http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
Violence
against Women
"Violence
against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. It
knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it
continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality,
development, and peace."
Kofi
Annan,
United Nations Secretary-General
Violence against women takes
various forms. It includes: domestic violence, rape, trafficking in
women and girls, forced prostitution, and violence in armed conflict,
such as murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.
It also includes honour killings, dowry-related violence, female
infanticide and prenatal sex selection in favour of male babies,
female genital mutilation, and other harmful practices and traditions.
The
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1993, testifies to the international
recognition and understanding that violence against women is a violation
of human rights and a form of discrimination against women.
The Platform
for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women held in
Beijing in 1995, identified violence against women as one of the 12
critical areas of concern requiring special attention of governments,
the international community and civil society.
During its forty-second session in 1998, the United Nations Commission
on the Status of Women proposed further action and initiatives to be
taken by member states and the international community to end violence
against women, including the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in
all relevant policies and programmes. Among the agreed conclusions of
the session were measures to support the work of non-governmental
organizations, to combat all forms of trafficking in women and girls, to
promote and protect the rights of migrant workers, especially women and
children, and to encourage coordinated research on violence against
women.
Response by the
International Community
Since the Beijing Conference five years ago, important steps have been
taken at the international level towards eliminating violence against
women:
- An Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly
on 6 October 1999, gives women the right to seek redress for
violations of their human rights, including gender-based violence.
- Model Strategies and
Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in
the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice were adopted by
the General Assembly in 1997.
- The Statute of the
International Criminal Court, adopted in June 1998, specifically
addresses gender-based crimes, as do the Criminal Tribunals for
the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
- A draft protocol to a
new treaty — the proposed United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime — focuses on trafficking in human
beings, especially women and children.
Domestic Violence
Domestic
violence, especially wife battering, is perhaps the most widespread form
of violence against women. In countries where reliable, large-scale
studies on gender violence are available, more than 20 per cent of women
are reported to have been abused by the men with whom they live.
Rape and
domestic violence lead to the loss of more healthy years of life, among
women ages 15 to 44, than do breast cancer, cervical cancer, obstructed
labour, war or motor vehicle accidents, according to the 1993 World
Development Report of the World Bank.
In response to
the Beijing Platform for Action, UN member states and the international
community have sought ways to address domestic violence more
effectively:
- Many states have
adopted legislation recognizing that violence by a husband should
be treated in the same way as violence by a stranger. In Sweden,
such acts are defined as gross violations of a woman's integrity
and attract more severe punishment than in cases of the same acts
directed against strangers.
- Austria, Belarus,
Bhutan, Hungary, Mexico, Portugal and the Seychelles have, for the
first time, criminalized sexual violence against women by their
husbands.
- In Sri Lanka, the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has worked in close
collaboration with authorities and non-governmental organizations
to prevent domestic violence through public education using the
media and workshops intended to sensitize the judiciary and law
enforcement officers.
- Belarus, Poland,
Russia and Zimbabwe are among the states that have sought to
introduce services, such as shelters, refuges and "hot
lines", to support victims of violence.
- States including
Algeria and Brunei Darussalam have introduced domestic violence
units within their police departments.
- Iceland has introduced
a two-year experimental project aimed at violent men entitled
"Men of Responsibility". The project is monitored
on a day-to-day basis by the Icelandic Red Cross and will be
evaluated on its completion.
Trafficking
Trafficking in
women and children, most often for commercial sexual exploitation, is
estimated to generate up to $8 billion each year, according to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM). The huge profits reaped
by the perpetrators, increasingly linked to organized crime, have turned
this trade into a rapidly growing global menace.
Poor women and
girls are among the key target groups of traffickers, because of their
marginalization and limited economic resources. Some are willing
participants because of the promise of higher incomes and an escape from
poverty. Others are coerced, many into prostitution against their will.
To combat this:
- The Philippines has
launched an initiative, in cooperation with civil society and
other Governments, which involves training and the development of
procedures for front-line agencies combating trafficking in women
and children.
- As part of its
investigation of organized crime, the Lithuanian Police
established a Division to Combat Trafficking within the Police
Department.
- China has introduced
amendments to its criminal code with regard to the abduction of
women and children and forced prostitution.
- In border areas,
Myanmar has created eight vocational centres for women and girls
in order to stop trafficking.
- The Netherlands has
appointed a national rapporteur to provide a comprehensive
overview of data on trafficking in women and on methods of
prevention.
- Albania and the
Russian Federation have launched education campaigns directed at
potential victims.
Female Genital Mutilation
According to
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), it is estimated that between
85 to 114 million women and girls, most of whom live in Africa, the
Middle East and Asia, have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).
The practice
of FGM, or "female circumcision", refers to the removal of all
or part of the clitoris and other genitalia. The extreme form,
infibulation, involves the removal of the clitoris and both labia and
the sewing together of the vulva, leaving only a small opening to allow
the passage of urine and the menstrual flow.
This
mutilation of girls has significant short-term and long-term
consequences. It is extremely painful and may cause infections and death
as well as difficulties with childbirth and an increased susceptibility
to HIV/AIDS. This practice reflects a prevailing social consensus that
the virginity of girls and women must be preserved until marriage, and
that their sexuality must be controlled. Men in these cultures
often will not marry uncircumcised girls or women whom they view as
"unclean" and "sexually permissive".
Since the
Beijing Conference, actions against FGM include:
- As a part of an
international advocacy campaign, UNFPA appointed Waris Dirie, an
activist and fashion supermodel, as a Special Ambassador for the
Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, in September 1997.
- The World Health
Organization (WHO) has developed training materials and conducted
workshops to raise awareness among nurses and midwives in the
African and Eastern Mediterranean region in an attempt to solicit
their active involvement as advocates against FGM.
- Tanzania is one of ten
countries where female genital mutilation is practiced widely to
have enacted laws to criminalize the practice. Penalties
include fines and imprisonment. The other nine countries are:
Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea,
Senegal, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Egypt.
- Countries such as
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United
States, which all have immigrant populations that practice this
ritual, have passed similar statutes to seek to eliminate it.
- Nigeria has set up a
Vesico-Vaginal Fistula theatre and rehabilitation centres to
provide care for under-aged married women affected by female
genital mutilation.
This
fact sheet is based on "Review and Appraisal of the Implementation
of the Beijing Platform for Action: Report of the
Secretary-General" (E/CN.6/2000/PC/2).
Published
by the United Nations Department of Public Information
DPI/2035/D—May 2000
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