Lisa Gormley

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In the first of a two-part article Lisa Gormley looks at the successes of the international treaty, and the challenges in setting a global legal commitment to equality for women to achieve social and political transformation.

The Istanbul Convention focusses exclusively on eliminating all forms of violence against women (VAW), creating a holistic and comprehensive legal framework to prevent VAW, protect survivors of violence and end impunity for perpetrators, yet after eight years the UK is not yet legally bound to the treaty. Lisa Gormley and Christine Chinkin detail the Convention, the UK’s approach, and why it is needed now more than ever as domestic violence levels increase.

Lisa Gormley calls on governments to act on the recommendations in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s report on ‘Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians’ and take all measures to address the abuse experienced by women in public life.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In the second of a two-part article Lisa Gormley looks at the challenge of implementing the CEDAW convention in the UK with commentary from the recent Doughty Street Chambers event “A Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of CEDAW”.

On 14 April 2014, 276 girls were abducted in Chibok, Nigeria. As news of the abduction spread, people around the world took to social media to demand action to ensure the girls would be brought back safe. Lisa Gormley discusses the importance of transforming activism on social media into concrete action.

In the second blog in a series on the case of Linda Loaiza Lopez Soto v Venezuela, and to mark 16 Days of Activism, Lisa Gormley analyses how this case has developed a long-standing theme in feminist legal advocacy in understanding gender-based violence as a violation of the right not to be tortured.

The expanse of Amnesty Internationals research and campaigning has shown without doubt that violence against women cannot be addressed as an isolated and independent human rights issue. A significant part of Amnesty Internationals work on womens rights relates to states obligations of due diligence to prevent, investigate, punish and provide reparation for acts of violence by non-state actors. This chapter explains the benefits and limits of the use of the due diligence approach, including areas of practical success, and challenges for future developments in law and practice to combat domestic violence. The fact that womens rights are not fully implemented as required by international human rights law in the overwhelming majority of cases is not to say that each and every act of violence against women, regardless of the identity of the perpetrator, is the responsibility of the state. Keywords: Amnesty Internationals work; domestic violence; due diligence; human rights law; non-state actors; violence against women; womens rights

... All rights reserved. Previous Section. References. ↵ Amnesty International. Case Closed: Rape and Human Rights in the Nordic Countries. 2010. Summary Report. 8 March. ACT 77/001/2010. ↵: Cook RJ,; Cusack S. Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives. ...

In response to the acquittal of Ched Evans on charges of rape, Lisa Gormley reflects on the UK government’s approach to ensuring women’s right to protection of the law, and sets out how ratifying the Istanbul Convention would help achieve positive change.