In recent years, the slogan "women's rights are human rights" has become a central claim of the global women's movement. Human Rights and Gender Politics in the Asia-Pacific examines the critical issues raised by this embracing and expansion of the human rights discourse by feminists world-wide. Through detailed case studies drawn from the Asia-Pacific region, this book explores the tensions between an apparently universalising discourse of human rights and increasing awareness of the complexities of women's politics of difference. It questions how feminists negotiate controversial issues such as "rights" and "cultural relativism", and argues for an increased focus on the ways in which human rights claims are embedded in highly specific local contexts, histories and struggles. This original and thorough volume assembles an outstanding panel of international experts who address diverse issues including; enforced military prostitution during the Second World War the question of women's rights within the Indian feminist movement the politics of China's one-child policy women's struggle against domestic violence ambivalence towards feminism among Salvadoran activists in Australia the growth of lesbian and gay movements throughout the Asia-Pacific This volume challenges conventional, un-gendered and male-centred analysis of the politics of human rights and addresses the future of global feminisms. It is essential reading for all those interested in learning more about human rights and women's rights in the Asia-Pacific region

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Gender Politics and the Reimagining of Human Rights in the Asia Pacific Maila Stivens 2. Sexual Violence, Silence, and Human Rights Discourse: The Emergence of the Military Prostitution Issue Vera Mackie 3. The State and The Women's Movement: Instabilities in the Discourse of 'Rights' in India Kalpana Ram 4. Dead Daughters, Dissident Sons, And Human Rights in China Antonia Finnane 5. The HUman Rights of Gendered Citizens: Notes from Indonesia Krishna Sen 6. Woman Ikat Raet Long Human Raet O No?: Women's Rights , Human Rights, and Domestic Violence in Vanuatu Margaret Jolly 7. 'Hear Us, Women of Papua New Guinea!': Melanesian Women and Human Rights Martha Macintyre 8. The Contemplacion Fiasco: The HAnging of a Filipino Domestic Worker in Singapore Anne Marie Hilsdon 9. Mothers of the Disappeared in tne Diaspora: Globalisation and Human Rights Beryl Langer 10. The Emergence of 'Modern' Gay Identities and the Question of Human Rights Dennis Altman