Considering the Role of the State

International human rights frameworks offer powerful support for a range of reforms to address marital rape. Melanie Randall and Vasanthi Venkatesh's valuable commentary, Criminalizing Sexual Violence against Women in Intimate Relationships, correctly shines a spotlight on the extent to which marital rape is still accepted in too many countries around the world, and calls for its explicit criminalization under international human rights laws. The commentary serves as an important reminder of the challenges and enduring stereotypes that prevent marital rape from being recognized globally as a human rights violation. But the commentary's focus on criminalization as the fundamental response is unduly limited. While criminalization, whether explicit or implicit, is a core part of states' obligations under international human rights law, centering criminal justice risks both shortchanging other approaches and obscuring the problems with criminal justice interventions. Although Randall and Venkatesh acknowledge that criminalization is but one element of a broader strategy, this essay urges a broader view. International human rights laws' due diligence framework requires a range of responses that include the obligation to prevent, protect, and provide redress, along with the obligation to prosecute and punish. Explicitly framing states' obligations in terms of that more comprehensive approach would reach broadly to address the cultural and social barriers that allow marital rape to continue without sanction

Criminal law · Criminalization · Criminology · Domestic violence · Human rights · Obligation · Poison control · Political science · Redress · Sexual violence · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Gender, Security, and Conflict · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies

• Introduction to Symposium on the International Legal Obligation to Criminalize Marital Rape

  Open Access•Catherine Powell, Carlos Manuel Vázquez•AJIL Unbound•2015

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• Criminalizing Sexual Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships

  Open Access•Melanie Randall, Vasanthi Venkatesh•AJIL Unbound•2015

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