Recognition of "difference" in Shari'a: a feminist scrutiny through the lens of substantive equality

The paper looks at the works of notable Islamic feminists to examine whether Islam can be reconciled with a substantive approach to gender equality. Located within contemporary feminist debates related to gender equality, it considers the Qur’anic verses related to two controversial areas of Shari’a law, namely, duty of obedience and polygamy, to explore how Islamic scriptures perceive ‘difference’ and its implications for substantive equality-based legal reforms in a Muslim society.

Entre Tapas e Beijos: estudo sobre a violência doméstica contra a mulher no Estado da Paraíba (Brasil), após a entrada em vigor da Lei Maria da Penha (Lei nº 11.340/2006)

Dissertação de mestrado em Direitos Humanos

Le port des signes religieux dans l'espace public : une réflexion à partir du droit international et d'une comparaison entre le Canada, les États-Unis, la France et la Suisse

Après avoir établi les bases méthodologiques de cette recherche, nous avons débuté notre réflexion en inscrivant la problématique du port des signes religieux dans l’espace public dans le débat qui perdure entre les perspectives différentialiste et universaliste au niveau de l’application des droits à l’égalité. Par la suite, nous effectuons un survol des cadres conceptuels appropriés à l’analyse du sujet: le libéralisme classique et le républicanisme qui se rapportent à la vision universaliste. Les divers types de féminisme juridique, la théorie de l’intersectionnalité, l’approche communautarienne, le libéralisme repensé de Kymlicka et les valeurs relatives au droit à l’égalité de Sandra Fredman qui se rangent sous la houlette de la philosophie différentialiste. Par la suite, le libéralisme repensé de Kymlicka et les valeurs relatives au droit à l’égalité de Fredman sont identifiés comme étant les cadres les plus appropriés à l’analyse du sujet à l’étude. Dans cette même optique, notre examen du droit international nous a permis de démontrer que pendant que le droit européen se range davantage dans la perspective universaliste au niveau de l’examen du droit à la liberté de religion, tel n’est pas le cas pour le droit onusien qui se joint timidement à la vision différentialiste et donc, du libéralisme repensé de Kymlicka et de la perspective des droits à l’égalité de Fredman. Au niveau des systèmes juridiques des États-Unis, du Canada, de la France et de la Suisse, nous avons vu une application intermittente des deux perspectives dépendant du domaine d’activité en cause. Cependant, le Canada est ressorti de notre analyse comme étant celle ayant une approche plus axée sur la vision différentialiste en raison de sa neutralité inclusive ou bienveillante qui accorde une grande place à l’inclusion et à l’égalité réelle de ces nationaux.

O direito de ser diferente dos alunos com deficiência em uma universidade brasileira : análise de fatos e da concepção deste corpo discente

O direito ao acesso à educação escolar compreende-se como alicerce para que a pessoa com deficiência possa verdadeiramente tornar-se um cidadão na construção dos ideários democráticos, participação na vida econômica e política. Dados apresentados pelo IBGE sobre o aspecto educacional das pessoas com deficiência no ensino superior é bastante preocupante. Mediante Censo realizado pelo MEC, alunos com deficiência matriculados nas universidades representam apenas 0,1% do total. A CR/1988 instituiu o Estado Democrático de Direito, cuja implementação fática está condicionada à busca de uma igualdade substancial, onde o acesso à educação é uma ferramenta e um direito fundamental para emancipação social, cultural, e econômica, inclusive, desse segmento e na tutela da dignidade humana. Ações afirmativas fazem-se necessárias a essas pessoas, no sentido de corrigir desigualdades, balizada pela educação inclusiva que concatena com a ideia de universidade inclusiva e de uma sociedade também inclusiva, caminhando justamente na intenção de corrigir desigualdades de oportunidades, buscando dirimir a ótica excludente do atual estágio social. Este estudo analisa fatos e concepções dos alunos com deficiência e de um docente da UFPE, sob a ótica de que a educação escolar inclusiva constitui paradigma educacional fundamentado na concepção de que igualdade e diferença são valores indissociáveis na construção de uma sociedade mais justa e solidária.

