Ramona Vijeyarasa
Biographic Data
| ID | 173400 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ramona Vijeyarasa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ramona |
| FAMILY NAME | Vijeyarasa |
| SIGNATURE | VIJEYARASA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Technology Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4581-4924 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Not fit for purpose
The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), endorsed in 2011, are widely regarded as the definitive normative framework governing the responsibilities of businesses with respect to human rights. In 2018, the UN began adapting the UNGPs to address the human rights implications of the design, deployment and use of artificial intelligence (AI) by States and businesses. This article analyses the suitability of this sof…
Gender and Politics Reimagined
This timely collection reflects a coming together of academics, gender and development practitioners and activists to reflect on the gendering of politics. By centring Asia and Oceania and traversing numerous disciplines, the volume disrupts the illusion of certainty and clarity as to what is known about gender and politics. Individual chapters present specific research projects, while providing epistemological, theoretical and methodological ref…
Gender and Politics Reimagined
Misdirected by the ‘daddy quota’
Countries across Asia have attempted to expand the involvement of fathers in childcare, motivated by declining birth rates, growing elderly populations, notable gender inequality gaps, and the demand of fathers for paid leave. This article assesses the efforts of twenty-one Asian nations to achieve a more equal distribution of the responsibility for child-rearing by comparing legal entitlements to paid maternity leave, paternity leave, and parent…
Between equality and stagnation
This article compares paid parental leave policies across nineteen Latin American jurisdictions, examining their effectiveness in promoting equality in caregiving. Despite notable expansions in social protection, and constitutional recognition of shared parental responsibilities in countries like Ecuador and Mexico, the region has not kept pace with global trends towards equitable leave entitlements. While most countries offer paid maternity leav…
Foreword to the special issue on accountability in crisis
Institutionalising women’s experiences in law
Feminist legal scholars have long recognised that law is gendered, being a manifestation of power that often works to the detriment of women. This need not be the case. This article tests the capacity of law to make a material difference on women’s lives through parliamentary auditing. The arguments springboard from an innovation emerging in Tasmania in 2022: a Gender and Equality Audit Committee in the Tasmanian Legislative Council. Alongside th…
Research Driven Dialogs
Research Driven Dialogs (RDDs) are a method for collective sense-making and collaborative reflection on research findings by a range of stakeholders hoping to better understand and address a complex problem. Research findings are opened up through a process of dialog; implications for practice and action are co-designed by participants in ways that are compatible with institutional and sociocultural realities. RDDs thereby coproduce knowledge in …
Ramona Vijeyarasa, Review of Ruth Rubio-Marín. Global Gender Constitutionalism and Women’s Citizenship
Broken Pathways to Politics
This article seeks to explain why so few women make the journey from social activism and community work to standing for election. Comparative research in Indonesia and Sri Lanka reveals four operations critical to mending the broken pathway to politics for non-elite women. Transference entails the recognition and valuing of women’s preexisting skills, knowledge and experiences gained through grassroots activity for the political field. Amplificat…
International Human Rights, Artificial Intelligence, and the Challenge for the Pondering State
This article looks at the risks and advantages of early regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) from an international human rights (IHR) angle. By exploring arguments from scholarly and policy papers from various jurisdictions on possible approaches to regulating AI, the authors identify a current trend among states to wait rather than proactively regulate. The authors challenge the idea that there is a reasonable or legitimate case to ‘wait a…
Assessing the Reach, Scope and Outcomes of Government Action on Women's Health and Human Rights
Background The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) represents an international commitment to equality in the enjoyment of human rights. International human rights scholars posit that, in facilitating constructive dialogues between states and human rights experts, the near-universally ratified Convention is a powerful tool for achieving global health goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals…
International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality
Fast Fashion for 2030
The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh brought global visibility to the human rights abuses experienced by women workers in the garment sector. As the spotlight on this incident dims, the need to hold the fashion sector accountable remains. In this article, we suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gend…
Women’s movements under women presidents
Few women have risen to the ranks of heads of state or government worldwide. The low numbers of female presidents and prime ministers in world history have left many untested assumptions about the impact of female leadership on the lives of fellow women. This article builds upon two bodies of work – studies of female presidencies, on the one hand, and on women’s movement-building, particularly in South and South-East Asia, on the other – to focus…
Gender equality in Australia
With the goal of gender equality far from reached in Australia, many are looking for alternative solutions to address gendered disparities between men and women. Along with more equal representation in politics, Australia needs leaders who lead with women in mind. This nation also needs legislators who are willing to step away from neutrality and use the law to help transform decades of discrimination against women. Leadership decisions about law…
What is gender-responsive legislation? Using international law to establish benchmarks for labour, reproductive health and tax laws that work for women
