Violence Against Women
Source: NZ News
The 57th annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women opened on Monday at UN Headquarters in New York with its focus set on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.
“Ending violence against women is a matter of life and death,” Deputy UN Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the opening session. “The problem pervades all countries, even in the most stable and developed regions.”
“Violence against women pervades war zones as well as stable communities, capitals as well as the countryside, public space as well as the private sphere,” Eliasson said. “Since it is an unacceptable feature of daily life, we have to respond everywhere and on every level.”
The executive director of UN Women, UN Undersecretary-General Michelle Bachelet, said, “The world can no longer afford the costs of violence against women and girls, the social and economic costs and the costs in deep human pain and suffering.”
“Over the past few months, women, men, and young people took to the streets with signs that ask ‘Where is the justice?’,” she said.
“They declared solidarity with a Pakistani girl shot for defending the right to education,” said Bachelet. “They pledged justice for a young woman in India and another in South Africa who were brutally raped and later died. They demanded an end to the endless cases of rape and violence that threaten the lives of countless women and girls in every country but never make the headlines.”
Marion Kamara, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, said, “We are here to showcase achievements, and to speak frankly about gaps and challenges. Most importantly, we are here to deliver results for the women and girls around the world.”
“The scourge of violence against women and girls is at the core of the gender equality,” she said. “It affects women and girls of all ages, of all economic and social classes, of all races and ethnicities, of all cultures, religions and traditions.”
“We have a common responsibility to act,” Kamara said.
UN Women says up to 70 percent of women in some countries face physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
It also reported that in countries such as Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, intimate partner violence accounts for 40 to 70 percent of female murder victims. In addition, some 140 million girls have suffered female genital mutilation and millions more are subjected to forced marriage and trafficking.
The new chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Nicole Amdline, endorsed the panel’s past work and practices but voiced some concern over one proposal.
“There is a certain contradiction between the difficulty to make the human rights treaty body system work and proposals for new human rights instruments, such as the current discussion on a new treaty on violence against women,” she said. “In our view, such a treaty would contribute to the proliferation of the human rights treaty body system and could fragmentize the normative framework on violence against women.” “In its regular work, CEDAW comprehensively covers all forms of discrimination against women, including violence against women,” Amdline added. Fiji’s Minister for Women and Social Welfare Jiko Luveni, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, stressed “the importance of sharing national experiences for the purpose of building upon progress, with an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to advance the goals of sustainable development through equality, peace and security for all women everywhere, in the interest of all humanity.”
“The Group of 77 emphasizes the need to find effective remedies to the elimination of specific forms of violence against migrant domestic workers, violence faced by women and girls with disabilities and rural, indigenous women and girls as well as older women,” the minister said. “In the context of emerging challenges, the Group of 77 emphasizes the need to remove all forms of structural impediments to access to justice and gender bias and encourages members to provide equal service and legal protection to all citizens.
“The group further stresses that the emergence of these challenges reiterates the need for special attention targeting the structural roots of poverty in the international system that are hindering the efforts of the developing countries in their fight against poverty,” Luveni added.
Kathleen Lynch, minister of state for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People of Ireland, represented the European Union.
“As we are witnessing increasing violence against human rights defenders, women defenders have been identified as one of those most at risk of suffering from violence, prejudice, exclusion compared to their male counterparts,” she said. “We call upon states to take all the necessary measures to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, including improved training and awareness of state officials.”
“The EU also stresses the need to take all appropriate measures to address the question of impunity for attacks, threats and acts of intimidation committed by state — and non-state actors, in particular in cases of gender-based violence,” Lynch said.