Acesso à justiça enquanto direito fundamental: efetivação pela defensoria pública

The Federal Constitution of 1988 is recognized for its enlargement in the face of large amount of provisions that make it up, among which many are fundamental rights. The fundamental rules set up the foundation of a democratic state, however, are the necessary legal mechanisms to be effective, its exercise is not enough merely to state them, but to offer ways for them to stop being just written standard on paper, and come to be viewed and exercised day-to-day. In this sense, access to justice presents itself in our times, as a cornerstone for a just society dictates. In this light, access to justice can be seen as the most fundamental of rights, which translates as instruments able to safeguard the fundamental rights not only against the action/omission violating the state but also the very particular. Furthermore, access to justice within the legal country, is not right for everyone, despite the willingness of the Citizen Charter in its article 5, paragraph LXXIV, ensuring that the State shall provide full and free legal assistance to those in need. More than half of the population lives in poverty and can´t afford to pay legal fees or court costs as well as a bump in their own ignorance of their rights. The judiciary, in their primary function, is in charge of trying to correct the violation of the rights, intending to effect a true distributive justice, serving as a paradigm for the promotion of substantive equality of human beings, however, is difficult and tortuous access Justice for those without financial resources. In this vein, we present the Public Defender, as keeper of the masses in its institutional role, defending a disadvantage, in the words, as a mechanism for effective access to justice, ensuring therefore fundamental rights. Public Defenders arise at the time or much discussion highlights the priority of actual access to justice, custody, therefore, intimate bond with the pursuit of fundamental rights, in which, that advance the broad range of rights, without whom could defend them or guardianship them

Violência e luta por direitos no capitalismo contemporâneo: crítica à configuração do atendimento às mulheres no Rio Grande do Norte

This research analyzes the Rio Grande do Norte care services to women who face violence in the context of contemporary capitalism. To do so, we situate the patriarchy in the set of current social relations and its relationship with the corporate determinations in everyday life. The new functions of the Patriarchy in the capital sociability permeates the lives of individuals and particularizes the relationships of violence which affects women, requiring, in the immediate level, policy-making to face them. The research found an arsenal of contradictory possibilities and limitations in dealing with violence. In this process, forms of struggle and resistance predominate, which appear as possibilities and limits were identified relate to the socio-historical context of regression of the rights, historical moment in which increase the objective difficulties in everyday life to ensure the legal achievements. It is worth to emphasize the achievements and contradictions that characterize the struggle process for rights, linking services to women to the social policies and to the limits they face in opposition to the aims of the State to meet the mandatory requirements of capital, reducing its role as the main guarantor of policies and rights. In this sense, the trajectory of the achievements that have referred to the proclamation of a specific law to deal with combat violence against women, the Maria da Penha Law - 11.340/06, which provides an integrated set of measures that, if implemented, would allow the women protection from relations of violence they experience. We identified in Rio Grande do Norte precarious services that are essential to achieve the Maria da Penha Law. This situation requires a feminist organization to claim the rights that enable women to see themselves as people with rights in the process of collective struggle. This is the historical need for continuity of struggles that accumulate policies for the existence of a new model of social relations of gender. One of the possibilities that are presented in the current context is the impact on the public budget in order to ensure compliance with the budget for public policies for women - woman budget. In this perspective, feminist segments in national and state level have been organized to understand the functioning and monitoring of social policies. This is a condition and prerequisite for ensuring policies to ensure basic rights and the violence combat , which still requires an integrated set of services. The survey results allow us to consider that the struggle for rights is necessary at this historical moment, however it is not sufficient in human emancipation, which requires new forms of social relations that determine substantive equality between men and women. Thus, the feminist movement faces the challenge to organize and strengthen itself in daily life, in order to execute a project that changes the meaning of women's rights, articulated to a corporate project which wants other command in the set of social relations . This study emphasizes the need for a more and more organic connection between feminism and social struggles, to ensure the inclusion of women in anti-capitalist struggle

Fundamentos das políticas de ação afirmativa etnicorracial no ensino superior

This article aims to contextualize the educational affirmative action policies for ethnic racial groups in Brazilian legal system, present the main philosophical fundamentals that support these educational policies and discuss the validity of those fundamentals. In the legal context, the principle of substantive equality and the fundamental objectives of the Federative Republic of Brazil, positivised in the Constitution of 1988, as well as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, allow the implementation of these policies. The philosophical fundamentals presented in this article are the thesis of compensatory justice and the thesis of distributive justice. The thesis of distributive justice has been refuted by logical legal arguments and by analysis of the right to higher education positivised in the Constitution. The thesis of compensatory justice has been considered a valid argument to support affirmative action policies, due to historical facts and sociological factors existing in the Brazilian context. It is concluded that the affirmative action policies for ethnic racial groups should be part of the Brazilian social policies, but these affirmative action policies should not invade the context of higher education, since the intended purposes are unrelated to this.

Tarifa social e subsídio cruzado: o mito da universalidade do transporte público brasileiro

Pós-graduação em Direito - FCHS

Social Work in an Ethnically Diverse Europe: The Shifting Challenges of Difference

This article addresses the inherently politicised context of social work practice located within the contested logics and values of national social policy and professional values and identities. Noting the key role of social work in delivering the state’s promise of social citizenship, it is argued that the increasing neo-nationalist sentiments and politics in European states generate significant pressures upon the universalist, inclusive, values of social work in a multiethnic Europe. The academic and policy debate around social cohesion is explored to illustrate how an assimilationist drift in multicultural state policies undermines the capacity of social work services to deliver appropriate, ethnically sensitive, services. It is further argued that the pervasive spread of populist counter-narratives to multiculturalism erode support for anti-racist and transcultural social work practice. In this context it is argued that social work must acknowledge its compromised situation and explicitly develop a political agenda committed to guaranteeing substantive equality in service delivery.

