The Inadequacy of the UN Legal System Remedies for Gender – Based Violence as an Example of the International Rule of Law Failure and the European Jurisprudence Response
The Inadequacy of the UN Legal System Remedies for Gender – Based Violence as an Example of the International Rule of Law Failure and the European Jurisprudence Response

Summary/Abstract: A number of international documents provide the core rules for the prohibition of gender based violence. The notion that men and women should enjoy human rights on an equal basis is part of all the main human rights instruments. The states have international and regional obligations under the due diligence standard as parties to treaties and conventions but none have abolish violence against women. Abuses that women generally suffer, such as domestic violence but also sexual assault, incest, rape and constrains of reproductive freedom and many others, do not fall within UN definitions of state action and thus occur outside the realm of international concerns. By Ertürk there is “a rule of customary international law that obliges States to prevent and respond to acts of violence against women with due diligence.” However the UN is ill-equipped to respond effectively to women’s problems and thus the rights of men and women are not equally protected anywhere. Fortunately, an effective response to this problem exists on a regional level, thanks to the approach, for instance, of regional courts of jurisprudence, such as the European Court of Human Rights. The rulings issued by the Court and its further incorporation by the states into their domestic legal orders set the legislative direction for whole international community giving a hope that finally violence against women will be recognized on a par with other abuses so far considered by international law to be more important.

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