Silvia Gagliardi is a Visiting Research Fellow at University College Dublin and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo. She holds a Doctorate in Human Rights (2018) from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway. Her research examines human rights and gender, gender-based violence and hate crimes, and gender and populism. She is also interested in decolonial feminism and feminist legal theory.
Silvia conducts programme evaluations and carries out research consultancies for various organisations. She previously worked for ten years for various international organisations and NGOs, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation(OSCE)/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (Poland); Trocaire (Ireland); the Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Tunisia and Lebanon); three OSCE’s field operations (Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia); the Human Solidarity Group (Sri Lanka); and Amnesty International (USA). Silvia was a focal point for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) in different organisations and currently lectures in this area at UCD Centre for Humanitarian Action. She is also rostered as a ‘Gender and SGBV Adviser’ in both Irish Aid Rapid Response and CANADEM Rosters, as a ‘Gender Consultant’ for UN FAO, and as a ‘Human Rights Officer’ for UN OHCHR.
What influence might popular conceptions of national and constitutional
identity have on the pos... more What influence might popular conceptions of national and constitutional identity have on the position of marginalized or minority groups within that system? This article investigates whether there may be a relationship between the two, on the basis of a legal, empirical, and comparative analysis of four jurisdictions (Poland, Hungary, Uruguay and Argentina) through the prism of gender. The literature suggests the presence of populist rhetoric in the domestic politics of each state. However, they are distinct in potentially relevant ways, including differing regional human rights frameworks. The case studies demonstrate the potential for national and constitutional identity to function in an exclusionary manner; the apparent capacity of political parties to amplify this exclusionary potential by advancing highly traditional narratives of identity, or linking identity to contentious social issues; and the limited efficacy of human rights mechanisms in mitigating the impact of informal influences.
¿Qué influencia podrían tener las concepciones populares de identidad nacional y constitucional sobre la posición de los grupos marginados o minoritarios dentro de ese sistema? Este articulo investiga si puede existir una relación entre ambos, a partir de un análisis jurídico, empírico y comparativo de cuatro jurisdicciones (Polonia, Hungría, Uruguay y Argentina) a través del prisma de género. La literatura sugiere la presencia de retórica populista en la política interna de cada estado. Sin embargo, se diferencian en aspectos potencialmente relevantes, incluidos diferentes marcos regionales de derechos humanos. Los estudios de caso demuestran el potencial de que la identidad nacional y constitucional funcione de manera excluyente; la aparente capacidad de los partidos políticos para amplificar este potencial excluyente al promover narrativas de identidad altamente tradicionales o vincular la identidad a cuestiones sociales polémicas; y la eficacia limitada de los mecanismos de derechos humanos para mitigar el impacto de influencias informales.
This article is an exploratory study of young adult incarcerees' perspectives on the impact of "G... more This article is an exploratory study of young adult incarcerees' perspectives on the impact of "Gaisce," a self-development program for youth in Irish custody. Drawing on 10 semistructured interviews with male participants and a review of previous studies of this cohort, the article highlights their perceptions of Gaisce's strengths and weaknesses, paving the way for further reflection on self-development programs in custodial settings. Taking place during COVID-19, the investigation provides unique insight into the experiences of young adults participating in such a program during a pandemic.
This article is an exploratory study presenting empirically based analyses of gender-based hate c... more This article is an exploratory study presenting empirically based analyses of gender-based hate crime policy and practice from the perspectives of law enforcement officials in Ireland and England and Wales, in the United Kingdom. Despite increasing awareness of victims of gender-based hate crimes, robust legislation and successful investigation and prosecution of these offences remain rare. By developing a critical, evidence-based understanding of the factors impeding effective investigation of gender-based hate crimes, this research provides an early foundation for a more rigorous, survivor-centred approach. This article examines and problematises concepts and norms relating to gender-based hate crimes in law and policy. It analyses the significance of gender in hate crime legislation and examines the relationship between gender-based violence and gender-based hate crimes. Drawing on two case studies, this article suggests ways to refine and redirect law enforcement efforts to improve the quality of outcomes in criminal cases and the quality of survivors' experiences.
