Rights and Prejudice: Linguistic and Legal Implications of Gendered Discourses in Judicial Spaces

Human wellbeing and inclusive societies depend on citizens’ access to fundamental rights without discrimination of any kind. Yet, only manifest discrimination is usually detected and prohibited by law. More subtle forms of discrimination, which can derive from prejudice, stereotypes and bias (hereinafter, PSB) are still difficult to be identified and tackled effectively both in discourse and law. New methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches need to be explored to look at the actors at the core of the system of protection against discrimination: international human rights bodies, the EU and, as far as Italy is concerned, national courts. These actors are often overlooked in the legal and linguistic literature in the belief that they are immune to PSB. The GenDJus project aims at testing and challenging this assumption. Conceived as an interdisciplinary research project in the areas of Discourse and Law on Gender and Sexuality, it aims at nurturing the trust in inclusive societies and democracies by producing a strong social impact. By means of a corpus-assisted analysis of international and national judicial texts in Italian, English and Spanish, the project explores a specific area where these subtle forms of discrimination seem to be more persistent, i.e. sexual, reproductive and parental rights, and it does so from both a linguistic and a legal standpoint. An effective protection of individuals is also achieved through language: if words are unable to express the need for protection that underlies certain demands for justice, then there is a risk of not only violating human rights applicable to the concrete situation, but also of fueling obstacles to fundamental freedoms in the EU. This seems especially true in the area of sexual, reproductive and parental rights, which are particularly exposed to a variety of PSB that may affect both their direct enjoyment and their exercise through justice. Identifying such practices and understanding them – in order to eradicate them through language and law – can contribute to improving both the functioning of justice and the access to and enjoyment of relevant rights without discrimination, thus avoiding time-consuming and costly court proceedings. While advancing innovative methodologies to detect new forms of discrimination, the project identifies concrete ways to improve judicial discourse(s) and avoid the unconscious reiteration of negative attitudes against a specific gender and sexual minorities in the international/EU/Italian spheres. Framed within the UN Sustainable Development Goal no. 5, the project will work with national and international partners to address the strategic emerging topic no. 5 (Cluster 2) of this Call while contributing to the implementation of the EU National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) (e.g. “missione 5: Inclusione e coesione”; “investimento 3.1”, https://www.governo.it/sites/governo.it/files/PNRR.pdf).

Human wellbeing and inclusive societies depend on citizens’ access to fundamental rights without discrimination of any kind. Yet, only manifest discrimination is usually detected and prohibited by law. More subtle forms of discrimination, which can derive from prejudice, stereotypes and bias (hereinafter, PSB) are still difficult to be identified and tackled effectively both in discourse and law. New methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches need to be explored to look at the actors at the core of the system of protection against discrimination: international human rights bodies, the EU and, as far as Italy is concerned, national courts. These actors are often overlooked in the legal and linguistic literature in the belief that they are immune to PSB. The GenDJus project aims at testing and challenging this assumption. Conceived as an interdisciplinary research project in the areas of Discourse and Law on Gender and Sexuality, it aims at nurturing the trust in inclusive societies and democracies by producing a strong social impact. By means of a corpus-assisted analysis of international and national judicial texts in Italian, English and Spanish, the project explores a specific area where these subtle forms of discrimination seem to be more persistent, i.e. sexual, reproductive and parental rights, and it does so from both a linguistic and a legal standpoint. An effective protection of individuals is also achieved through language: if words are unable to express the need for protection that underlies certain demands for justice, then there is a risk of not only violating human rights applicable to the concrete situation, but also of fueling obstacles to fundamental freedoms in the EU. This seems especially true in the area of sexual, reproductive and parental rights, which are particularly exposed to a variety of PSB that may affect both their direct enjoyment and their exercise through justice. Identifying such practices and understanding them – in order to eradicate them through language and law – can contribute to improving both the functioning of justice and the access to and enjoyment of relevant rights without discrimination, thus avoiding time-consuming and costly court proceedings. While advancing innovative methodologies to detect new forms of discrimination, the project identifies concrete ways to improve judicial discourse(s) and avoid the unconscious reiteration of negative attitudes against a specific gender and sexual minorities in the international/EU/Italian spheres. Framed within the UN Sustainable Development Goal no. 5, the project will work with national and international partners to address the strategic emerging topic no. 5 (Cluster 2) of this Call while contributing to the implementation of the EU National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) (e.g. “missione 5: Inclusione e coesione”; “investimento 3.1”, https://www.governo.it/sites/governo.it/files/PNRR.pdf).