Sara De Vido
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The diagnosis
A conceptualisation of violence against women’s health (VAWH)
in Violence against women’s health in international law

This chapter conceptualises the innovative idea of violence against women’s health (VAWH). Like the concept of violence against women, violence against women’s health is not an autonomous idea in criminal law, but an ‘umbrella’ definition grasping two dimensions of violence, each characterised by specific, gender-based crimes or practices. The chapter first ‘constructs’ VAWH as a form of discrimination against women, of gender-based violence, a violation of the rights to health and to reproductive health, and as a concept that does not require the element of intent for its definition. In particular, it stresses the existence and the pervasiveness of patterns of discrimination (often intersectional discrimination) in the perpetration of VAWH. The chapter then distinguishes this idea from the traditional one of violence against women and enriches it to encompass limitation of women’s autonomy, construed using a human rights-based approach. In dealing with autonomy and consent, the chapter extends its reasoning to another practice, genital cosmetic surgery, which it compares to female genital mutilation.

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