International law has become increasingly relevant in a global scenario wherein relations amongst states have acquired multifarious dimensions. The traditional subjects of International Law have been relations between member states, issues of international security, state sovereignty, international trade territoriality. States have been defined as political bodies which have a well defined territory, population, government and a capacity to enter into relations with other states.
Feminists have argues that concerns of women have not been adequately addressed in traditional debates on International law. Issues pertaining to women have been housed in refugee law and human rights law, yet these domains do not constitute as issues of main concern of International Law experts.
Charlesworth has argued that there have been three broad dimensions of the criticism feminists have made of traditional International Law. The first one is regarding the absence of women from International Law. Liberal feminists have criticized the international organizations for not having adequate women representatives working as part of these organizations. The argument has been that since women are not present in these organizations. The argument has been made that since women are not a part of these organizations, their specific experiences and concerns have not been considered part of their agenda. Law is viewed as an important and empowering instrument by the liberal feminists. They argue that if International law was to apply impartially to both genders and if women had adequate representationthen women’s concerns would be adequately addressed.
The second line of criticism comes from the cultural feminists who question he values which constitute International law. They argue that male perspective has been given the dominant place in values constituting International Law whilst women’s perspective has been marginalized.
Patriarchal values need to be indentified and challenged in his context. For instance, the very language of law, its rationality, objectives, abstraction and characteristics associated with men. International law needs to acknowledge context specific values upheld by women in different societies. However, cultural feminists have been unable to move the centre of International Law from State soverignity and autonomy.