For decades, the world has seen legal, policy and practical interventions to advance women’s rights. Yet there is no country in the world where women and men are equal. In pursuit of such equality, this article promotes the relatively obvious and simple strategy of embedding international women’s rights norms into domestic legislation. While acknowledging the limitations of the binary approach to the rights of men and women as reinforced by the C…
Cedaw’s General Recommendation No. 35
This article analyzes the contribution to international human rights law of the third and latest General Recommendation on gender-based violence issued by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Described as an “update” on General Recommendation No. 19 (1992), this article examines the extent to which General Recommendation No. 35 (2017) makes a more fundamental contribution toward accountability for women’s…
Women, work and global supply chains
In 2018, the Parliament of Australia enacted the Modern Slavery Act (Cth), which—despite its misleading and expansive title—primarily requires medium- and large-scale businesses to undertake due diligence to identify the risks of exploitation in their supply chains. This article argues that, despite its attempt to enhance the accountability of businesses, the Act is “gender blind”, as it fails to acknowledge and address the divergent experiences …
Women's absence in Sri Lankan politics
Engendering regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining
This article argues that adopting a gender perspective when regulating artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is both necessary and achievable. The authors analyse women’s often-ignored needs and experiences as workers, decision-makers and affected community members in the ASM sector. To address these concerns, this article sets out standards for regulating ASM to guarantee women’s access to services and information and women’s decision-making an…
Making the law work for women
This article is premised on the fact that every area of law needs a gender perspective. It discusses the prospects for a Gender Legislative Index, a tool to enable us to evaluate and score legislation, by placing laws on a scale from gender-regressive to gender-responsive, when set against global benchmarks from international law – primarily CEDAW. In doing so, this article defines and defends the need for gender-responsive legislation, showing h…
A move in the Right Direction? The Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators
While the Palermo Protocol sought to offer the global community the first‐ever definition of trafficking and the parameters for who constitutes a victim, the result was an inaccurate, ill‐defined and cumbersome definition that fails to match the realities of the phenomenon. Since 2000, two other international instruments were drafted: the UNODC Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators on Trafficking in Human Bei…
Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman
Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman is a go-to text for readers who seek a comprehensive overview of the meaning of ’human trafficking’ and current debates and perspectives on the issue. It presents a more nuanced understanding of human trafficking and its victims by examining - and challenging - the conventional assumptions that sit at the heart of mainstream approaches to the topic. A pioneering study, the arguments made in this book are larg…
Women at the Margins of International Law
To most women’s rights academics and practitioners, the need to analyse and give weight to the various gender dimensions of any conflict and postconflict context is obvious. Yet, even more recent developments, such as International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions, have demonstrated an inability to make substantial progress in addressing gender-based crimes. A growing body of literature over the past decade, and particularly the past five years,…
The Cinderella syndrome
Broken Pathways to Politics
This article seeks to explain why so few women make the journey from social activism and community work to standing for election. Comparative research in Indonesia and Sri Lanka reveals four operations critical to mending the broken pathway to politics for non-elite women. Transference entails the recognition and valuing of women’s preexisting skills, knowledge and experiences gained through grassroots activity for the political field. Amplificat…
The Impossible Victim
This article discusses the voluntary decision-making of potential migrants inherent in the majority of situations of trafficking and trafficking-like working conditions, through the lens of Australian jurisprudence and particularly R v Dobie, the first and thus far only conviction for human trafficking in Australia. The author responds to the tendency of courts to consider it impossible for an individual whose decision-making contributes to their…
Cedaw’s General Recommendation No. 35
This article analyzes the contribution to international human rights law of the third and latest General Recommendation on gender-based violence issued by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Described as an “update” on General Recommendation No. 19 (1992), this article examines the extent to which General Recommendation No. 35 (2017) makes a more fundamental contribution toward accountability for women’s…
Women, work and global supply chains
In 2018, the Parliament of Australia enacted the Modern Slavery Act (Cth), which—despite its misleading and expansive title—primarily requires medium- and large-scale businesses to undertake due diligence to identify the risks of exploitation in their supply chains. This article argues that, despite its attempt to enhance the accountability of businesses, the Act is “gender blind”, as it fails to acknowledge and address the divergent experiences …
Making the law work for women
This article is premised on the fact that every area of law needs a gender perspective. It discusses the prospects for a Gender Legislative Index, a tool to enable us to evaluate and score legislation, by placing laws on a scale from gender-regressive to gender-responsive, when set against global benchmarks from international law – primarily CEDAW. In doing so, this article defines and defends the need for gender-responsive legislation, showing h…
A move in the Right Direction? The Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators
While the Palermo Protocol sought to offer the global community the first‐ever definition of trafficking and the parameters for who constitutes a victim, the result was an inaccurate, ill‐defined and cumbersome definition that fails to match the realities of the phenomenon. Since 2000, two other international instruments were drafted: the UNODC Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators on Trafficking in Human Bei…
