Essay: Analyzing Human Security, Democracy, Rights, and Women's Safety

This essay analyzes the concept of human security, focusing on the relationship between democracy, human rights, and the safety of women. It examines Mary Caprioli's article, "Democracy and Human Rights Versus Women's Security: A Contradiction," highlighting the argument that gender neutrality masks societal biases and questions whether human rights and democracy effectively ensure women's security. The essay also explores the feminist perspective on human rights, as presented in the article "Transforming human rights from a feminist perspective," discussing how feminism offers new insights into human rights discourse, gender-specific abuse, and the role of international institutions. The essay concludes by critiquing the limitations of human rights in safeguarding women and the politicization of human rights, emphasizing that while human rights are mandated by law, they do not always translate into effective protection for women within societal structures. The analysis points out that the security of women is not necessarily guaranteed by the existence of human rights and democracy, focusing on how the politicizing of human rights can hinder the security provided to women in society, referencing the importance of moving beyond politics in the pursuit of women's safety.

Running head: HUMAN SECURITY
Human Security
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Human rights refer to basic rights along with the freedoms that are entitled to the
individuals in the society. The women’s security refers to the emotional and the physical
security that is afforded to the women that makes them feel secure in the society. The book,
“Democracy and Human Rights Versus Women’s Security: A Contradiction” was written by
Mary Caprioli and it was published in the year 2004. The book talks about the fact that the
assumptions of the gender neutrality in the society is responsible for masking the bias that is
prevalent in the society (Caprioli 2004). This commentary analyses the contents of the article
and talks about the strengths along with the weakness in relation to the article.
The article by Mary Caprioli has rightly talked about the fact that security should
move beyond the aspect of politics that can help in the promotion of the democracy along
with the human rights. The article states that the democracy and the human rights can be said
to be positively related to the security of the women in the society. The article aptly makes
use of the longitudinal analysis that helps in examining whether the democracy can help in
reflecting the security of the women. The article has talked about the fact that the security of
the men and the women can be said to be identical in the society. This article has pointed out
to the fact that the longitudinal studies delve into the general trends in the society.
The article has concluded the fact that neither the aspect of democracy nor the human
rights can help in ensuring the security of the women. The rights that the human beings are
provided in the society cannot safeguard the women in the society. The democracy cannot
play any important role in ensuring the security of the women. The strength of the conclusion
lies in the fact that it has rightly pointed out about the real fact that the human rights that have
been mandated by the law does not prove to be beneficial for the women in the society. The
weakness of the conclusion lies in the fact that it has not specified the areas of the human
rights that proves to be unfruitful for offering protection to the women. The article,
“Transforming human rights from a feminist perspective” on the other hand has stated that

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feminism has been able to give the people new perspectives in relation to discourse of the
human rights (Bunch 2018). It has talked about the relationship in between liberalism and the
human rights of the women that constitutes shift in the normal course of the society. The shift
rejects “sameness” principle pertaining to the liberal feminists that has helped in bringing the
gender-specific abuse into that of mainstream of the human rights theory.
The gender mainstreaming of the international institutions can help in defining the
rights of the women in a more general manner. The feminists have criticized the aspect of the
androcentrism that can help in the studying of the gender inequalities along with the aspect of
the economic globalization (Howard-Hassmann 2018). The women in the society are entitled
to equal enjoyment of that of human rights so that they do not have to face any kind of
discrimination in the society. This can prove to be fundamental in achieving the human
rights, security along with the peace. The book, “Democracy and Human Rights Versus
Women’s Security: A Contradiction” has however pointed out to the essential fact that the
guaranteeing of the human rights does not necessarily guarantee the freedom of the women
within the societal structure. The women are deprived of the rights that makes them
vulnerable to the malpractices within the society. The politicising of the concept of the
human rights hampers the aspect of the security that is provided to the women (Reardon
2015).
The article that has been written by Mary Caprioli has stressed that security moving
beyond that of politics can pave the path for the promoting of democracy in the society. The
article has tried to find the relationship in between the democracy, human rights and that of
security of women. The value of the article lies in the fact that it has talked about how
security of women cannot be attained with the help of human rights. The element of
democracy is supposed to offer protection to women from any kind of crimes and the

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malpractices of the society. Human rights are stated by the law of a particular country but it
does not help in serving the women in the society.

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References
Bunch, C., 2018. Transforming human rights from a feminist perspective. In Women's rights,
human rights (pp. 11-17). Routledge.
Caprioli, M., 2004. Democracy and human rights versus women’s security: A
contradiction?. Security Dialogue, 35(4), pp.411-428.
Howard-Hassmann, R.E., 2018. Human rights and the search for community. Routledge.
Reardon, B.A., 2015. Feminist concepts of peace and security. In Betty A. Reardon: Key texts
in gender and peace (pp. 61-71). Springer, Cham.