Objet :
Call for Papers International Conference in Social
Sciences and
Humanities
Organised by: Centre de Recherches Politiques de la
Sorbonne,
Université
Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I), France.
Department of Politics and International Relations,
University of
Southampton, United Kingdom.
Within the framework of activities of the Scientific
Network TERRA
(Travaux, Etudes et Recherches sur les Réfugiés et
lAsile:
http://terra.rezo.net).
The Persecution of Women,
Social Mobilisation and the Right to Asylum
15 16 September 2006
_______________
Organisers:
Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Jérôme Valluy
(Université
Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Scientific Committee:
Gill Allwood (Nottingham Trent University), Didier
Fassin (EHESS /
Université Paris 13), Jane Freedman (Southampton
University), Lilian
Mathieu (CNRS), Nouria Ouali (Université Libre de
Bruxelles), Jérôme
Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne).
_____________
Call for Papers:
Forced marriages, pregnancies or abortions; genital
mutilation;
stoning,
acid attacks and other crimes of honour against
adulterous women;
domestic slavery; political use of rape particularly
during ethnic
conflicts; sexual slavery and forced prostitution;
conjugal rape and
domestic violence with no form of protection; violence
linked to
dowries; traditional and politically tolerated forms
of deprivation of
basic human rights .... A large part of humanity is
subject to
persecutions specific to women. And yet there seems to
be a
disproportion between the demographic and geographic
spread of this
phenomenon, and the little attention which is paid to
it in multiple
social contexts (associational, political, academic,
institutional
etc).
A disproportion which indicates the existence of a
vast problematic for
the social sciences.
More specifically, the relationships between these
types of
persecutions
and trajectories of exile have scarcely been explored
both by social
actors and by researchers in social sciences. In the
field of sociology
of immigration, the bibliography on women refugees and
on persecutions
specific to women is very small. Anthropological and
ethnological
studies on the social and cultural status of women
also lack
conceptualisations of these persecutions linking them
to trajectories
of
exile. It is noteworthy that ever in the corpus of
gender studies
there is little research examining persecutions
specific to women in
the
context of exile, migration and international
protection. The few
studies published in this area are very recent and
seem to indicate
only
a small stirring of interest in this area from the
associational and
scientific communities.
Moreover, although there is no legal reason for
excluding these types
of
persecutions from the field of application of the
Geneva Convention of
1951, it is still difficult to have them recognised as
legitimate
motives for exile and asylum. These persecutions and
the women who
suffer them seem, on the contrary, to be affected by a
triple
illegitimacy: that which is imposed on them by their
societies of
origin, that which comes from the resistance of the
host society to
refugees in general and to the recognition of these
types of
persecution
in particular, and that interiorised by the victims
themselves who are
often afraid of expressing their real motives for
fleeing and hide them
behind other motives which they perceive as more
legitimate or more
easily expressed. This socially constructed triple
illegitimacy
suffices
to maintain a wall of silence around this
long-standing and current
abuse of human rights.
In addition to the indignation which can legitimately
be felt and
expressed at the gravity of these forms of persecution
and the silence
which surrounds them, it is necessary to produce
rigorous academic
knowledge of these phenomena and to provide reliable
intellectual bases
for political actions which might follow. The object
of this conference
is to produce such knowledge with respect to
methodologies suitable to
the social sciences and humanities. Three areas of
study will be
privileged, remembering that within each it is
necessary to interrogate
the notion of persecution itself, and also the
social construction of
political and analytical categories relating to this
notion. What is a
persecution and how can such a notion be
universalized? These will be
the questions common to all of the contributions,
which will need to
distinguish persecutions from discriminations,
inequalities and
various other forms of domination....
I - ANTHROPOLOGIES OF PERSECUTIONS SPECIFIC TO WOMEN
In this domain, there are numerous studies coming from
the social
sciences and humanities, but these works have usually
not been produced
in relation to the problematic evoked above of exile
and international
protection of refugees. Thus is it necessary not only
to produce new
knowledge, but also to re-examine existing data in the
light of these
specific and current contexts.
Proposals for papers in this section might relate to
the social
foundations of persecution, the situation of the agent
of the
persecution or of the victim in relation to their
environment. Of
particular interest will be studies concerning the
possible means for
the victims to escape from persecution other than by
submission or
interiorisation of constraints. The question of the
possibility of
exile
abroad will notably be examined but also means of
local resistance.
Social sciences and humanities can all contribute to
the understanding
of the division between men and women which traverses
human
civilisations, but we are particularly interested here
in understanding
the current configurations of this divide, including
historical
analyses
which help to illuminate the present situation. In
this respect the
analysis of cases of reduction or disappearance of
certain types of
persecution in some societies can facilitate the
analysis of more
contemporary processes. More generally, historical
changes and
continuities of the phenomenon are to be studied.
Contemporary comparisons should concern not only
diversity in current
societies regional, national and local but also
differentiations
which appear with regard to various social factors
such as class, age,
educational level, forms of urbanisation, as well as
the economic,
political, religious and cultural factors which have
an impact on the
persecutions specific to women. Case studies should be
placed within a
more global context which will aid comparison and
scientific exchange.
The simple description of these forms of persecution
often takes the
form of a succession of hasty categorisations (such as
that in the
first
paragraph of this call for papers) and thus resembles
a disordered and
incomplete inventory. In this respect, the
establishment of some kind
of
typologies which are clearly linked to scientific
problematics or
paradigms (notably anthropological or sociological)
appears necessary
to
the analysis of a phenomenon rendered complex by the
diversity of the
social configurations within which it exists.
