Can international human rights law accommodate bodily diversity?

This article considers recent efforts by international bodies and advocacy groups to secure the human rights of individuals with intersex variation. Identifying that these efforts are constrained by powerful assumptions about binary sex, it argues that international rights discourse looks set to regulate intersex individuals by the same protective strategies applied to the last four decades of the women's rights movement. A frank reading of legal feminist scholarship indicates several possible risks for the nascent intersex campaign. Efforts to ensure the substantive enjoyment of rights (for all) need to move beyond the constraints of a binary system in which women and sexed/sexual minorities will always be produced as other. Having argued that human rights are not contingent on biological determinants, the right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex traits is considered.

A Bourdieuian analysis of the aspirations associated with international students' investment in VET

An increasing number of students around the globe have pursuedtertiary education outside their national borders over the past few decades. There are over 4.5 million international students currently undertaking overseas study (OECD, 2014). Despite the growing focus of institutions around the world on internationalisation of education and increasing research interests in international education, the ‘mobility’ of international students remains a largely under-theorised phenomenon. This paper provides insights into the mobility of an often-neglected group within the field of international education –international students in vocational education and training (VET). It draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involves 105 semi-structured interviews with international students from the Asia Pacific region, Europe and America in 25 VET institutions and dual sector universities in Australia.