Family, Human Rights and Globalization
In recent years, the Minerva Center at TAU has, through various projects, explored
the ways globalization transforms human rights law and practice. It has focused in
particular on the new roles played by private actors such as corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in both human rights violations and human rights activism.
The project The Family, Human Rights and Globalization pursues and
deepens the Minerva Center’s inquiries into the relationship between human rights on
the one hand and private actors and private spheres of life on the other. Scholars of
human rights and globalization have devoted little if any attention to the family as a
unit of research. This project examines how is the family affected by human rights
law and activism in the era of globalization, and in turn how the insertion of the
family into politics and human rights activism is affecting human rights law and
practice domestically.
Family Law in Israel is a mixture of civil and religious laws. Only religious marriage
and divorce are possible in Israel, and family status is determined solely in religious
courts (Rabbinical, Shari’a etc.). Since these laws and courts are patriarchal, women
suffer from structural discrimination in divorce; however, so far very little attempt
was made to promote a comparative approach on the struggles taken by Jewish and
Moslem feminists’ organizations in Israel. In order to support research and trigger
international and cross-disciplinary exchanges and debates on these questions as well
as productive dialogues between academia and practitioners, the project brings
together senior academic scholars, graduate students, lawyers, judges and human
rights practitioners.
Events:
Bilingual Hebrew‐Arabic Conference: Women trapped between
Religious, Civil and Human Rights Laws
25-26 October, 2016
International Conference: DNA, Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony: Uncovering the Truth About Political Crimes After the Genetic Turn
March 27-28, 2016
Research Grants 2015-16
In order to encourage and support existing studies on the topic of The Family, Human
Rights and Globalization, the Minerva Center distributed five research grants to
doctorate students who pursue their research on this topic.
Dr. Yael Braudo-Bahat, Quilting Laws: The Israeli-American Harvard Project
(1951-1958) as a Successful Model of Transnational Legal Cooperation
Natalie Rose Davidson , From Public Power to Family Relations: A Socio-Legal
Inquiry of Torture
Roni Liberzon, Post-Divorce Child Custody: The Rise of Psycho-Legal
Knowledge
Masua Sagiv, The International Religious Court for Solving the Jewish Agunah
Problem
Nasrin Aalimi Kabha, Stipulations in the Islamic Marriage Contract