A Vanishing Act WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS IN AID AND DEVELOPMENT

Tracing the nexus of human rights for women and development, this article looks at women's human rights in Afghan societies, where development and aid run parallel to, if not conditional on, an imposed rights discourse. The author provides examples of how such dictated discourse becomes the subject of negotiation in the field, to the extent that women's human rights may ultimately vanish from the table. The article also considers various solutions to the challenge of including women's human rights in aid and development work in a meaningful and significant manner. While aware of the understandable criticisms levelled at rights-based approaches to development, the author advocates placing women's human rights at the heart of aid and development endeavours. The article thus argues for a stronger and more uncompromising effort to close the glaring gap between policy and practice with regard to women's human rights.