third part of the thesis will present possible predicaments that are unmanageable for the UN. Some possible issues that the thesis has touched upon, is cultural diversity and differing opinions among the member states which has resulted in lack of consensus. Furthermore, the study will present the notion of women’s rights, and question if they are part of human rights. The thesis will also discuss the dual role of the UN and its struggle for the past decade to uphold its role both as an intergovernmental as well as a transnational body. Lastly the thesis will enlighten sovereignty that each state must enjoy. Sovereignty has resulted in lack of agreement among the member states which again has caused delay in recognising rape as a war crime.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to find out to what female migration from Sweden to Britain looked like in 1894, 1914, 1925, and 1940, and to what extent any changes seen were affected by the economy and political changes to women’s rights. In order to do this I have analysed statistics found in archive material, in addition to literature relating to migration into Britain, the economy, and women’s rights, in order to see if there is a correlation between changes in the statistics presented and changes in society. In doing this, I found that although there are immense changes to the rights of women between 1894 and 1940 in both Sweden and Britain, such as the right to vote, the right to equal work, and the right to equal pensions, migration patterns lean much further towards the economical changes than the political changes. The biggest of these economic factors in Britain was quite clearly the industrial revolution, which affected multiple sectors of work for every type of person. Meanwhile Sweden had a situation where there was an excess of women in the country, and 90% of those that worked were agricultural workers, leading to a large outlier of ‘pigor’ or female farmhands who emigrated in 1894. / Syftet med denna uppsatsen är att undersöka hur kvinnlig migration från Sverige till Storbritannien såg ut under år 1894, 1914, 1925 och 1940. Jag har även undersökt till vilken grad eventuella ändringar, av migrationen, påverkades av ekonomin och även de politiska förändringarna gällande kvinnliga rättigheter. För att uppnå syftet har jag analyserat statistik samlad från arkivmaterial. Detta tillsammans med litteratur kring migration till Storbritannien, ekonomin och kvinnliga rättigheter, för att kunna se ifall det finns en korrelation mellan skillnaderna i den presenterade statistiken och hur samhället ändrades. Genom att göra detta fann jag att fastän det finns stora skillnader i kvinnornas rättigheter mellan 1894 och 1940 i både Sverige och Storbritannien, som till exempel rösträtten, rätt till arbete och rätt till samma pension som män, så lutade ändringen i migrationen mycket mer åt i hur ekonomin ändrade sig än själva politiken. Den största ekonomiska faktorn i Storbritannien var den industriella revolutionen, vilket påverkade många olika arbetssektorer för alla i samhället. Under tiden detta pågick i Storbritannien fann Sverige sig i en situation där det fanns ett överflöd av kvinnor i landet, varav 90% arbetade inom jordbruket. En följd av situationen var den konstaterade utflyttningen av många pigor till Storbritannien år 1894.

Implementationsproblematiken inom de mänskliga rättigheterna är en pågående diskussion. Denna undersökning behandlar hur artikel 16.2 implementerats i Gambia och vad det kan finnas för svårigheter i implementeringen av en artikel som behandlar barnäktenskap. Genom fallstudien som metod och implementeringsforskning, Susan Möller Okin samt Sheyla Benhabibs teori gällande grupprättigheter kontra kvinnors rättigheter på individnivå undersöks hur artikel 16.2 i CEDAW implementerats i Gambia. Artikel 16.2, vilken beskriver barnets trolovning och äktenskap, dekonstrueras och utifrån det diskuteras innebörden i artikeln vilket senare jämförs med Gambias nationella lagstiftning. Undersökningen består av att se hur artikel 16.2 implementerats i Gambiaoch vad det kan finnas för svårigheter i implementeringen av en artikel som behandlarbarnäktenskap. Slutligen konstateras implementeringsproblematikens komplexitet och hur ett fall och en implementering av en specifik artikel i en specifik stat inte är den andra lik. Därmed inte sagt att det inte går att eliminera de grövsta misstagen genom att lära av tidigare försök och forskning. / Implementation issues within Human Rights is an ongoing discussion. This study deals with how Article 16.2 was implemented in The Gambia and what difficulties can arise in the implementation of an article on child marriage. Through case study as a method and implementation research, Susan Moller Okin and Sheyla Benhabibs theory of group rights versus the rights of women on an individual level I wish to examinate how Article 16.2 in CEDAW is implemented in the Gambia.Article 16.2, which describes the child betrothal and marriage, is being deconstructed and from that discussed the meaning of the article, which later is compared with the Gambia national legislation. The study consists of seeing how Article 16.2 was implemented in The Gambia and what the difficulties in the implementation of an article on child marriage may be. Finally it is confirmed that implementation issues complexity, a case and an implementation of a specific item in a specific state is not like the other. That said, it is not possible to eliminate the largest mistakes by learning from previous experiments and research.

