Protectors as Perpetrators: State Violence Against Women in India
By Radha D’Souza (Law, Development and Conflict Studies, School of
Law, University of Westminster, UK), organized by Sunera Thobani (Department of Asian Studies, UBC)
Professor Radha D’Souza’s address will focus on state violence against women in India. India is widely perceived to be the most populous democracy in the world. Its progressive constitution puts classical liberal rights including equality, non-discrimination, right to life and access to justice at the heart of the constitution as fundamental rights. At the same time India is also seen as the most dangerous country to be a woman in.
Within and outside academia, the endemic and routinised violence against women is widely attributed to familial and societal causes. If the law fails to bring perpetrators of violence against women to justice, corruption within police and dysfunctional criminal justice system is seen as the problem. Going beyond these frames of analysis, Professor D’Souza will examine statutes like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that exempt army personnel form prosecution in occupied territories, state organised pogroms against religious and caste groups, and the endemic everyday police violence against poor, Dalit (marginalised castes) and Adivasi (indigenous) women.
Her address will call into question the assumptions about normative and procedural standards, including human rights standards, in Legal Studies and the theoretical and methodological strategies in Gender Studies that are typically used to analyse violence against women in India. State violence against women unravels assumptions about gender-based violence and rights based legal remedies.
If you are interested in participating in this talk, please register here.