Gender Stereotyping in International Human Rights Judicial Discourse

The talk explores the role and impact of prejudices, stereotypes and biases (PSB) in the discourse of international human rights courts. Taking the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as an example, it illustrates how PSB are conceptualised by the Court and which PSB it has identified when general assumptions raised by States parties to justify restrictions or denial of rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights were successfully challenged. The talk focuses on PSB involving social groups who share a common gender and/or sexual orientation in the area of sexual, parental and reproductive rights. These cases illustrate the ECtHR’s possibly ambiguous approach and the continuing challenge of contesting, also through language, the original and heteronormative interpretation of the ECHR.

About the speaker

Carmelo Danisi is Associate Professor of Public International Law at Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, after having been a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex (UK). His main areas of research are human rights, non-discrimination and refugee law. His publications include Queering Asylum in Europe (Springer, 2021), produced within an ERC Starting Grant project. He has carried out a number of projects, including GenDJuS – Rights and Prejudice: Linguistic and Legal Implications of Gendered Discourses in Judicial Spaces (Co-PI, 2023–2026). He is also Programme Director of the joint Bachelor of European Studies (BAES) for the University of Bologna.

Gender Lecture Series 2026-2027
This event is part of the Gender Lecture Series 2026–2027, Gendered Precarities, organised by the Gender Team of the World Trade Institute – Know the GAP!, led by Prof. Elisa Fornalé, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of the University of Bern. Participation is open to the public and free of charge.

For further information: Dr Simone Ferrari, simone.ferrari@unibe.ch.