La rencontre entre les droits fondamentaux, notamment le droit à l'égalité des femmes et la coutume: Le cas du Vanuatu comme exemple de pluralisme juridique

Mosses, Morsen (2016) La rencontre entre les droits fondamentaux, notamment le droit à l'égalité des femmes et la coutume: Le cas du Vanuatu comme exemple de pluralisme juridique. Faculty of Law, Laval University, Quebec, Canada.

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Abstract

Like its neighboring Island Countries, Vanuatu is experiencing a situation of legal pluralism where several legal orders or legal systems (customary law, colonial law, statutory law) coexist. Based on an exegetical analysis, but more fundamentally on a feminist methodology, the thesis attempts to show that this legal pluralism constitutes, in many cases, an obstacle to human rights and also to international obligations of these Pacific Island Countries in the matter. Concerning the situation of women, the feminist methodology shows us that the law as a whole (legal system, legislation, case law and State institutions) and the customary law in particular are ineffective in some areas such as the one of the family, among other things, because they create inequalities and discrimination towards women or because they maintain the inequalities that have already existed between women and men. By doing so, the law not only perpetuates the subordination of women, but also maintains the domination of men. Like the feminist jurists however, we consider that the law cannot be put aside since it can constitute a powerful tool for social change. Thus, in the proposed solution to the issue observed, the thesis insists not only on the necessity of reaffirming the principle of universality of human rights (and also women’s right to equality), but it also proposes an innovative interpretation of the right to equality based on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Canadian jurisprudence to better protect human rights, notably women’s rights in Vanuatu and in the Pacific region. The thesis also recommends the establishment of a national mechanism of human rights following Québec model considering the good performance of the province in terms of the protection and promotion of women’s rights. We thus hope that this thesis contributes to the advancement of knowledge in law by calling into question the existing legal order (or the neutrality of law) from a point of view centered on women and by putting forward an innovative interpretation of the right to equality in order to change or to improve the social relations between women and men in Vanuatu and in the Pacific region.

Item Type:	Other
Additional Information:	related ISSN 1918-8218
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General) K Law > KZ Law of Nations
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Law
Depositing User:	Morsen Mosses
Date Deposited:	21 Sep 2017 03:32
Last Modified:	21 Sep 2017 03:33
URI:	https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/10141

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