Call for Papers – International Conference in Social Sciences and Humanities

Organised by: Centre de Recherches Politiques de la Sorbonne, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I), France. 
	Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
Within the framework of activities of the Scientific Network TERRA (Travaux, Etudes et Recherches sur les Réfugiés et l’Asile: http://terra.rezo.net).

The Persecution of Women, 
Social Mobilisation and the Right to Asylum

15 – 16 September 2006

Organisers:
Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Jérôme Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Scientific Committee:
Gill Allwood (Nottingham Trent University), Didier Fassin (EHESS / Université Paris 13), Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Lilian Mathieu (CNRS), Nouria Ouali (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Jérôme Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Call for Papers:

Forced marriages, pregnancies or abortions; genital mutilation; stoning, acid attacks and other “crimes of honour” against adulterous women; domestic slavery; political use of rape particularly during ethnic conflicts; sexual slavery and forced prostitution; conjugal rape and domestic violence with no form of protection; violence linked to dowries; traditional and politically tolerated forms of deprivation of basic human rights .... A large part of humanity is subject to persecutions specific to women. And yet there seems to be a disproportion between the demographic and geographic spread of this phenomenon, and the little attention which is paid to it in multiple social contexts (associational, political, academic, institutional etc). A disproportion which indicates the existence of a vast problematic for the social sciences.

More specifically, the relationships between these types of persecutions and trajectories of exile have scarcely been explored both by social actors and by researchers in social sciences. In the field of sociology of immigration, the bibliography on women refugees and on persecutions specific to women is very small. Anthropological and ethnological studies on the social and cultural status of women also lack conceptualisations of these persecutions linking them to trajectories of exile. It is noteworthy that ever in the corpus of “gender studies” there is little research examining persecutions specific to women in the context of exile, migration and international protection. The few studies published in this area are very recent and seem to indicate only a small stirring of interest in this area from the associational and scientific communities.

Moreover, although there is no legal reason for excluding these types of persecutions from the field of application of the Geneva Convention of 1951, it is still difficult to have them recognised as legitimate motives for exile and asylum. These persecutions and the women who suffer them seem, on the contrary, to be affected by a triple illegitimacy: that which is imposed on them by their societies of origin, that which comes from the resistance of the host society to refugees in general and to the recognition of these types of persecution in particular, and that interiorised by the victims themselves who are often afraid of expressing their real motives for fleeing and hide them behind other motives which they perceive as more legitimate or more easily expressed. This socially constructed triple illegitimacy suffices to maintain a wall of silence around this long-standing and current abuse of human rights.

In addition to the indignation which can legitimately be felt and expressed at the gravity of these forms of persecution and the silence which surrounds them, it is necessary to produce rigorous academic knowledge of these phenomena and to provide reliable intellectual bases for political actions which might follow. The object of this conference is to produce such knowledge with respect to methodologies suitable to the social sciences and humanities. Three areas of study will be privileged, remembering that within each it is necessary to interrogate the notion of “persecution” itself, and also the social construction of political and analytical categories relating to this notion. What is a “persecution” and how can such a notion be universalized? These will be the questions common to all of the contributions, which will need to distinguish “persecutions” from “discriminations”, “inequalities” and various other forms of “domination”....

I  ANTHROPOLOGIES OF PERSECUTIONS SPECIFIC TO WOMEN

In this domain, there are numerous studies coming from the social sciences and humanities, but these works have usually not been produced in relation to the problematic evoked above of exile and international protection of refugees. Thus is it necessary not only to produce new knowledge, but also to re-examine existing data in the light of these specific and current contexts.

Proposals for papers in this section might relate to the social foundations of persecution, the situation of the agent of the persecution or of the victim in relation to their environment. Of particular interest will be studies concerning the possible means for the victims to escape from persecution other than by submission or interiorisation of constraints. The question of the possibility of exile abroad will notably be examined but also means of local resistance.

Social sciences and humanities can all contribute to the understanding of the division between men and women which traverses human civilisations, but we are particularly interested here in understanding the current configurations of this divide, including historical analyses which help to illuminate the present situation. In this respect the analysis of cases of reduction or disappearance of certain types of persecution in some societies can facilitate the analysis of more contemporary processes. More generally, historical changes and continuities of the phenomenon are to be studied.

Contemporary comparisons should concern not only diversity in current societies – regional, national and local – but also differentiations which appear with regard to various social factors such as class, age, educational level, forms of urbanisation, as well as the economic, political, religious and cultural factors which have an impact on the persecutions specific to women. Case studies should be placed within a more global context which will aid comparison and scientific exchange.

The simple description of these forms of persecution often takes the form of a succession of hasty categorisations (such as that in the first paragraph of this call for papers) and thus resembles a disordered and incomplete inventory. In this respect, the establishment of some kind of typologies which are clearly linked to scientific problematics or paradigms (notably anthropological or sociological) appears necessary to the analysis of a phenomenon rendered complex by the diversity of the social configurations within which it exists.