Another privileged dimension of this conference will
concern a global
mapping of persecutions specific to women. In this
perspective, any
attempt at mapping by geographers, demographers or
statisticians will
require the input of the other social sciences with
regard to the value
and pertinence of the indicators chosen in the process
of mapping. In
order to map this particular social phenomenon it is
necessary to
understand both contemporary comparisons and
historical evolutions.
II - SOCIAL MOBILISATIONS IN FAVOUR OF PERSECUTED
WOMEN
At the crossroads between research relative to social
movements on one
hand and social relations of gender on the other, we
will analyse
national and international social mobilisations in
favour of persecuted
women, both in the countries of origin and the host
countries of the
victims.
We will be interested in different forms of social
mobilisation whether
they are contained within traditional community
frameworks (family,
village, clan, ethnic group ...) or within NGOs and
associational
movements of solidarity with the victims of
persecutions specific to
women. The social conditions of an eventual agenda
denial (Cobb/Ross)
will also be examined, as well as the resources
mobilised in the
symbolic construction of these victims. Papers might
also consider the
militant trajectories of individuals and collectives
within the
feminist
movement in relation to the recognition and protection
of victims of
persecutions specific to women.
Studies of non-governmental or hybrid (public/private)
campaigns of
information, mobilisation and protest relative to
persecutions specific
to women will be welcome, as will studies of processes
put in place to
help and assist women who have been victims of these
persecutions. Such
studies should enable us to further the analysis of
the functioning of
NGOs in relation to these types of questions as well
as to examine the
factors favourable to and the obstacles to the
emergence of the
question
of persecutions specific to women in the local,
national and
international arenas.
Finally, we will be particularly interested in the
modes of
international extension of movements of mobilisation
against
persecutions specific to women or in favour of the
victims of these
persecutions. Whether it is a question of the passage
from local to
national or transnational action, or of the
observation of
international
campaigns and supranational solidarity movements in
favour of women
refugees, victims of these persecutions, the issue is
to better discern
the links between local support actions and the
construction of global
causes within the contemporary mutations of militancy.
III - PUBLIC ACTIONS OF PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
Under pressure from social movements and from
political and cultural
shifts, notably related to womens rights on one hand
and the defence
of
the right to asylum on the other, national and
international policies
on
the prevention of persecutions specific to women have
emerged during
the
past ten or twenty years.
These public actions have taken diverse forms such as
public
information
campaigns, state education programmes on human rights,
transformations
in civil and penal law etc. These types of measures
have appeared in
some countries and are inexistent in others. In
addition, the level of
legal and administrative constraints linked to these
policies is
variable from one country to another. Over and above
the analysis of
the
emergence of international directives in this domain,
it is necessary
to
question the concrete conditions of their
implementation and of the
effectiveness of public policy at the national level.
In each case, it
is necessary to look beyond the rhetorical and
diplomatic strategies in
order to examine the real transformations that have
taken place within
any society, its state institutions and its
traditional structures. It
is particularly important to use comparative studies
to understand the
conditions which are favourable or unfavourable to a
real efficacy of
action in state policy on persecutions specific to
women.
This knowledge of the state of public policies on
prevention of
persecution is linked, at least in part, to the
protection which women
asylum seekers may receive when they flee to a foreign
country to
escape
these persecutions. The conditions under which asylum
is granted under
the Geneva Convention on Refugees (1951) must also be
studied in a
comparative context as the legal and administrative
policies and
procedures for the implementation of this convention
vary widely from
one country to another, notably regarding persecutions
specific to
women. In this respect the divergences in
jurisprudence are
particularly
interesting, but also policies relating to the
administration and
policing of asylum, and the procedures and conditions
for the reception
and interviewing of women victims of persecution,
including instances
where the state has sub-contracted responsibilities in
this area to
private organisations whether commercial or
associational.
________________
Organisers:
Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Jérôme Valluy
(Université
Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Scientific Committee:
Gill Allwood (Nottingham Trent University), Didier
Fassin (EHESS /
Université Paris 13), Jane Freedman (Southampton
University), Lilian
Mathieu (CNRS), Nouria Ouali (Université Libre de
Bruxelles), Jérôme
Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne).
__________________
Calendar:
Proposals to be submitted to the organisers by the
15th December 2005
Responses from the scientific committee by 15th
February 2006
Full texts of papers to be sent in by 15th May 2006
_____________
Proposals:
Proposals in French or in English should be sent by
15th December 2005
to the two organisers: J.L.Freedman@??? and
valluy@???
Proposals to include a 300 word abstract and a CV with
the authors
principal publications.
_______________
Papers:
The full text of the papers in French or in English
should be sent by
email to the two organisers J.L.Freedman@???
and
valluy@??? by 15th May 2006.
Papers should be sent as an attachment in RTF and
should be between
20,000 and 40,000 characters in length (including
spaces).
The papers will be copied and distributed to all
participants at the
conference.
They may then be re-worked prior to the publication of
the conference
proceedings.
________________
Financial Support:
The organisers will seek to contribute towards the
costs of attendance
of those who cannot be subsidised by their own
institutions, in
particular those working in countries where there is
little financial
support for research and also young researchers.
However, we cannot
promise any financial help.
______
Place:
Université de Panthéon-Sorbonne,
12 Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, salle no. 1.
__________________________________
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