Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation, and it is perhaps the most pervasive. 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.
WOMANKIND Worldwide is working to end the global threat of violence against women.
Violence against women is a direct consequence of the inequalities between women and men. It denies women their most basic human rights, such as the right to health, and undermines the social and economic development of communities and whole countries.
Our second strategic aim is to ‘reduce violence against women,’ by:
- providing direct support to women and girls affected by violence
- supporting education and awareness-raising activities
- informing and influencing relevant laws, policies and practices
What is violence against women?
In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture.
Poverty, marginalisation and certain aspects of women’s identity, such as their race or ethnicity, can also leave some women more vulnerable to violence. While men also experience violence, women’s lower social status puts them at particular risk and the number of cases of violence against women continues to grow at an alarming rate.
The 1992 UN Declaration on Violence Against Women, the first international human rights instrument to address the issue, contains this definition:
‘The term "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 private life’.
Some women experience domestic violence in the family at the hands of an abusive partner or relative. Others face sexual harassment in the workplace. In some countries, women are subjected to harmful traditional practices which can leave them scarred or severely traumatised, or may be forced to marry at an early age, increasing their vulnerability to abuse. Women may also be forced into prostitution by traffickers and, in times of conflict, it is women who are most likely to be the target of sexual violence, especially rape. And abuse is not just physical, but may also be emotional, sexual or psychological.
What is the effect of violence against women?
WOMANKIND believes that violence against women is an abuse of their fundamental human rights, including their rights to health and freedom from torture.
Aside from the physical, emotional and mental toll on women, violence prevents women from participating fully in society. Violence limits women’s access to resources, such as land, water and food and their ability to participate in activities such as work, education, travel and community meetings.
Violence against women also carries economic costs for both the individual and society. While the cost implications are difficult to assess, some of the costs include missed work, health care for survivors, emergency shelters and legal procedures to bring perpetrators to justice. For these reasons, violence against women constitutes a major obstacle to development, peace and security.
What causes violence against women?
WOMANKIND believes that discrimination and unequal power relations lie at the heart of women’s greater vulnerability to violence and that addressing the inequality that is deeply entrenched in all societies must be central to our responses to the issue.
Throughout history, violence has been used as a way of controlling women, both within the family and the wider society, and reinforcing their subordinate position to men. There are a number of cultural, social and political factors which perpetuate and exacerbate the problem. Factors such as cultural norms, military tactics, negative media images, social pressures on men to express their ‘masculinity’, inadequate laws to prohibit violence against women, government complacency and the absence of educational programmes to address the causes and consequences of violence.
Equally, the issue of violence against women cannot be separated from other important issues affecting women, such as HIV/AIDS. For example, women who are raped in South Africa are being killed when they disclose their HIV positive status to the rapist.
What is WOMANKIND doing to tackle the problem of violence against women?
The forms of violence that we respond to and the types of responses may differ from country to country but in each instance, we encourage women and men to work together and to involve the wider community in order to bring about lasting change in attitudes and behaviours. We also bring partners together to share information about lessons learnt and new strategies and to use this information to inform future planning and to shape the views of decision-makers.
For example:
- In Ghana, WOMANKIND supports Community-based Action Teams or COMBATs to find local solutions to the problem of domestic violence. Our partners are also part of a wider coalition that has lobbied the government to pass a law prohibiting violence against women.
- In Peru, WOMANKIND supports organisations providing a range of services to women survivors of domestic violence, including legal advice and representation, counselling and a help-line. They also conduct research and advocacy work aimed at changing public attitudes towards violence against women.
- In the UK, we have developed an educational programme to reduce violence against women in the next generation. Based on the findings of an initial piece of research, the programme has developed materials that can be used by teachers to explore and develop young people’s attitudes towards violence, sexual identity and relationships.
In addition to our country programmes, WOMANKIND is also lobbying for improvements in current policies and practices to tackle violence against women and raising awareness of the issue, both in the UK and at the international level. For example:
- In 2003, WOMANKIND produced a ‘shadow’ report which it submitted to the CEDAW Committee. This UN body monitors government’s implementation of the UN Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the only global convention governing equal rights between women and men. The report focuses on violence against women and is a tool to push the UK government for stronger measures to tackle different aspects of violence in the UK, including rape and sexual assault, trafficking and the sex industry, domestic violence and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
- Each year, as part of the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, WOMANKIND promotes the link between local and international work to end violence against women by supporting the awareness-raising activities of a range of African women’s organisations. The 16 Days period symbolically links November 25th, International Day Against Violence Against Women with December 10th, International Human Rights Day, to emphasise that violence is a violation of women’s human rights
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