The authors define "violence" as "any act that is informed by the intention to cause harm or to destroy the physical or emotional integrity and agency of people and that then produces that harm." Violence is often pervasive, subtle, and systemic in many traditional and modern societies. Violence is often discriminatory because it disproportionately affects women. Some forms of violence are based in well-established practices, such as sexual violence, forced pregnancy, and gender selective abortions. Culturally embedded, institutionalized, and pervasive forms of violence have destructive effects on the lives of many women and girls. In the international arena, human rights declarations and law reflect admirable aspirations and have achieved considerable successes in protecting women from violence and the violation of their basic rights. In the modern era, the Declaration of Human Rights promulgated by the United Nations in 1948 made an important procedural innovation in making the claim that all people, by virtue of their humanity, have legitimate and equal claims to cultural, social, political, and civil rights, including protection from unlawful violence. The United Nations subsequently enacted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); and in 1980 it passed the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The problem with the international framework of human rights, however, is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish appropriate sanctions and coercive powers that can compel sovereign states to implement their international obligations. Also, a number of practical and discursive problems weaken the ability of admirable rights statements to work effectively in women's interests. One problem is the implicit distinction in most Anglo-American legal and political systems between a public domain in which civic rights are defined and protected and a private realm in which rights are neither protected nor recognized. A second problem is that of specifying when a particular set of practices or behaviors constitutes an offense against a universal right; and a third problem is that of determining when it is appropriate to exempt a local or specific practice from the obligations of universal rights and/or international law. 23 references and 3 discussion questions