Conditions for plausibility of Women’s Conventions : internalising the paradigm shift in the Inter-American system of human rights. Analysing a comparable experience for the Istanbul Convention
Creators: name: Galanti, Valeria
Publisher: name: IMT Alti Studi Lucca
Year: 2013
Subjects: JA Political science (General)

description: Women’s Conventions, endorsing and approach based on the recognition of structural discriminatory social patterns and cultural practices,
have been adopted in the Universal System, with limited national impact, and in the Regional ones. Such systems present different structures, conditions and resources, 
which contribute to determine the conditions for plausibility of the rights enshrined. The Inter-American System adopted the Belém do Pará Convention (BdPC) back in 1994,
nevertheless, it largely failed to attract attention in legal scholarship, particularly in Western countries. We argue that, given its high degree of comparability with the 
European System, analysis of such experience provides valuable informative material to shape a European response. Our first objective is, hence, to analyse the 
process of internalisation of the BdPC in the Inter-American System. Analysing Inter-American Institution’s case law on VAW since 1994 and the evolution of
relevant national legislation in the region, we find evidence of the role of a coalition of civil society organisations and scholars’ in compensating Inter-American Institutions’
lack of previous experience wit gendered analyses, enabling an incremental learning process and triggering BdPC full justiciability, initially unclear due to 
BdPC ambiguous wording. At the same time, the availability of authoritative precedents to hold before national governments in a relatively culturally homogeneous 
context enhanced national implementation of regionally constructed principles and standards, harmonised with those of the Universal System. The IACrtHR plays a 
crucial interpretive function, clarifying the implications of an inherently incomplete instrument in concrete cases. On the basis of the identification of 
early setbacks, we suggest a reform of the IACommHR filtering function, which should be limited to the evaluation of petitions’ admissibility and to coordinate
the availability of crucial contextual information. This function should be performed with the support of Inter-American Commission of Women’s expertise. 
Such procedural reform would improve analyses of complex cases emerging from intersectionality and cultural diversity, still unsatisfactorily developed. Our second,
and consequent, objective is to use our findings to identify a generalizable method to ensure women’s rights plausibility. We argue that both ECrtHR’s case law and 
CoE Member States’ legislations on VAW are still at an early stage. However, the Istanbul Convention does not grant the ECrtHR competence on the protection 
mechanism established. On the basis of our findings, we argue the need to reconsider ECrtHR role with respect to the Istanbul Convention and present a concrete
proposal to guarantee the feasibility of its contentious jurisdiction, avoiding further clogging-up, valorising the recently introduced Pilot Judgment Procedure and the specific expertise provided by GREVIO.