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An important reason for focusing on general societal violence against women is an
acknowledgement that it seriously jeopardizes not only the social and personal
development of women and their families but also affects negatively the economic
and social development of societies themselves.
A specialized branch of human rights laws tries, on a global level, to integrate the
Gender perspective in all investigations, country reports, planned actions, legislation,
policies or programmes in all areas and at all levels. By integrating this perspective,
the different – and invariably unequal – political, social and cultural conditions for
the two sexes – and the discrimination resulting from these conditions – become
visible and thus easier to target for change.
The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) have examined in depth the
problem of violence against women in all its forms and documented that violence
against women in the family and society is pervasive and cuts across lines of income,
class and culture. Even gross violations of women’s civil and social human rights,
have been tolerated in many societies due to discrimination (1991). ECOSOC
proposed that a specific international instrument on violence be drawn-up in
co-operation with the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) under the Convention of the same name.
The World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 followed up on the issue
and focused on Gender-violence as an independent theme, recognizing that the
“alarming global dimensions of female-targeted abuse” (Benninger-Budel, & Lacroix
1999) were not adequately addressed in mainstream United Nations activities.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women was proclaimed by
the UN General Assembly on 20 December 1993 as a result of ECOSOC’s
recommendation for an international document that would address explicitly
violence against women.
The acknowledgement of the necessity of integrating gender in the United Nations
Human Rights work led to the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Violence
Against Women in 1994. Her mandate is to collect and analyse comprehensive data
eliminating it at the international, regional and national levels.
We will include data from her reports in our analysis.
Finally, the fourth World Conference on Women states specifically in the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action, that women may be vulnerable to violence
perpetrated by persons in positions of authority in both conflict and non-conflict
situations. It recommends training and punishment of officials in order to prevent
violence against women. (Unesco 1999, Chapter IV, Section D, Par.121).
To conclude, the widespread violence and torture against women is now a UN
priority demanding responses from national governments and the international
community. The most important UN instruments and documents for carrying out this
work are the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against
women, the UN Convention against Torture, (to both of which China and Denmark
(DEVW) from 1993, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action (Unesco
1999). Both Declarations analyse the problem and recommend action on many
levels. This recent Human rights theory softens the borders between private and
public and underscores the necessity of active State intervention against
gender-violence in the public as well as in the private sphere.
A note of caution: However important these achievements might be, no human
rights are in reality self-evident. Human rights are norms and practices for which real
people must struggle within their social and cultural reality. In reality8 women (and
men) can live and die without ever being conscious of their existing human rights.
International instruments and documents are formal, distant papers that are
unlikely to change peoples lives at the local level unless States, UN Treaty-bodies
and human rights defenders use them to find solutions and develop strategies for
implementation. States tend to sign Conventions in New York and Geneva under
international pressure and afterwards continue to act as they have always acted.
Many international instruments, even those endorsed officially, have the problem
that they often stay at the level of ideology (Rieneker 1994). However, once they are
there they can be used by scientists, NGOs, and human rights fighters at the local
level to push governments into implementing what they have agreed to. Once they
are there, they can play an important role in the development of enforcement
mechanisms as long as there is political will and/or struggle by people in real life.
Posted on 2002-11-11
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