WORLD: INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Today is Sunday November 25, 2012, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. For Roman Catholic it is the feast of Christ the King. The Day for the Elimination of violence against women has been officially recognised by the United Nations since 1999. Attached images demonstrate horrible faces of some of the assaulted women around the world.

Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

On 20 December 1993 the General Assembly, by resolution 48/104, adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. NGOs, faith groups and women’s groups are especially active in the Day, pressing government to take concrete action.

The Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki Moon in his statement describes how millions of women and girls around the world are assaulted, beaten, raped, mutilated or even murdered in what constitutes appalling violations of their human rights.

From battlefield to home, on the streets, at school, in the workplace or in their community, up to 70 per cent of women experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. As many as a quarter of all pregnant women are affected. All too often, perpetrators go unpunished. Women and girls are afraid to speak out because of a culture of impunity.

Some historians believe that the history of violence against women is tied to the history of women being viewed as property and a gender role assigned to be subservient to men and also other women.

Widows in particular are often confront a denial of inheritance and land rights, degrading and life-threatening mourning and burial rites and other forms of widow abuse. Some are evicted from their homes and physically abused – some even killed – even by members of their own family.

This happens because in many countries, a woman’s social status is inextricably linked to her husband’s, so that when her husband dies, a woman no longer has a place in society. To regain social status, widows are expected to marry one of their husband’s male relatives, sometimes unwillingly. That is why for many, the loss of a husband is only the first trauma in a long-term ordeal.

Yet still, in many countries, widowhood is stigmatized and seen as a source of shame. Widows are thought to be cursed in some cultures and are even associated with witchcraft. Such misconceptions can lead to widows being ostracized.

As a result children of widows are often affected, both emotionally and economically. Widowed mothers, now supporting their families alone, are forced to withdraw children from school and to rely on their labour.

Moreover, the daughters of widows may suffer multiple deprivations, increasing their vulnerability to abuse. Such cruelties are often seen as justified in terms of cultural or religious practice. It explains why even in countries where legal protection is more inclusive, widows suffer social marginalization.

In some communities widows are forced to be sexually cleansed, generally involving a widow having sexual relations either with a designated village cleanser or with a relative of her late husband.

It has traditionally been a way to break with the past and move forward—as well as an attempt to establish a family’s ownership of the husband’s property, including his wife. It does not matter whether the husband died of Aids or not.

In some communities where a group of widows are challenging the practice with help from church institutions, especially in Western Kenya, even though they have refused to sleep with a cleanser, most of these women are traumatized.

Laws are not enough to change these conditions. India, for example, has a law dating back to 1956 that allows some women to inherit property from their fathers. Despite the law, women rarely inherit and are often unaware of their rights.

Many widows in traditional societies have no rights, or very limited rights, to inheritance or land ownership under customary and religious law. Without inheritance rights, including a lack of rights to the property of their birth family, widows find themselves financially insecure and totally dependent on the charity of their husbands’ relatives.

Poor nutrition, inadequate shelter and vulnerability to violence, combined with a lack of access to health care, can impact the physical and mental well-being of widows. The sexual and reproductive health needs of widows may go unaddressed, including the fact that widows are often the victims of rape.

Due to taboo and stigma associated with sexual violence, many cases of sexual abuse are not reported. Experiences of sexual and gender based violence like this were suffered on a massive extent in 2008 when Kenya faced the worst political crises since independence.

Yet still, domestic violence is often treated as a private matter, exempt from norms and laws that apply to stranger violence. Victims face stigma not associated with other crimes. Impunity emboldens perpetrators.

In conservative communities, Muslim women are often considered inferior to their husbands, possibly controlled or oppressed, and lacking opportunities that would give them their own personal sense of identity, all of which adds to the complicated nature of unearthing and obtaining remedies for domestic violence.

Many Muslim women are required to wear a veil, hijab or burga. In Iran a woman who is unveiled in public could be fined or put in jail. This is because domestic violence is considered to be a problem in Muslim-majority cultures.

Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.

According to 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Article 10 provides that States must take measures to ensure women’s equal rights with men to education.

Among the provisions of Article 12 is the requirement to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health-care services, including those related to family planning. Article 16 requires States Parties to eliminate discrimination against women in the context of marriage and family relations.

The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, Declaration and Programme of Action (‘Vienna Declaration’), Article 41 recognizes the importance of women’s right to enjoy the highest standard of physical and mental health throughout their life span. Throughout the document there are significant statements relating to women’s human rights and violence against women.

Still, 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Article 4 calls on States to condemn violence against women and not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. States should pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against women.

1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Programme of Action, Article C, Chapter 7 addresses sexually transmitted diseases and the prevention of HIV from the perspective of women’s vulnerability to the epidemic, setting out key recommendations for addressing HIV through reproductive health services.

1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (‘Beijing’), Declaration and Platform for Action, Strategic Objective C.3 is to “Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health issues”.

2000 Millennium Declaration and Development Goals-Goal 3 calls on nations to “Promote gender equality and empower women” and Goal 6 is to “Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”.

2001 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS, Declaration of Commitment- Article 14 of the Declaration stresses “that gender equality and the empowerment of women are fundamental elements in the reduction of the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV/AIDS”.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com

Peaceful world is the greatest heritage That this generation can give to the generations To come- All of us have a role.

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d/l file with images for this article

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