Gemma Burgess

The Uneven Geography of Participation at the Global Level: Ethiopian Women Activists at the Global Periphery

This article explores the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) and its attempts to translate international womens rights norms into national law, examining the problematic geographies of womens networks from local to global levels and showing how Ethiopia remains on the periphery of global human rights networks. In their campaign for legal reform to protect women against violence, activists had to show how the proposed reforms were ‘African’, as invoking international human rights risked dismissal as evidence of ‘Westernisation’. Activists face practical difficulties, including lack of funding and technology, limiting networking beyond the national level. The article shows how the state shapes local activists’ ability to form global connections. Legislation banning civil society organisations such as EWLA from conducting work around rights threatens to marginalise Ethiopia further from global human rights networks and norms. Local connectivity to the global is only partial, mediated by the power relations in which activists and the state are embedded. Este artículo explora a la Asociación de mujeres abogadas etíopes (EWLA, por sus siglas en inglés) y sus intentos de traducir las normas del derecho internacional de mujeres a una nueva ley nacional, examinando las geografías problemáticas de redes de mujeres de niveles locales a globales, y demostrando cómo Etiopía se mantiene fuera de las redes de los derechos humanos globales. En su campaña por una reforma legal para proteger a la mujer contra la violencia, las activistas tuvieron que demostrar cómo las reformas propuestas eran ‘africanas’, como si al invocar a los derechos humanos se arriesgasen a un rechazo por evidencia de una ‘occidentalización’. Las activistas se enfrentan a dificultades prácticas, que incluyen la falta de fondos y tecnología, que las limita para conectarse con redes por fuera del nivel nacional. El artículo muestra cómo el estado forja a las activistas locales, la habilidad para establecer conexiones globales. La legislación que prohíbe a las organizaciones sociales, tales como la EWLA, conducir un trabajo alrededor de los derechos, amenazan con marginar a Etiopía más allá de las redes de derechos humanos y normas globales. La conectividad local hacia lo global es tan sólo parcial, intervenida por las relaciones del poder, en las cuales las activistas y el estado están integrados. 本文探讨了埃塞俄比亚女律师协会(EWLA)及其将国际妇女权利规范植入国家法的努力，考察了从地方到全球各层次妇女网络颇成问题的地理分布，表明了埃塞俄比亚是如何仍处在全球人权网络边缘的。在他们发起保护妇女免受暴力侵犯的法律改革运动中，活动家们不得不表明倡议中的改革如何地“非洲化”，因为求助于国际人权有被指为“西方化”的危险。活动家们面临着一些实际困难，包括缺乏资金和技术，还将建立网络限制在国家层次上。本文表明了国家如何塑造当地活动家建立全球联系的能力。禁止市民社会组织如EWLA围绕权利开展工作的立法，威胁着埃塞俄比亚从全球人权网络和规范中进一步边缘化。地方与全球的联系只是部分的，它被有活动家们和国家深嵌其中的权力关系调解着。

When the personal becomes political: using legal reform to combat violence against women in Ethiopia

This article focuses on Ethiopias first civil society organisation, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), which has been campaigning for legal reform to secure womens rights and address violence against women. Implementing legal changes to benefit women in Ethiopia is impeded by difficulties in using the formal legal system, by poverty and deeply embedded gender inequalities, by plural legal systems, and by entrenched cultural norms. However, the article argues that the most significant challenge is the increasing degree of authoritarianism in Ethiopian state politics, that this is crucial in determining the space for activism, and that this shapes the successful implementation of legal change. The research shows how womens activism around personal rights challenges public/private and personal/political boundaries and can be seen as a political threat by governments in contexts where democracy and rule of the law are not embedded, leading to repression of womens activism and hindering the implementation of measures to protect womens rights when states become more authoritarian. Little is known empirically about the impact of democratisation on the implementation of measures to protect womens rights in Africa. This article shows how the emergence of democracy and legal reform intersects with the emergence of womens rights, especially with respect to gender-based violence. It shows how trying to secure womens personal right to be free from violence through the law is profoundly political and argues that the nature of democratisation really matters in terms of the implementation of measures such as legal changes designed to protect womens rights.

What is the potential for community currencies to deliver positive public health outcomes? Case study of Time Credits in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, UK

The research was funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) Public Health Practice Evaluation Scheme (PHPES) which operates in collaboration with Public Health England. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

Housing poverty in Ecuador: challenges to eradication

Slum dwelling and housing poverty are not transitional phenomena. They often demonstrate significant resilience to government interventions and the overall economic development. The paper explores these challenges from the experience of Ecuador, based on the analysis of the qualitative data collected in a field study in Quito. The results point to a significant policy trap in the housing and lending schemes. Internal psychological barriers experienced by vulnerable communities also reduce the effectiveness of government programmes. The housing inequalities can also be linked to defective urban planning practices in the past, and the emerging trend of fragmentation. Based on the findings, it is recommended that successful solutions would be specifically targeted to the households in extreme poverty, and guided by the principles of participatory design, appreciating the needs of these communities. An effective approach would integrate the strategies on urban planning, infrastructure, public service provision and urban labour markets.