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There is no country in
the world where women and men have equal status and opportunities.
According to the various United Nations reports on human development,
women all over the world suffer, to different degrees, discrimination
just because they are women. Violence against women is a world-wide
phenomenon resulting from profound inequality and is one of its
most serious manifestations.
The 1993 UN World Conference
on Human Rights established that violence against women endangers
the fundamental rights, individual freedom and psychological and
physical integrity of women. Articles 1 and 2 of the UN Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence Against Women specify that ‘violence
against women means 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 of such acts, coercion
or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public
or in private life’.
SIW commends the World
Health Organisation for having drawn up the World Report on Violence
and Health (October 2002): this first comprehensive review of the
problem of violence presents information on violence as a global
public health problem. By publishing this report WHO also supports
and underpins the work and findings of the Special Rapporteur on
Violence against Women.
Inequality between men
and women is the cause of violence against women, and it is social
structures themselves which legitimise these acts, whether they
take place within the family or the community. In saying that violence
against women is a consequence of this social model, we are also
saying that an end to this violence will only be possible when this
model changes, when relationships of domination no longer exist
and equality between men and women is secured. Therefore national
governments must accept responsibility for this model and for changing
it. They must intervene by all means at their disposal to prevent
violence and protect its victims.
In some parts of the
world women are cruelly treated and even executed for allegedly
conducting extra-marital relationships or for giving birth to illegitimate
children – often as the result of rape or gang rape. In many
countries, countless numbers of women are targeted as victims of
torture and murder, which SIW considers blatant cases of femicide.
Violence against women,
like inequality between men and women, takes many forms. One of
these is violence perpetrated within the family. According to the
World Health Organisation, almost half of women who are murdered
are killed by their current or former husbands or partners, a figure
that rises to 70 per cent in some countries. Furthermore, one in
every four women is a victim of sexual abuse by her partner at some
time in her life.
We stress that, beyond
the personal responsibility of the perpetrators of these acts, governments
also hold some responsibility since they have failed to take due
care in protecting these women. This is clearly recognised in the
UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Governments
should therefore promote comprehensive legislation which tackles
the phenomenon in all its complexity.
Being conscious that
violence against women takes different forms, many of which directly
affect young girls, we wish to denounce the grave situation of those
millions of girls who every year suffer genital mutilation. We also
denounce the gender-based selection of foetuses, forced abortions
and the infanticide of baby girls.
In the United Nations
Population Fund report of September 2000 it is stated that four
million women and girls are bought and sold every year for one of
three purposes: prostitution, slavery or forced marriage, and that
every year two million girls are brought into the sex trade.
Trafficking in women
and girls is a violation of human rights and directly related to
socio-economic causes and gender inequality, to restrictive immigration
policies and to poverty. In order to combat it, therefore, we must
adopt a multidisciplinary approach, with the participation of all
those involved and cooperation at national and international level
and between the countries of origin, transit and destination.
Violence against women
implies, inevitably, the subordination of women. This violence directed
against women just because they are women is born of social structures
and reproduced in all areas of society, from the family itself to
institutional practices. Eradicating this violence must be a major
goal of international organisations and national governments in
so far as it is an issue of human rights.
Socialist International
Women therefore:
calls for national
governments to ratify all instruments for the protection and promotion
of women’s rights, in particular the Rome Statute and the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women and, where necessary, to withdraw reservations they have entered
and to sign and/or ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention;
calls for all
national governments to introduce comprehensive legislation against
violence against women. Governments must tackle all aspects of the
problem, from prevention to education, social awareness, the improvement
of political and legal systems, the effective protection of victims
and reparation and comprehensive compensation for harm. Finally
legislation must be introduced to enable the banning of perpetrators
of domestic violence from their homes;
calls for all
national governments to introduce comprehensive legislation to make
rape - including rape committed by law enforcement personnel - a
criminal offence where it is still considered a misdemeanour, and
to make systematic rape a war crime and ensure that the perpetrators
are prosecuted by the International Criminal Court established by
the UN;
stresses the
need for national governments to allocate the necessary resources
to combating violence against women in all its aspects and establishing
comprehensive programmes for the care and protection of victims.
Efforts and progress made in this context should be made a criterion
for the evaluation, by both donors and recipients of funds, of development
cooperation projects and programmes;
notes the need
for collaboration with civil society and women’s organisations
which have expertise in this matter and urges governments
to establish close cooperation with these bodies, based on autonomy,
recognition and mutual respect;
calls for the
eradication of trafficking in women and girls to be a major aim
of government policy and for the struggle against it to be a comprehensive
one, involving the active pursuit of organised crime, raising social
awareness, caring for and supporting victims, as well as providing
witness protection programmes for women giving evidence in court
against traffickers;
calls on the
Secretary General of the UN to make the prevention of large-scale
violence against women and girls and the violation of their rights
a priority in the peace and humanitarian interventions of the United
Nations, to make available the resources to prevent such violations
in all international, regional and local conflicts, and to consider
the drafting and adoption of a Convention on the Elimination of
Violence against Women;
declares that
violence against women must constitute a reason for granting asylum;
notes the urgent
need for national governments to pass and enforce laws against female
genital mutilation, the gender-based selection of foetuses, forced
abortions and the infanticide of baby girls, as well as crimes which
claim their justification in honour, tradition and religious beliefs.
Finally, Socialist International
Women wishes to state the overwhelming need to work for the advancement
of women, on the grounds that violence against women can only be
eradicated by securing equality between men and women, since its
origins lie precisely in inequality, dependence and discrimination.
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