Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Violence against women and the need for international law / Aisha K. Gill -- The importance of international law and institutions / Jackie Jones -- Exploring the consequences of the normative gap in legal protections addressing violence against women / David L. Richards and Jillienne Haglund -- Normative developments on violence against women in the United Nations System / Rashida Manjoo -- The African human rights system : challenges and potential in addressing violence against women in Africa / Nicholas Wasonga Orago and Maria Nassali -- The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council of Europe Convention on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) / Jackie Jones -- Violence against women : normative developments in the Inter-American Human Rights System / Caroline Bettinger-L�opez -- Closing the normative gap in international law on violence against women : developments, initiatives, and possible options / Rashida Manjoo.

Violence against women remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today, and it permeates every society, at every level. Such violence is considered a systemic, widespread and pervasive human rights violation, experienced largely by women because they are women. Yet at the international level, there is a gap in the legal protection of women from violence. There is currently no binding international convention that explicitly prohibits such violence; or calls for its elimination; or, mandates the criminalisation of all forms of violence against women.The book puts forward a strong case that there is a legal gap in international law for the protection of women and girls from violence and that this could be remedied through a new United Nations Convention or alternatively an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.