Applying an intersectional approach, this thesis examines the value and meaning that minority and... more Applying an intersectional approach, this thesis examines the value and meaning that minority and indigenous (Amazigh) women in Morocco attribute to human rights and gender equality and, as well, how rights-based claims are articulated in a local context. The thesis examines the complex relationship between feminism and group rights to highlight how the subaltern female Others understand and narrate these concepts as they tell their story. Against the backdrop of their voices, the thesis also questions existing minority groupsâ and indigenous peoplesâ rights discourses and tools. What emerges from ethnographic research undertaken across Morocco is that these rights-based âuniversalâ toolkits are most often utilised by male, urban, and educated elite to craft a certain narrative, a âcollective history,â and an âimagined community,â in order to preserve the status quo and current power distribution. While much of the literature on group rights and multiculturalism focu...
Morocco’s 2011 Constitution affirmed the principle of equality between men and women (art. 19) an... more Morocco’s 2011 Constitution affirmed the principle of equality between men and women (art. 19) and officialised the (indigenous) Amazigh language (art. 5) alongside Arabic. However, despite apparent progress in the areas of minority groups' and indigenous peoples’ rights and gender equality, Amazigh women’s rights continue to be violated both from within and from outside their own communities. While the Moroccan State fails to guarantee, inter alia, the Amazigh community’s access to language and education rights (as enumerated in arts. 13–14 of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [UNDRIP]), this article challenges dominant approaches to the study of Amazigh rights for failing to take into account the lived experiences and counter-narrative of Amazigh women. As such, this article departs from the international human rights-based vindications of Amazigh cultural groups to focus instead on the rights and identity articulation among Amazigh women themselves. This article considers whether local-based remedies might be more effective than trying to graft on larger international approaches when looking at the issue of minority and indigenous women.
While the dominant narrative suggests that Morocco is a champion of stability and moderation in t... more While the dominant narrative suggests that Morocco is a champion of stability and moderation in the ‘Arab world,’ this article challenges that discourse and argues that the state’s hagiographic narrative on women’s rights and gender equality is problematic. This article also draws attention to the discontinuity between the legal focus on violence against women (VAW) by women’s rights groups on one hand and the views and needs of non-elite Moroccan women on the other. This focus on reforms in the legal space has, concomitantly, left the existing power structures, which lay at the heart of inequality in Morocco, unchallenged. By illustrating these two arguments, the article also highlights a mutually fashioning, albeit asymmetrical, relationship between the government and women’s rights groups, which perpetuates inadequacies in both of their approaches.
This chapter examines and critiques the human rights project through the existing literature, as ... more This chapter examines and critiques the human rights project through the existing literature, as it specifically focuses on women’s rights and minority and indigenous peoples’ rights, theories, and discourses. The sections on ‘Feminism and international law’ and ‘Islam and women’s human rights’ question how these value systems, theories, and ideologies have been constructed and appropriated to exert power and control on different constituencies. The following section on ‘Feminism, gender, and women’s rights’ then dissects the ways in which feminism critiques group rights. This section and the ensuing one on ‘Feminism and group rights’ reveal how, as in many postcolonial contexts, the notion of feminism and who belongs to this category is emerging as a controversial and divisive issue. The concluding section on ‘Minority rights theories and critiques’ investigates what minority and indigenous discourses tell us about power. This section narrows in on approaches that defend group rights as a way to secure rights for specific communities and those that criticize group rights as an ineffective and detrimental way to empower some members over others within a given community.
Investigating minority and indigenous women’s rights in Muslim-majority states,
this book critica... more Investigating minority and indigenous women’s rights in Muslim-majority states, this book critically examines the human rights regime within international law. Based on extensive and diverse ethnographic research on Amazigh women in Morocco, the book unpacks and challenges generally accepted notions of rights and equality. Significantly, and controversially, the book challenges the supposedly ‘emancipatory’ power vested in the human rights project; arguing that rights-based discourses are sites of contestation for different groups that use them to assert their agency in society. More specifically, it shows how the very conditions that make minority and indigenous women instrumental to the preservation of their culture may condemn them to a position of subalternity. In response, and engaging the notion and meaning of Islamic feminism, the book proposes that feminism should be interpreted and contextualised locally in order to be effective and inclusive, and so in order for the human rights project to fully realise its potential to empower the marginalised and make space for their voices to be heard. Providing a detailed, empirically based, analysis of rights in action, this book will be of relevance to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights policy and practice, in international law, minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights, gender studies, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
What influence might popular conceptions of national and constitutional
identity have on the pos... more What influence might popular conceptions of national and constitutional identity have on the position of marginalized or minority groups within that system? This article investigates whether there may be a relationship between the two, on the basis of a legal, empirical, and comparative analysis of four jurisdictions (Poland, Hungary, Uruguay and Argentina) through the prism of gender. The literature suggests the presence of populist rhetoric in the domestic politics of each state. However, they are distinct in potentially relevant ways, including differing regional human rights frameworks. The case studies demonstrate the potential for national and constitutional identity to function in an exclusionary manner; the apparent capacity of political parties to amplify this exclusionary potential by advancing highly traditional narratives of identity, or linking identity to contentious social issues; and the limited efficacy of human rights mechanisms in mitigating the impact of informal influences.