Procéduralisme épistémique et légitimité démocratique : une défense de l'égalité politique

Ce mémoire explore la relation qui lie démocratie et légitimité politique, dans une perspective épistémique. La démocratie, dans son acception la plus générale, confère à chacun la possibilité de faire valoir les intérêts qu'il estime être les siens et ceux de sa communauté, en particulier à l’occasion d’un scrutin. Cette procédure décisionnelle qu’est le vote consacre ainsi en quelque sorte la liberté et l’égalité dont profitent chacun des citoyens, et confère une certaine légitimité au processus décisionnel. Cela dit, si le vote n’est pas encadré par des considérations épistémiques, rien ne garantit que le résultat politique qui en découlera sera souhaitable tant pour les individus que pour la collectivité: il est tout à fait permis d’imaginer que des politiques discriminatoires, économiquement néfastes ou simplement inefficaces voient ainsi le jour, et prennent effet au détriment de tous. En réponse à ce problème, différentes théories démocratiques ont vu le jour et se sont succédé, afin de tenter de lier davantage le processus démocratique à l’atteinte d’objectifs politiques bénéfiques pour la collectivité. Au nombre d’entre elles, la démocratie délibérative a proposé de substituer la seule confrontation d’intérêts de la démocratie agrégative par une recherche collective du bien commun, canalisée autour de procédures délibératives appelées à légitimer sur des bases plus solides l’exercice démocratique. À sa suite, la démocratie épistémique s’est inspirée des instances délibératives en mettant davantage l’accent sur la qualité des résultats obtenus que sur les procédures elles-mêmes. Au final, un même dilemme hante chaque fois les différentes théories : est-il préférable de construire les instances décisionnelles en se concentrant prioritairement sur les critères procéduraux eux-mêmes, au risque de voir de mauvaises décisions filtrer malgré tout au travers du processus sans pouvoir rien y faire, ou devons-nous avoir d’entrée de jeu une conception plus substantielle de ce qui constitue une bonne décision, au risque cette fois de sacrifier la liberté de choix qui est supposé caractériser un régime démocratique? La thèse que nous défendrons dans ce mémoire est que le concept d’égalité politique peut servir à dénouer ce dilemme, en prenant aussi bien la forme d’un critère procédural que celle d’un objectif politique préétabli. L’égalité politique devient en ce sens une source normative forte de légitimité politique. En nous appuyant sur le procéduralisme épistémique de David Estlund, nous espérons avoir démontré au terme de ce mémoire que l’atteinte d’une égalité politique substantielle par le moyen de procédures égalitaires n’est pas une tautologie hermétique, mais plutôt un mécanisme réflexif améliorant tantôt la robustesse des procédures décisionnelles, tantôt l’atteinte d’une égalité tangible dans les rapports entre citoyens.

Procéduralisme épistémique et légitimité démocratique : une défense de l'égalité politique

Ce mémoire explore la relation qui lie démocratie et légitimité politique, dans une perspective épistémique. La démocratie, dans son acception la plus générale, confère à chacun la possibilité de faire valoir les intérêts qu'il estime être les siens et ceux de sa communauté, en particulier à l’occasion d’un scrutin. Cette procédure décisionnelle qu’est le vote consacre ainsi en quelque sorte la liberté et l’égalité dont profitent chacun des citoyens, et confère une certaine légitimité au processus décisionnel. Cela dit, si le vote n’est pas encadré par des considérations épistémiques, rien ne garantit que le résultat politique qui en découlera sera souhaitable tant pour les individus que pour la collectivité: il est tout à fait permis d’imaginer que des politiques discriminatoires, économiquement néfastes ou simplement inefficaces voient ainsi le jour, et prennent effet au détriment de tous. En réponse à ce problème, différentes théories démocratiques ont vu le jour et se sont succédé, afin de tenter de lier davantage le processus démocratique à l’atteinte d’objectifs politiques bénéfiques pour la collectivité. Au nombre d’entre elles, la démocratie délibérative a proposé de substituer la seule confrontation d’intérêts de la démocratie agrégative par une recherche collective du bien commun, canalisée autour de procédures délibératives appelées à légitimer sur des bases plus solides l’exercice démocratique. À sa suite, la démocratie épistémique s’est inspirée des instances délibératives en mettant davantage l’accent sur la qualité des résultats obtenus que sur les procédures elles-mêmes. Au final, un même dilemme hante chaque fois les différentes théories : est-il préférable de construire les instances décisionnelles en se concentrant prioritairement sur les critères procéduraux eux-mêmes, au risque de voir de mauvaises décisions filtrer malgré tout au travers du processus sans pouvoir rien y faire, ou devons-nous avoir d’entrée de jeu une conception plus substantielle de ce qui constitue une bonne décision, au risque cette fois de sacrifier la liberté de choix qui est supposé caractériser un régime démocratique? La thèse que nous défendrons dans ce mémoire est que le concept d’égalité politique peut servir à dénouer ce dilemme, en prenant aussi bien la forme d’un critère procédural que celle d’un objectif politique préétabli. L’égalité politique devient en ce sens une source normative forte de légitimité politique. En nous appuyant sur le procéduralisme épistémique de David Estlund, nous espérons avoir démontré au terme de ce mémoire que l’atteinte d’une égalité politique substantielle par le moyen de procédures égalitaires n’est pas une tautologie hermétique, mais plutôt un mécanisme réflexif améliorant tantôt la robustesse des procédures décisionnelles, tantôt l’atteinte d’une égalité tangible dans les rapports entre citoyens.

