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Publication Rethinking the Interplay of Feminism and Secularism in a Neo-Secular Age(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011-03-16) Reilly, NiamhThe need to re-examine established ways of thinking about secularism and its relationship to feminism has arisen in the context of the confluence of a number of developments including: the increasing dominance of the 'clash of civilizations' thesis; the expansion of postmodern critiques of Enlightenment rationality to encompass questions of religion; and sustained critiques of the 'secularization thesis'. Conflicts between the claims of women's equality and the claims of religion are well-documented vis-à-vis all major religions and across all regions. The ongoing moral panic about the presence of Islam in Europe, marked by a preoccupation with policing Muslim women's dress, reminds us of the centrality of women and gender power relations in the interrelation of religion, culture and the state. Added to postmodern and other critiques of the secular-religious binary, most sociological research now contradicts the equation of modernization with secularization. This article focuses on the challenges that these developments pose to politically-oriented feminist thinking and practice. It argues that non-oppressive feminist responses require a new critical engagement with secularism as a normative principle in democratic, multicultural societies. To inform this process, the author maps and links discussions across different fields of feminist scholarship, in the sociology of religion and in political theory. She organizes the main philosophical traditions and fault lines that form the intellectual terrain at the intersection of feminism, religion and politics in two broad groups: feminist critiques of the Enlightenment critique of religion; and feminist scholarship at the critical edges of the Enlightenment tradition. The author argues that notwithstanding the fragmented nature of feminist debates in this area, common ground is emerging across different politically oriented approaches: all emphasize 'democracy' and the values that underpin it as the larger discursive frame in which the principle of secularism can be redefined with emancipatory intent in a neo-secular age.Publication 'The UN "Beijing Platform for Action" 1995-2005: Local Global Political Spaces, NGO Advocacy, and Governmental Responses in the Republic of Ireland',(Routledge, 2005) Reilly, NiamhIntroduction September 2005 marks the tenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) and the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) by 189 governments, including Ireland. From February 28th to March 11th, 2005, Irish governmental and non-governmental organisation (NGO) delegations attended a meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, which aimed to carry out a 'review and appraisal' of implementation of the BPFA. At this timely juncture, this report reviews the domestic impact in the Republic of Ireland -- with a focus on NGO activism and governmental responses -- of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) and subsequent BPFA implementation monitoring processes. I start with a brief overview of the 'Beijing to Beijing-Plus-Ten' path in global perspective. I then highlight key developments in NGO and governmental engagement with the BPFA and its review processes in Ireland. In doing so, I consider the overall impact of the BPFA, the relative roles of the state and NGO actors around its implementation at the local/national level and some implications for the women¿s movements in Ireland. Finally, I note some specific concerns and challenges that arise in understanding the nature of emerging local/global political spaces.Publication Linking Local and Global Feminist Advocacy: Framing Women's Rights as Human Rights in the Republic of Ireland(Elsevier, 2007) Reilly, NiamhThis article argues that global-level feminist advocacy in the 1990s has had a significant impact within feminist advocacy in the Republic of Ireland. An important manifestation of this is the growing engagement of groups in Ireland with women's human rights discourses in framing feminist claims in the domestic arena and the emergence of related transnational solidarity links. This article identifies six approaches to women's human rights advocacy in Ireland: human rights facilitating collective action, local-global solidarity and transformation; human rights as modes of (quasi) legal accountability; human rights as a framework for social, economic and gender justice; women's political participation as a human rights issue; human rights as a challenge to gendered racism; and women's bodily integrity as a human rights issue. The author argues that these developments reflect a new, outwardly-oriented departure within the Irish women's movement. In addition to interviews with advocates and assessments of related activities, the article is informed by the author's involvement in women's human rights projects in Ireland and internationally.Publication The Struggle for Cultural Recognition and Women's Human Rights: Lessons from the Experience of Irish Traveller Women(Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, 2005) Reilly, NiamhThe 1990s global campaign for women's human rights is most associated with achieving international recognition of violence against women as a human rights issue. However, the campaign has mostly side-stepped the issue of cultural rights, except to sound a note of caution that cultural rights are often invoked at the expense of women's human rights. This false dichotomy obscures the complex ways in which women's human rights claims and cultural rights claims are often interrelated, especially in advocacy efforts to secure the human rights of marginalized minorities. One example of this interrelation is found in the Irish Travellers movement where cultural rights and women's rights are treated as inseparable aspects of the same struggle.Publication Cosmopolitan Feminism and Human Rights(Hypatia, 2009) Reilly, NiamhReilly offers an account of cosmopolitan feminism as emancipatory political practice in an age of globalization. This entails a critical engagement with international human rights law; a global feminist consciousness that contests patriarchal, capitalist, and racist power dynamics in a context of neoliberal globalization; cross-boundaries dialogue that recognizes the intersectionality of forms of oppression; collaborative transnational strategizing on concrete issues; and the utilization of global forums as sites of cosmopolitan solidarity and citizen action.Publication Seeking Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Transitions: Towards a Transformative Women's Human Rights Approach(Cambridge University Press, 2007) Reilly, NiamhThis article critically examines the prospects for achieving a comprehensive vision of gender justice in post-conflict transitional contexts. It is divided into three main sections. The first reviews the gendered limits of mainstream approaches to transitional justice and highlights gender biases in related dominant discourses, which shape how conflict, and transitions from conflict, are understood and enacted to the detriment of women. The second focuses on the benefits and limitations of engendering wartime criminal justice with particular reference to the International Criminal Court. The third considers the prospects for a more comprehensive approach to gender justice that shifts the emphasis from 'women as victims' of conflict to women as agents of transformation, through an examination of the significance of Security Council Resolution 1325. Ultimately, the author argues that achieving gender justice in transitions is inextricably tied to wider bottom-up efforts by women's movements to realise a comprehensive vision of women's human rights within a framework of critically-interpreted, universal, indivisible human rights.