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