Beyond Equality of What: Sen and Neutrality

Based on a close reading of the debate between Rawls and Sen on primary goods versus capabilities, I argue that liberal theory cannot adequately respond to Sen’s critique within a conventionally neutralist framework. In support of the capability approach, I explain why and how it defends a more robust conception of opportunity and freedom, along with public debate on substantive questions about well-being and the good life. My aims are: (i) to show that Sen’s capability approach is at odds with Rawls’s political liberal version of neutrality; (ii) to carve out a third space in the neutrality debate; and (iii) to begin to develop, from Sen’s approach, the idea of public value liberalism as a position that falls within that third space.

Restrictive and Expansive Views of Equality: A Grounded Theory Study that Explores the Influence of Racial Consciousness on the Behaviors of White Faculty in the Classroom

Attempts to address the ever increasing achievement gap among students have failed to explain how and why educational traditions and teaching practices perpetuate the devaluing of some and the overvaluing of others. This predicament, which plagues our educational system, has been of increased concern, given the growing racial diversity among college students and the saturation of White faculty in the academy. White faculty make up the majority, 79%, of all faculty in the academy. White faculty, whether consciously or unconsciously, are less likely to interrogate how race and racism both privilege them within the academy and influence their faculty behaviors. The result of this cyclical, highly cemented process suggests that there is a relationship between racial consciousness and White faculty members' ability to employ behaviors in their classroom that promote equitable educational outcomes for racially minoritized students. An investigation of the literature revealed that racial consciousness and the behaviors of White faculty in the classroom appeared to be inextricably linked. A conceptual framework, Racial Consciousness and Its Influence on the Behaviors of White Faculty in the Classroom was developed by the author and tested in this study. Constructivist grounded theory was used to explore the role White faculty believe they play in the dismantling of the white supremacy embedded in their classrooms through their faculty behaviors. A substantive theory subsequently emerged. Findings indicate that White faculty with a higher level of racial consciousness employ behaviors in their classroom reflective of a more expansive view of equality in their pursuit of social justice, which they consider synonymous with excellence in teaching. This research bears great significance to higher education research and practice, as it is the first of its kind to utilize critical legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's (1988) restrictive and expansive views of equality framework to empirically measure and describe excellence in college teaching. Implications for faculty preparation and continued education are also discussed.

Barriers to equality: men's and women's attitudes to workplace entitlements in Australia

This paper examines attitudes to workplace entitlements, such as parental leave and flexible work hours. Family friendly policies such as leave to care for children have implications for feminist debates about sameness versus difference and the extent to which such policies will lead to greater equality between men and women, or alternatively, further entrench existing gender divisions of labour: Using data from a recent national survey in Australia, the paper shows that while the Australian workforce is generally in favour of workplace entitlements, women are generally more supportive of these kinds of benefits than men. Surprisingly, most respondents are more supportive of unpaid rather than paid parental leave. The results also show that the most important determinants of support for work entitlements are a combination of the extent to which one needs work entitlements and employment location. The results raise issues about whether the provision of workplace entitlements will encourage greater participation by men in domestic responsibilities, or simply ease women's double burden of paid and unpaid work.

Gender equality and participation in housework: A cross-national perspective

This paper examines men's and women's participation in housework in the United States, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia. While there has been considerable research into the factors relating to the division of housework between husbands and wives within countries, very little research has examined the way in which housework patterns vary across countries. The results show that women continue to undertake the bulk of domestic labor in all five countries, and that the factors determining men's and women's participation in housework do not vary markedly across countries. This suggests that variations across countries in levels of gender equality at a broader level have only very limited effects on levels of gender equality in the home.