Inter-American case law on femicide: Obscuring intersections?

Abstract

The Inter-American Human Rights System has broken new ground in the field of violence against women (VAW) by delineating the concept of femicide, the principle of due diligence, clarifying the obligations of the States regarding violence and a adopting a gender perspective on reparations. In recent years, ‘intersectionality’, the study of the interconnections of race, ethnicity, religion, age, class, sexual orientation and other categories of difference in relation to inequality, has been promoted in human rights law for tackling VAW. This approach poses new challenges for the interpretation of cases. This article examines to what extent the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission have incorporated an intersectional view of violence against women into cases of femicide and discusses the potential of doing so in the future.