Fast Fashion for 2030
The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh brought global visibility to the human rights abuses experienced by women workers in the garment sector. As the spotlight on this incident dims, the need to hold the fashion sector accountable remains. In this article, we suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gend…
Women's absence in Sri Lankan politics
Stigma, stereotypes and Brazilian soap operas
During the last 15 years, we have witnessed a significant and increasing focus on human trafficking in the work and research of international organisations, local and international non-governmental organisations, governments, researchers and academics from a range of disciplines. However, the focus remains on presumed structural causes of trafficking, including assumptions regarding victims' levels of education and sex. Other socio-cultural facto…
Institutionalising women’s experiences in law
Feminist legal scholars have long recognised that law is gendered, being a manifestation of power that often works to the detriment of women. This need not be the case. This article tests the capacity of law to make a material difference on women’s lives through parliamentary auditing. The arguments springboard from an innovation emerging in Tasmania in 2022: a Gender and Equality Audit Committee in the Tasmanian Legislative Council. Alongside th…
Research Driven Dialogs
Research Driven Dialogs (RDDs) are a method for collective sense-making and collaborative reflection on research findings by a range of stakeholders hoping to better understand and address a complex problem. Research findings are opened up through a process of dialog; implications for practice and action are co-designed by participants in ways that are compatible with institutional and sociocultural realities. RDDs thereby coproduce knowledge in …
Women’s movements under women presidents
Few women have risen to the ranks of heads of state or government worldwide. The low numbers of female presidents and prime ministers in world history have left many untested assumptions about the impact of female leadership on the lives of fellow women. This article builds upon two bodies of work – studies of female presidencies, on the one hand, and on women’s movement-building, particularly in South and South-East Asia, on the other – to focus…
Gender equality in Australia
With the goal of gender equality far from reached in Australia, many are looking for alternative solutions to address gendered disparities between men and women. Along with more equal representation in politics, Australia needs leaders who lead with women in mind. This nation also needs legislators who are willing to step away from neutrality and use the law to help transform decades of discrimination against women. Leadership decisions about law…
Women at the Margins of International Law
To most women’s rights academics and practitioners, the need to analyse and give weight to the various gender dimensions of any conflict and postconflict context is obvious. Yet, even more recent developments, such as International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions, have demonstrated an inability to make substantial progress in addressing gender-based crimes. A growing body of literature over the past decade, and particularly the past five years,…
"Verdade e reconciliação para as " gerações roubadas
O governo do Estado da Tasmânia e o Senado Federal da Austrália tomaram medidas recentes no sentido de criar um Tribunal de Reparações para os povos Aborígines e Insulares do Estreito de Torres (ATSI). Os ATSI foram separados de suas famílias e comunidades por políticas estatais de remoção forçada do século 20. Este trabalho propõe uma Comissão de Verdade e Reconciliação que incorpore lições internacionais
The State, the family and language of ‘social evils’
The Vietnamese Government continues to take steps to address trafficking in women and girls. However, rather than perceiving trafficking as a violation of human rights, greater attention is given by the government to its effects on society and social morals, particularly where victims have engaged in sex work in destination countries. Trafficked returnees are directly implicated in the State's approach to defining sex work as a 'social evil'. Thi…
The Impossible Victim
This article discusses the voluntary decision-making of potential migrants inherent in the majority of situations of trafficking and trafficking-like working conditions, through the lens of Australian jurisprudence and particularly R v Dobie, the first and thus far only conviction for human trafficking in Australia. The author responds to the tendency of courts to consider it impossible for an individual whose decision-making contributes to their…
Trafficking and Human Rights
The Cinderella syndrome
Women at the Margins of International Law
To most women’s rights academics and practitioners, the need to analyse and give weight to the various gender dimensions of any conflict and postconflict context is obvious. Yet, even more recent developments, such as International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions, have demonstrated an inability to make substantial progress in addressing gender-based crimes. A growing body of literature over the past decade, and particularly the past five years,…
Stigma, stereotypes and Brazilian soap operas
During the last 15 years, we have witnessed a significant and increasing focus on human trafficking in the work and research of international organisations, local and international non-governmental organisations, governments, researchers and academics from a range of disciplines. However, the focus remains on presumed structural causes of trafficking, including assumptions regarding victims' levels of education and sex. Other socio-cultural facto…
Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman
Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman is a go-to text for readers who seek a comprehensive overview of the meaning of ’human trafficking’ and current debates and perspectives on the issue. It presents a more nuanced understanding of human trafficking and its victims by examining - and challenging - the conventional assumptions that sit at the heart of mainstream approaches to the topic. A pioneering study, the arguments made in this book are larg…
A move in the Right Direction? The Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators
