Course Information
- 2024-25
- CCI214
- 5-Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), LL.M.
- IV, V
- Jul 2024
- Elective Course
This course investigates key dimensions of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It hopes to equip students with some of the major debates that have taken place on the various provisions of the CEDAW like a provision on violence against women, the cultural issue of Reservations, the definition of discrimination and the focus on traditional, customary attitudes in defining gender-based violence (GBV). The CEDAW happens to be an undertheorized and underarticulated instrument of public international law. The missing analytic of women has been the primary refrain through which gender has intersected with international law. The CEDAW represents multiple dimensions of this debate, and this course provides an overview of some of these dimensions. This course requires basic knowledge of international law and is a standalone course.
The course will require students to come up with an original research paper of 5000 words on a topic of their choosing. This topic has to be located within the domain of gender and international law and have an explicit nexus to the CEDAW. For instance, since the CEDAW is a peace time instrument, if a student chooses to write on warfare and gender then the link to the CEDAW has to be lucid.
I have primarily approached the course with introducing students to the multifarious dimensions of the analysis of the CEDAW that exists in the law. The priority is to focus on CEDAW within international law. The course is intended to create an epistemology of the CEDAW in the mind of the student. The main readings will be journal articles dealing with some difficult questions of the CEDAW. Like stated above, these will include whether the CEDAW is epiphenomenal, the questions of Reservations, the adoption of a special provision on violence against women and the politics associated with it and the adoption of the Optional Protocol. Some of the readings are contingent and meant to provoke discussion as the CEDAW is in itself a contingent and evolving instrument.
The primary mode of instruction is through journal articles. Since the end of the class requires production of an independent research paper, the class will gently introduce the student to various high quality research papers written on the topic of the CEDAW. That way the student will be acclimatized to the expected typical end of the term research paper.
The pedagogical method that will be followed is a combination of lectures and seminar style discussion. Each class will have 15 minutes of lecture followed by a seminar style discussion. The readings are paced at three or four a session. The lecture will initially place the topic of the class in the larger perspective of the CEDAW. Then the class will delve into the specific detail of the reading. The students will be encouraged to make notes prior to class by speed reading. This is purposeful reading for the class which comprises reading the crux of an article. This will enable breakdown of the issues in class suitable for discussions and will also enable ease of comprehension.