¿Qué influencia podrían tener las concepciones populares de identidad nacional y constitucional sobre la posición de los grupos marginados o minoritarios dentro de ese sistema? Este articulo investiga si puede existir una relación entre ambos, a partir de un análisis jurídico, empírico y comparativo de cuatro jurisdicciones (Polonia, Hungría, Uruguay y Argentina) a través del prisma de género. La literatura sugiere la presencia de retórica populista en la política interna de cada estado. Sin embargo, se diferencian en aspectos potencialmente relevantes, incluidos diferentes marcos regionales de derechos humanos. Los estudios de caso demuestran el potencial de que la identidad nacional y constitucional funcione de manera excluyente; la aparente capacidad de los partidos políticos para amplificar este potencial excluyente al promover narrativas de identidad altamente tradicionales o vincular la identidad a cuestiones sociales polémicas; y la eficacia limitada de los mecanismos de derechos humanos para mitigar el impacto de influencias informales.
This article is an exploratory study of young adult incarcerees' perspectives on the impact of "G... more This article is an exploratory study of young adult incarcerees' perspectives on the impact of "Gaisce," a self-development program for youth in Irish custody. Drawing on 10 semistructured interviews with male participants and a review of previous studies of this cohort, the article highlights their perceptions of Gaisce's strengths and weaknesses, paving the way for further reflection on self-development programs in custodial settings. Taking place during COVID-19, the investigation provides unique insight into the experiences of young adults participating in such a program during a pandemic.
This article is an exploratory study presenting empirically based analyses of gender-based hate c... more This article is an exploratory study presenting empirically based analyses of gender-based hate crime policy and practice from the perspectives of law enforcement officials in Ireland and England and Wales, in the United Kingdom. Despite increasing awareness of victims of gender-based hate crimes, robust legislation and successful investigation and prosecution of these offences remain rare. By developing a critical, evidence-based understanding of the factors impeding effective investigation of gender-based hate crimes, this research provides an early foundation for a more rigorous, survivor-centred approach. This article examines and problematises concepts and norms relating to gender-based hate crimes in law and policy. It analyses the significance of gender in hate crime legislation and examines the relationship between gender-based violence and gender-based hate crimes. Drawing on two case studies, this article suggests ways to refine and redirect law enforcement efforts to improve the quality of outcomes in criminal cases and the quality of survivors' experiences.
Applying an intersectional approach, this thesis examines the value and meaning that minority and... more Applying an intersectional approach, this thesis examines the value and meaning that minority and indigenous (Amazigh) women in Morocco attribute to human rights and gender equality and, as well, how rights-based claims are articulated in a local context. The thesis examines the complex relationship between feminism and group rights to highlight how the subaltern female Others understand and narrate these concepts as they tell their story. Against the backdrop of their voices, the thesis also questions existing minority groupsâ and indigenous peoplesâ rights discourses and tools. What emerges from ethnographic research undertaken across Morocco is that these rights-based âuniversalâ toolkits are most often utilised by male, urban, and educated elite to craft a certain narrative, a âcollective history,â and an âimagined community,â in order to preserve the status quo and current power distribution. While much of the literature on group rights and multiculturalism focu...
Morocco’s 2011 Constitution affirmed the principle of equality between men and women (art. 19) an... more Morocco’s 2011 Constitution affirmed the principle of equality between men and women (art. 19) and officialised the (indigenous) Amazigh language (art. 5) alongside Arabic. However, despite apparent progress in the areas of minority groups' and indigenous peoples’ rights and gender equality, Amazigh women’s rights continue to be violated both from within and from outside their own communities. While the Moroccan State fails to guarantee, inter alia, the Amazigh community’s access to language and education rights (as enumerated in arts. 13–14 of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [UNDRIP]), this article challenges dominant approaches to the study of Amazigh rights for failing to take into account the lived experiences and counter-narrative of Amazigh women. As such, this article departs from the international human rights-based vindications of Amazigh cultural groups to focus instead on the rights and identity articulation among Amazigh women themselves. This article considers whether local-based remedies might be more effective than trying to graft on larger international approaches when looking at the issue of minority and indigenous women.
