Rights-defined Identity: Assignment 09
Sally Engle Merry’s essay, “Rights Talk and the Experience of Law: Implementing Women’s Human Rights to Protection from Violence,” attempts to examine the ways in which people who did not necessarily previously see themselves as entitled to rights (civil, human, or any other) come to see themselves as such. To make the argument, Merry employs her research with battered women (and abusers) in Hilo, Hawai’i in the 90s and concludes that this transition occurs within and is based upon an individual’s interaction with the legal system – or, some might say, the state.
Merry’s interviews seem to show that a battered woman’s experiences, from the time she calls for legal intervention to put a stop to the abuse to her interactions with court officials and then long-term services to prevent further abuse, are what begin to shape her (usually) new notion that she should have autonomy (bodily and otherwise) and is entitled to a set of rights to protect and preserve that autonomy. Many of the women interviewed experienced police officers displaying more sympathy towards the abusers than towards them. Some of them even described the police as “cold” and entirely unsympathetic to their horrible ordeals. This experience can lead to what she discusses in the introduction of her essay – many women dropping their initial complaints and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement.
Centrally, what she seems to be putting forward, however, is that positive interactions with the court system can help women to develop a strong sense of their rights. The ideal conditions, one imagines, begin with sympathetic police officers who recognize the dangers that women in abusive relationships face and immediately implement ways to protect the woman and keep her separated from her abuser. Then, a sympathetic Judge who understands the power dynamic and the influence that he or she can play within it to get the abuser to stop his behavior (in at least one of the interviews, a woman described being quite satisfied with a Judge’s lecture to her abuser, but less impressed by the police’s actions or his experience in the jail system). Finally, and what seems to be a crucial component, is the long-term follow up preventative measures of ATV classes that both partners attend.
So, when all the components seem to come into place, a battered woman’s identity can shift from seeing themselves as someone who must tolerate abuse to someone who has rights AND can implement those rights. But, evidence based on Merry’s interviews shows that these experiences can vary quite a bit and, thus, if a woman’s rights are not taken seriously by the state (i.e. the legal system), then there is no guarantee, really, of a woman understanding her identity as entitled to rights.
