Victims' visions of justice in India within the normative landscape of international human rights

Abstract

Comparing visions of justice in local contexts with those on global levels, this paper explores the discontinuities in desires of female victims of violence when approaching formal courts and informal justice mediations/arbitrations (lok adalats/panchayats) as compared with the normative language enshrined in international human rights documents such as CEDAW and the ICCPR. I draw on data deriving from new empirical research covering 8 regions of India, (400 interviews/questionnaires/observations of victims/accused/lawyers/judges/mediators/arbitrators in 200 cases). Victims' discourse on their aims in approaching legal and quasi-legal regimes offers thickly contextual perspectives of law, needs and rights bound up within social and cultural structures. The focus on victims' perspectives complicates existing debates on universalism versus cultural relativism and feminist critiques of mainstream human rights paradigms. It also informs the norm diffusion (Risse et al, 1999) and law and anthropology literatures (Merry, 2006). I argue that victims' desires in the Indian landscape are intricately linked to networks of family, kin and community. Further, their knowledge and aspirations are closely interconnected with issues of poverty, illiteracy, and development. As such, the findings speak to the issue of the indivisibility of all human rights, as well as the nexus between human rights, women's rights and development.