While the dominant narrative suggests that Morocco is a champion of stability and moderation in t... more While the dominant narrative suggests that Morocco is a champion of stability and moderation in the ‘Arab world,’ this article challenges that discourse and argues that the state’s hagiographic narrative on women’s rights and gender equality is problematic. This article also draws attention to the discontinuity between the legal focus on violence against women (VAW) by women’s rights groups on one hand and the views and needs of non-elite Moroccan women on the other. This focus on reforms in the legal space has, concomitantly, left the existing power structures, which lay at the heart of inequality in Morocco, unchallenged. By illustrating these two arguments, the article also highlights a mutually fashioning, albeit asymmetrical, relationship between the government and women’s rights groups, which perpetuates inadequacies in both of their approaches.
This chapter examines and critiques the human rights project through the existing literature, as ... more This chapter examines and critiques the human rights project through the existing literature, as it specifically focuses on women’s rights and minority and indigenous peoples’ rights, theories, and discourses. The sections on ‘Feminism and international law’ and ‘Islam and women’s human rights’ question how these value systems, theories, and ideologies have been constructed and appropriated to exert power and control on different constituencies. The following section on ‘Feminism, gender, and women’s rights’ then dissects the ways in which feminism critiques group rights. This section and the ensuing one on ‘Feminism and group rights’ reveal how, as in many postcolonial contexts, the notion of feminism and who belongs to this category is emerging as a controversial and divisive issue. The concluding section on ‘Minority rights theories and critiques’ investigates what minority and indigenous discourses tell us about power. This section narrows in on approaches that defend group rights as a way to secure rights for specific communities and those that criticize group rights as an ineffective and detrimental way to empower some members over others within a given community.
Investigating minority and indigenous women’s rights in Muslim-majority states,
this book critica... more Investigating minority and indigenous women’s rights in Muslim-majority states, this book critically examines the human rights regime within international law. Based on extensive and diverse ethnographic research on Amazigh women in Morocco, the book unpacks and challenges generally accepted notions of rights and equality. Significantly, and controversially, the book challenges the supposedly ‘emancipatory’ power vested in the human rights project; arguing that rights-based discourses are sites of contestation for different groups that use them to assert their agency in society. More specifically, it shows how the very conditions that make minority and indigenous women instrumental to the preservation of their culture may condemn them to a position of subalternity. In response, and engaging the notion and meaning of Islamic feminism, the book proposes that feminism should be interpreted and contextualised locally in order to be effective and inclusive, and so in order for the human rights project to fully realise its potential to empower the marginalised and make space for their voices to be heard. Providing a detailed, empirically based, analysis of rights in action, this book will be of relevance to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights policy and practice, in international law, minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights, gender studies, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
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identity have on the position of marginalized or minority groups within
that system? This article investigates whether there may be a relationship
between the two, on the basis of a legal, empirical, and comparative
analysis of four jurisdictions (Poland, Hungary, Uruguay and Argentina)
through the prism of gender. The literature suggests the presence of
populist rhetoric in the domestic politics of each state. However, they are
distinct in potentially relevant ways, including differing regional human
rights frameworks. The case studies demonstrate the potential for national
and constitutional identity to function in an exclusionary manner; the
apparent capacity of political parties to amplify this exclusionary potential
by advancing highly traditional narratives of identity, or linking identity to
contentious social issues; and the limited efficacy of human rights
mechanisms in mitigating the impact of informal influences.
¿Qué influencia podrían tener las concepciones populares de identidad
nacional y constitucional sobre la posición de los grupos marginados o
minoritarios dentro de ese sistema? Este articulo investiga si puede existir
una relación entre ambos, a partir de un análisis jurídico, empírico y
comparativo de cuatro jurisdicciones (Polonia, Hungría, Uruguay y
Argentina) a través del prisma de género. La literatura sugiere la presencia
de retórica populista en la política interna de cada estado. Sin embargo,
se diferencian en aspectos potencialmente relevantes, incluidos diferentes
marcos regionales de derechos humanos. Los estudios de caso
demuestran el potencial de que la identidad nacional y constitucional
funcione de manera excluyente; la aparente capacidad de los partidos
políticos para amplificar este potencial excluyente al promover narrativas
de identidad altamente tradicionales o vincular la identidad a cuestiones
sociales polémicas; y la eficacia limitada de los mecanismos de derechos
humanos para mitigar el impacto de influencias informales.
critiques group rights. This section and the ensuing one on ‘Feminism and group rights’ reveal how, as in many postcolonial contexts, the notion of feminism and who belongs to this category is emerging as a controversial and divisive issue. The concluding section on ‘Minority rights theories and critiques’ investigates what minority and indigenous discourses tell us about power. This section narrows in on approaches that defend group rights as a way to secure rights for specific communities and those that criticize group rights as an ineffective and detrimental way to empower some members over others within a
given community.
this book critically examines the human rights regime within international law.
