GUARDIANS IN LAW: EVALUATING GLOBAL NORMATIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE SAFETY AND RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

This article undertakes a comprehensive examination of the international legal architecture that has developed to protect women and children from violence, discrimination, and exploitation. Drawing on a comparative analysis of universal and regional treaty regimes, the article traces the evolution of normative standards from the foundational Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) through to contemporaneous regional instruments such as the Istanbul Convention (2011) and the Maputo Protocol (2003). The article engages critically with three interrelated concerns: the structural limitations of treaty-based enforcement mechanisms; the challenge of translating international obligations into genuine domestic protection; and the persistent gap between formal legal commitments and lived realities, particularly in relation to gender-based violence, child marriage, and trafficking. Landmark jurisprudence from the Inter-American Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and UN treaty body general recommendations is examined to illustrate how adjudicative bodies have progressively strengthened state accountability. It concludes that while the international normative framework is broadly comprehensive, substantive protection demands greater coherence between legal regimes, genuine political will from states, and renewed attention to intersecting vulnerabilities.