Another privileged dimension of this conference will concern a global mapping of persecutions specific to women. In this perspective, any attempt at mapping by geographers, demographers or statisticians will require the input of the other social sciences with regard to the value and pertinence of the indicators chosen in the process of mapping. In order to map this particular social phenomenon it is necessary to understand both contemporary comparisons and historical evolutions.

II   SOCIAL MOBILISATIONS IN FAVOUR OF PERSECUTED WOMEN

At the crossroads between research relative to social movements on one hand and social relations of gender on the other, we will analyse national and international social mobilisations in favour of persecuted women, both in the countries of origin and the host countries of the victims.

We will be interested in different forms of social mobilisation whether they are contained within traditional community frameworks (family, village, clan, ethnic group ...) or within NGOs and associational movements of solidarity with the victims of persecutions specific to women. The social conditions of an eventual “agenda denial” (Cobb/Ross) will also be examined, as well as the resources mobilised in the symbolic construction of these victims. Papers might also consider the militant trajectories of individuals and collectives within the feminist movement in relation to the recognition and protection of victims of persecutions specific to women.

Studies of non-governmental or hybrid (public/private) campaigns of information, mobilisation and protest relative to persecutions specific to women will be welcome, as will studies of processes put in place to help and assist women who have been victims of these persecutions. Such studies should enable us to further the analysis of the functioning of NGOs in relation to these types of questions as well as to examine the factors favourable to and the obstacles to the emergence of the question of persecutions specific to women in the local, national and international arenas.

Finally, we will be particularly interested in the modes of international extension of movements of mobilisation against persecutions specific to women or in favour of the victims of these persecutions. Whether it is a question of the passage from local to national or transnational action, or of the observation of international campaigns and supranational solidarity movements in favour of women refugees, victims of these persecutions, the issue is to better discern the links between local support actions and the construction of global causes within the contemporary mutations of militancy.

III    PUBLIC ACTIONS OF PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

Under pressure from social movements and from political and cultural shifts, notably related to women’s rights on one hand and the defence of the right to asylum on the other, national and international policies on the prevention of persecutions specific to women have emerged during the past ten or twenty years.

These public actions have taken diverse forms such as public information campaigns, state education programmes on human rights, transformations in civil and penal law etc. These types of measures have appeared in some countries and are inexistent in others. In addition, the level of legal and administrative constraints linked to these policies is variable from one country to another. Over and above the analysis of the emergence of international directives in this domain, it is necessary to question the concrete conditions of their implementation and of the effectiveness of public policy at the national level. In each case, it is necessary to look beyond the rhetorical and diplomatic strategies in order to examine the real transformations that have taken place within any society, its state institutions and its traditional structures. It is particularly important to use comparative studies to understand the conditions which are favourable or unfavourable to a real efficacy of action in state policy on persecutions specific to women.

This knowledge of the state of public policies on prevention of persecution is linked, at least in part, to the protection which women asylum seekers may receive when they flee to a foreign country to escape these persecutions. The conditions under which asylum is granted under the Geneva Convention on Refugees (1951) must also be studied in a comparative context as the legal and administrative policies and procedures for the implementation of this convention vary widely from one country to another, notably regarding persecutions specific to women. In this respect the divergences in jurisprudence are particularly interesting, but also policies relating to the administration and policing of asylum, and the procedures and conditions for the reception and interviewing of women victims of persecution, including instances where the state has sub-contracted responsibilities in this area to private organisations whether commercial or associational.

 Organisers:
Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Jérôme Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Scientific Committee:
Gill Allwood (Nottingham Trent University), Didier Fassin (EHESS / Université Paris 13), Jane Freedman (Southampton University), Lilian Mathieu (CNRS), Nouria Ouali (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Jérôme Valluy (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Calendar:

Proposals to be submitted to the organisers by the 15th January 2006

Responses from the scientific committee by 15th February 2006

Full texts of papers to be sent in by 15th May 2006

Proposals:
Proposals in French or in English should be sent by 15th December 2005 to the two organisers: J.L.Freedman@soton.ac.uk  and valluy@univ-paris1.fr
Proposals to include a 300 word abstract and a CV with the author’s principal publications.

Papers:
The full text of the papers in French or in English should be sent by email to the two organisers J.L.Freedman@soton.ac.uk  and valluy@univ-paris1.fr by 15th May 2006.
Papers should be sent as an attachment in RTF and should be between 20,000 and 40,000 characters in length (including spaces).
The papers will be copied and distributed to all participants at the conference.
They may then be re-worked prior to the publication of the conference proceedings.

Financial Support:
The organisers will seek to contribute towards the costs of attendance of those who cannot be subsidised by their own institutions, in particular those working in countries where there is little financial support for research and also young researchers. However, we cannot promise any financial help. 

Place:
Université de Panthéon-Sorbonne,
12 Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, salle no. 1.