Resumo

This presentation examines how intersectionality is mobilized and represented in the context of the Inter-American system of human rights, which includes the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). Drawing from reports published by this regional system of human rights and interviews with Black women’s and feminist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in Brazil, I explore how both the NGOs and the Inter-American system frame intersectionality in cases of violence and discrimination against women. The main question is how human rights institutions produce knowledge on women’s human rights and intersectionality, what counts as women’s human rights, how they approach intersectionality (e.g., from a structural or an individualistic perspective), and what remedies they design to confront what some NGOs call ‘patriarchal racism’. This investigation is guided by the conceptual framework of ‘silence’ (Bhambra and Shilliam, 2009). In this perspective, ‘human rights’ is a contested project that both includes and excludes what and who might be viewed as a subject of human rights. ‘Silence’ as a concept is not simply about absence, but rather about issues of voice, representation, and responsibility.


Nota biográfica

Cecília MacDowell Santos é Doutorada em Sociologia pela Universidade da Califórnia-Berkeley e Mestre em Direito pela Universidade de São Paulo. É Investigadora do Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) da Universidade de Coimbra e Professora Catedrática do Departamento de Sociologia da Universidade de São Francisco (USF), na Califórnia, EUA. No CES, integra o Núcleo de Democracia, Cidadania e Direito (DECIDe), co-coordena o programa de doutoramento "Human Rights in Contemporary Societies" e leciona neste e no programa de doutoramento "Direito, Justiça e Cidadania no Século XXI". Os seus actuais interesses de investigação centram-se em dois temas: discursos e práticas sobre violência contra mulheres e mobilização dos direitos humanos em escalas local, nacional e transnacional. 

Organização: Programas de doutoramento "Human Rights in Contemporary Societies" e "Pós-colonialismos e Cidadania Global"