Varför har FN inte kunnat erkänna våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott? Denna studie har ägnats åt att upplysa användning av våldtäkt och andra former utav sexuella övergrepp under krig och dess konsekvenser för utsatta kvinnor. Studien har tillämpat en kvalitativ och litterär metod. Den största delen av materialet har tagits ur diverse artiklar, dokument och tidsskrifer. Uppsatsen upplyser kvinnors rättigheter inom den internationella arenan och studien ifrågasätter varför Förenta Nationerna (FN) har dröjt (ca.50 år) med att identifiera våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott inom internationall lagstiftning. Första delen av uppsatsen kommer att presentera de underliggande teorierna som preciserar konceptet sexuellt övergrepp och mer djupgående, också förklara anledningar bakom anvädning av våldtäkt, därav begränsa dess anvädning inom krigsförhållanden. Andra delen av uppsatsen sätter fokus på termen våldtäkt och dess utveckling inom den juridiska ramen. Den behandlar folkrätt, och framhäver även orsaker till FN’s svaghet och svårighet att kunna erkänna, inte bara våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott, utan också andra frågor som är problematiska för FN att kunna hantera. Eftersom begreppet ’våldtäkt’ är relativt brett, faller det både under kvinnors rättigheter och i sin tur under mänskliga rättigheter. Av denna anledning kommer uppsatsen att ta upp de möjliga anledningar om varför det har dröjt för FN, men också dess svårighter, att kunna erkänna anvädning av våldtäkt som ett vapen inom krig. Tredje delen av uppsatsen tar upp några av de möjliga problem som är ohanterliga för FN, bland annat kulturella skillnader och individuella åsikter mellan medlems staterna, vilket medför brist på konsensus. Uppsatsen ifrågasätter även om kvinnors rättigheter är del av mänskilga rättigheter. Utöver det kommer även uppsatsen resonera kring FN’s dilemma att kunna särskilja sin roll som ett mellanstatligt och transnationellt organ. Och sist men inte minst kommer suveräniteten, som varje stat har rätten till att erhålla, att diskuteras. Denna punkt kommer att klargöra den oenighet som förekommer mellan medlems staterna, vilket ännu än gång har resulterat i det dröjsmål som uppstått i att kunna indentifiera våldtäkt som ett krigsbrott. / Why haven’t the UN been able to recognise rape as a weapon of war? The thesis enlightens the usage of rape in war and the consequences this has brought on women who have been subjected to rape. The bulk of the information is taken from various articles, documents and journals and the method used is of a qualitative nature. The thesis sheds light upon women’s rights in the international arena and questions why it took so long (almost 50 years) for the United Nations (UN) in addressing rape as a war crime within international law. The first part of the thesis will present various theories that elucidate the word sexual violence and more accurately ‘rape’ in the context of war. The second part generates the judicial part that will depict the difficulty for the international community to address rape as a war crime within international law. Furthermore the thesis takes the approach in presenting obstacles faced by the UN, within the framework of human rights, to handle delicate issues such as rape and sexual violence. Since rape is, to a large extent, complicated and a broad concept, and since it falls under the category of women’s rights and under human rights, the thesis will explain reasons behind the dawdling and the hurdles faced by the UN in accepting rape under the category of war crime. The third part of the thesis will present possible predicaments that are unmanageable for the UN. Some possible issues that the thesis has touched upon, is cultural diversity and differing opinions among the member states which has resulted in lack of consensus. Furthermore, the study will present the notion of women’s rights, and question if they are part of human rights. The thesis will also discuss the dual role of the UN and its struggle for the past decade to uphold its role both as an intergovernmental as well as a transnational body. Lastly the thesis will enlighten sovereignty that each state must enjoy. Sovereignty has resulted in lack of agreement among the member states which again has caused delay in recognising rape as a war crime.

In recent decades, men’s violence against women has been perceived as an increasing problem in our societies. Men’s violence against women are nowadays also classified as a serious crime against human rights. The violence in an intimate relationship between a man and a woman restricts the woman’s sense of freedom and justice. The violence results in violation of the women’s rights to a private life.  It's usually the physical and sexual abuse of women that is the center in legal contexts within the scope of domestic violence against women. It’s therefore necessary to examine other specific forms of domestic violence within the legal scope in Sweden and the European Convention on Human Rights. This study has focused on the psychological abuse against women as a form of domestic violence. The psychological abuse against women is a serious matter in the Swedish society. This study has examined whether the psychological abuse against women is included in the Swedish criminal classifications. It has also examined whether the psychological abuse is, or should, apply within the state’s positive obligations especially in article 8 in the European Convention.  The results of this study have shown that Sweden do not have legal security for all forms included in psychological violence even though it’s such a serious issue in the Swedish society today. It has also shown that the right to privacy and a private life may be one of the reasons why Sweden hasn’t come up with a criminal provision against psychological abuse against women. Women’s right to a private life and freedom from all forms of abuse are therefore not fulfilled under the state’s positive obligations without this criminal provision, according to the positive obligations that article 8 in the European Convention should provide to all individuals.  Key words: Human rights, Women’s rights, State’s positive obligation, Domestic violence, Psychological abuse, Intimate relationship, Private life, European Court, European Convention on Human Rights, Swedish legal context.