Engendering the Reparations Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: The Promise of the Cotton Field Judgment

Abstract

This article puts forward the elements of a holistic gender approach to reparations to be followed by international tribunals in cases of violence and discrimination against women, and uses them to test the reparation’s jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, giving particular attention to the Castro Castro Prison and the Cotton Field decisions. The article considers the significant progress made by the Court so far, as well as the major challenge that still lies ahead in making reparations gender-sensitive and delivering, although in a modest way, transformative remedies able to subvert sexual hierarchies.

Male Survivors of Wartime Sexual Violence

“…In addition to these gendered biases, various conceptualizations of conflictrelated sexual violence similarly place a heavy emphasis on penetrative rape, thereby excluding and ignoring various other forms of sexual (and gender-based) violence, such as sexual torture, forced castration, and sexual threats. According to Rubio- Marin and Sandoval (2011), "limiting the analysis to a rape-centred understanding of sexual violence may obscure other forms of equally grave sexual and reproductive violence" (1065). Only concentrating on rape overlooks the multiple ways in which people are otherwise sexually victimized.…”

Examining Male Wartime Rape Survivors’ Perspectives on Justice in Northern Uganda

“…As a result, one of the most common harms experienced by male survivors of sexual violence in Northern Uganda is the perceived lived reality of ‘being less of a man’ (Group discussion, 10 March 2016) in accordance with local hegemonic masculinity constructions (Dolan, 2009). These experiences must be taken into account when analysing survivors’ views on justice, as identifying consequences and harms ensuring from violations is crucial to determine adequate responses (Rubio-Marín and Sandoval, 2011).…”

From Victims and Mothers to Citizens: Gender-Just Transformative Reparations and the Need for Public and Private Transitions

“…8 Uprimny Yepes, supra n 6; Naomi Cahn, Dina Haynes, and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, 'Returning Home: Women in Post-Conflict Societies,' University of Baltimore Law Review 39 2010 It therefore ordered guarantees of non-repetition, such as the design of public policies, as reparation measures to challenge gender discrimination. 12 Different views exist as to how exactly reparations should achieve this transformation. In this journal, Urban Walker 13 has argued against the provision of social reconstruction or economic development as gender-just transformative reparations, for making reparations lose their 'moral distinctiveness'.…”