While the Palermo Protocol sought to offer the global community the first‐ever definition of trafficking and the parameters for who constitutes a victim, the result was an inaccurate, ill‐defined and cumbersome definition that fails to match the realities of the phenomenon. Since 2000, two other international instruments were drafted: the UNODC Model Law against Trafficking in Persons and the ILO Operational Indicators on Trafficking in Human Bei…
Making the law work for women
This article is premised on the fact that every area of law needs a gender perspective. It discusses the prospects for a Gender Legislative Index, a tool to enable us to evaluate and score legislation, by placing laws on a scale from gender-regressive to gender-responsive, when set against global benchmarks from international law – primarily CEDAW. In doing so, this article defines and defends the need for gender-responsive legislation, showing h…
What is gender-responsive legislation? Using international law to establish benchmarks for labour, reproductive health and tax laws that work for women
For decades, the world has seen legal, policy and practical interventions to advance women’s rights. Yet there is no country in the world where women and men are equal. In pursuit of such equality, this article promotes the relatively obvious and simple strategy of embedding international women’s rights norms into domestic legislation. While acknowledging the limitations of the binary approach to the rights of men and women as reinforced by the C…
Cedaw’s General Recommendation No. 35
This article analyzes the contribution to international human rights law of the third and latest General Recommendation on gender-based violence issued by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Described as an “update” on General Recommendation No. 19 (1992), this article examines the extent to which General Recommendation No. 35 (2017) makes a more fundamental contribution toward accountability for women’s…
Women, work and global supply chains
In 2018, the Parliament of Australia enacted the Modern Slavery Act (Cth), which—despite its misleading and expansive title—primarily requires medium- and large-scale businesses to undertake due diligence to identify the risks of exploitation in their supply chains. This article argues that, despite its attempt to enhance the accountability of businesses, the Act is “gender blind”, as it fails to acknowledge and address the divergent experiences …
Women's absence in Sri Lankan politics
Engendering regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining
This article argues that adopting a gender perspective when regulating artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is both necessary and achievable. The authors analyse women’s often-ignored needs and experiences as workers, decision-makers and affected community members in the ASM sector. To address these concerns, this article sets out standards for regulating ASM to guarantee women’s access to services and information and women’s decision-making an…
International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality
Fast Fashion for 2030
The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh brought global visibility to the human rights abuses experienced by women workers in the garment sector. As the spotlight on this incident dims, the need to hold the fashion sector accountable remains. In this article, we suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gend…
Women’s movements under women presidents
Few women have risen to the ranks of heads of state or government worldwide. The low numbers of female presidents and prime ministers in world history have left many untested assumptions about the impact of female leadership on the lives of fellow women. This article builds upon two bodies of work – studies of female presidencies, on the one hand, and on women’s movement-building, particularly in South and South-East Asia, on the other – to focus…
Gender equality in Australia
With the goal of gender equality far from reached in Australia, many are looking for alternative solutions to address gendered disparities between men and women. Along with more equal representation in politics, Australia needs leaders who lead with women in mind. This nation also needs legislators who are willing to step away from neutrality and use the law to help transform decades of discrimination against women. Leadership decisions about law…
International Human Rights, Artificial Intelligence, and the Challenge for the Pondering State
This article looks at the risks and advantages of early regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) from an international human rights (IHR) angle. By exploring arguments from scholarly and policy papers from various jurisdictions on possible approaches to regulating AI, the authors identify a current trend among states to wait rather than proactively regulate. The authors challenge the idea that there is a reasonable or legitimate case to ‘wait a…
Assessing the Reach, Scope and Outcomes of Government Action on Women's Health and Human Rights
Background The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) represents an international commitment to equality in the enjoyment of human rights. International human rights scholars posit that, in facilitating constructive dialogues between states and human rights experts, the near-universally ratified Convention is a powerful tool for achieving global health goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals…
Ramona Vijeyarasa, Review of Ruth Rubio-Marín. Global Gender Constitutionalism and Women’s Citizenship
Broken Pathways to Politics
This article seeks to explain why so few women make the journey from social activism and community work to standing for election. Comparative research in Indonesia and Sri Lanka reveals four operations critical to mending the broken pathway to politics for non-elite women. Transference entails the recognition and valuing of women’s preexisting skills, knowledge and experiences gained through grassroots activity for the political field. Amplificat…
Foreword to the special issue on accountability in crisis
Institutionalising women’s experiences in law
Feminist legal scholars have long recognised that law is gendered, being a manifestation of power that often works to the detriment of women. This need not be the case. This article tests the capacity of law to make a material difference on women’s lives through parliamentary auditing. The arguments springboard from an innovation emerging in Tasmania in 2022: a Gender and Equality Audit Committee in the Tasmanian Legislative Council. Alongside th…
Political science (25 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (9 works) · Human rights (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Sex work and related issues (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works)