A CRITICAL STUDY ON HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO GENDER JUSTICE

The pursuit of gender justice is fundamentally a human rights concern because equality, dignity, liberty, participation and freedom from discrimination belong to every person. A human rights approach does not treat gender justice merely as a question of welfare, protection or social policy; it treats women and persons of diverse gender identities as rights-holders and States and institutions as duty-bearers. This approach requires attention not only to formal equality before law but also to substantive equality, access to justice, effective remedies and the removal of structural barriers that prevent individuals from enjoying rights on an equal basis. The international human rights framework provides a strong foundation for gender justice. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms equality in dignity and rights and prohibits discrimination, while the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) requires States to pursue the elimination of discrimination against women and to ensure practical realization of equality. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action further placed women's human rights and gender equality at the centre of global policy. Contemporary human-rights approaches increasingly emphasize that justice requires transformation of discriminatory institutions, social norms and practices rather than merely extending identical legal rules to everyone. In India, the Constitution provides the principal normative foundation through the guarantees of equality, non-discrimination, life and personal liberty, freedom and constitutional remedies. Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21, read with the Directive Principles and fundamental duties, provide a framework for advancing gender equality. Judicial decisions have developed these guarantees in areas including sexual harassment, reproductive autonomy, workplace equality, privacy, dignity, marriage, property and protection against gender stereotypes. Statutory measures such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, and laws addressing trafficking, child marriage and other forms of gender-based harm supplement the constitutional framework. The present study critically examines whether the human rights approach is capable of producing substantive gender justice in India. It evaluates the principles of dignity, equality, non-discrimination, autonomy, participation, accountability and access to effective remedies. It also examines the gap between rights formally guaranteed and rights actually enjoyed, with particular attention to structural discrimination, violence, economic inequality, political under-representation, digital harms and intersectional disadvantage. The study argues that gender justice requires a shift from a purely protective model towards a rights-based, survivor-centred and transformative model in which institutions are accountable for preventing discrimination and ensuring meaningful access to justice.