Stateless aesthetics: feminist human rights discourse on statelessness in Kuwait
Date
2013
Authors
Kennedy, S.
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Conference item
Citation
2013
Statement of Responsibility
Susan Kennedy
Conference Name
International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (8th : 2013 : Prague, Czech Republic)
Abstract
Do human rights activists share the interests of those they claim to represent? Some human rights discourse on the stateless of Kuwait exhibits bias at the expense of it's subject. Refugees International published Discrimination Against Women Creates Statelessness by Refugees International in 17 October 2011. The report made broad claims about the obstacles faced by the stateless of Kuwait and attributed them to government. A close reading of the report finds that some activists utilise discourse on statelessness in the Middle East as an opportunity to advance the rights of more privileged citizen women. Authors push for law reform to expand citizen women?s rights so that they can confer citizenship on their stateless children. On the other hand, they warn stateless women against marrying Kuwaiti citizen or stateless men and present an alternative option that 'RI heard' for stateless women, to refuse to marry or procreate. The gendering of discourse in the report subjugates the cause of stateless people to the feminist priorities of these activists. The analysis demonstrates the profound the impact a feminist lens can leverage on stateless people's representation in the human rights discourse.
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Virtual presentation, available via YouTube
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