Equality and Difference: Regional Courts and Women's Human Rights

Women's human rights lie at the intersection of two intellectual and political movements: gender equality, and multiculturalism. In this chapter I argue that the role and the reach of regional human rights institutions should be expanded so that they participate more fully in developing women's human rights jurisprudence. Regional courts could help to mediate between the human right to be equal and the human right to be different. Regional human rights institutions could provide an important institutional supplement to better adjudicate differences between national and international human rights standards.