Gender violence as human rights violation

Poems on VAW by Stephanie Carter

this is alL part of his master plan,
to lOve you,
to hate you,
to coNvince you,
marry you.
he will suck away any oxygen that you breathe.
theres one way out,
but you must trust what you cant see or know,
for he controls your thouGhts,
before you think.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

A New approach: VAW as HR Violation
Early 21st century feminist succeeded in establishing the right to
protection from gender violence as a core dimension of womens
human rights
Forerunners were transnational movement in the early 1990s
feminist activists set up shelters, support groups for victims and
counseling centers
1979 a major UN convention on womens rights: Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
A New approach: VAW as HR Violation
1994 UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination
of Violence against Women.
It names gender based violence as violation of human rights
and as an instance of sex discrimination and inequality.
this is rooted in unequal power relations between men and
women
A New approach: VAW as HR Violation
4th World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995)
VAW as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or
is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats to such
acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in private or public.
Sec D, 113

Introduction

Domestic violence is just one of the many forms of violence

against women.

Examples: aborting of female fetuses, to intimate homicide,

girls and women can encounter numerous oppressions during
infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and as elders.
Cycle of violence
VAW more than physical, sexual, economic and emotional abuse;
Includes living a climate of fear, misery, loss, mistrust, humiliation and
despair.
Asian and Pacific Islander abused women - shadowed by the cultural
burdens of shame and devaluation.

VAW in relation to other issues e.g. race, ethnicity, age, sexual

orientation, gender identity, type of labor being performed,
level of education, class position, disability, or
immigration/refugee
status.
The Cycle of Violence
Cycle of Violence

Sexual Politics
The term "politics" shall refer to power-structured relationships,
arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another."
Patriarchal society

Sexual Politics

the word sexual will have connotations of anatomy and physiology.

"Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two
cultures and their life experiences are utterly different - and this is
crucial.

Forms of Violence against Women (Violent Cultural Practices)

Early and forced marriage (woman is too young to marry)
Female genital cutting (or female genital mutilation)
Female feticide (sex selection abortion)
Honor killings murders of women who are thought to have dishonored
the family
Culture-based VAWC - FGM
More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been
subjected to female genital mutilation across countries in Africa and
the Middle East where this specific form of violence against women is
concentrated.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/chapter6/chapter6.html

Child Brides
An eight-year-old child bride (Rawan) has died in Yemen of
internal bleeding sustained during her wedding night after
being forced to marry a man five times her age
There are currently some 57.5 million child brides across the
world, 40 per cent of which married in India.
Forty-six per cent of women in India were married before the
age of 18 (National Family Health Survey-3)
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415871/Yemeni-childbride-8-dies-internal-injuries-night-forced-marriage-groom40.html#ixzz42YfDJlXB
Early/Forced Marriage
Forms of Violence against Women (Violent Cultural Practices)
Widow immolation or burning (SATI); when a widow throws herself on
her husbands funeral pyre.
Foot-binding, a practice in China which has now been eliminated
The devadasi system (China, Nepal, Benin, Nigeria). Pledging
daughters to temples at an early age to be sex workers or
handmaidens of gods.

Enabling Laws on VAW

R.A. 9262 Anti-Violence Against Women and Children
R.A. 8353 Anti-Rape Law of 1997
RA 8305 Support for Sexually Abused
US 2006 Ban on FGC (for African diaspora in the US)

A New approach: VAW as HR Violation

2002 - Variety of practices in the family that are violent toward women
and harmful to womens health were given attention
Female genital mutilation
Honor killings
Pledging daughters to temples at an early age to be sex
workers
Caste-base discrimination and violence
Early and forced marriage
Restricting practices such as foot-binding and veiling

Call to Action
Demands for changes in cultural practices e.g. marriage, unequal legal,
educational, and social status.
Enabling laws for women
Push for international political pressure

Prepared by Dr. Lilith M. Usog

Source:
Merry, Sally Engle. Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective
UN Stats.org