Based on extensive and diverse ethnographic research on Amazigh women in
Morocco, the book unpacks and challenges generally accepted notions of rights and
equality. Significantly, and controversially, the book challenges the supposedly
‘emancipatory’ power vested in the human rights project; arguing that rights-based
discourses are sites of contestation for different groups that use them to assert their
agency in society. More specifically, it shows how the very conditions that make
minority and indigenous women instrumental to the preservation of their culture may
condemn them to a position of subalternity. In response, and engaging the notion
and meaning of Islamic feminism, the book proposes that feminism should be interpreted
and contextualised locally in order to be effective and inclusive, and so in order
for the human rights project to fully realise its potential to empower the marginalised
and make space for their voices to be heard.
Providing a detailed, empirically based, analysis of rights in action, this book will
be of relevance to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights policy and
practice, in international law, minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights, gender
studies, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
identity have on the position of marginalized or minority groups within
that system? This article investigates whether there may be a relationship
between the two, on the basis of a legal, empirical, and comparative
analysis of four jurisdictions (Poland, Hungary, Uruguay and Argentina)
through the prism of gender. The literature suggests the presence of
populist rhetoric in the domestic politics of each state. However, they are
distinct in potentially relevant ways, including differing regional human
rights frameworks. The case studies demonstrate the potential for national
and constitutional identity to function in an exclusionary manner; the
apparent capacity of political parties to amplify this exclusionary potential
by advancing highly traditional narratives of identity, or linking identity to
contentious social issues; and the limited efficacy of human rights
mechanisms in mitigating the impact of informal influences.
¿Qué influencia podrían tener las concepciones populares de identidad
nacional y constitucional sobre la posición de los grupos marginados o
minoritarios dentro de ese sistema? Este articulo investiga si puede existir
una relación entre ambos, a partir de un análisis jurídico, empírico y
comparativo de cuatro jurisdicciones (Polonia, Hungría, Uruguay y
Argentina) a través del prisma de género. La literatura sugiere la presencia
de retórica populista en la política interna de cada estado. Sin embargo,
se diferencian en aspectos potencialmente relevantes, incluidos diferentes
marcos regionales de derechos humanos. Los estudios de caso
demuestran el potencial de que la identidad nacional y constitucional
funcione de manera excluyente; la aparente capacidad de los partidos
políticos para amplificar este potencial excluyente al promover narrativas
de identidad altamente tradicionales o vincular la identidad a cuestiones
sociales polémicas; y la eficacia limitada de los mecanismos de derechos
humanos para mitigar el impacto de influencias informales.
critiques group rights. This section and the ensuing one on ‘Feminism and group rights’ reveal how, as in many postcolonial contexts, the notion of feminism and who belongs to this category is emerging as a controversial and divisive issue. The concluding section on ‘Minority rights theories and critiques’ investigates what minority and indigenous discourses tell us about power. This section narrows in on approaches that defend group rights as a way to secure rights for specific communities and those that criticize group rights as an ineffective and detrimental way to empower some members over others within a
given community.
this book critically examines the human rights regime within international law.
Based on extensive and diverse ethnographic research on Amazigh women in
Morocco, the book unpacks and challenges generally accepted notions of rights and
equality. Significantly, and controversially, the book challenges the supposedly
‘emancipatory’ power vested in the human rights project; arguing that rights-based
discourses are sites of contestation for different groups that use them to assert their
agency in society. More specifically, it shows how the very conditions that make
minority and indigenous women instrumental to the preservation of their culture may
condemn them to a position of subalternity. In response, and engaging the notion
and meaning of Islamic feminism, the book proposes that feminism should be interpreted
and contextualised locally in order to be effective and inclusive, and so in order
for the human rights project to fully realise its potential to empower the marginalised
and make space for their voices to be heard.
Providing a detailed, empirically based, analysis of rights in action, this book will
be of relevance to scholars, students and practitioners in human rights policy and
practice, in international law, minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights, gender
studies, and Middle Eastern and North African Studies.