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Research Proposal Gender and International Affairs IA039 Elisabeth Prügl Group 5 [1]

This proposal aims to outline our plan to improve the existing entry on Violence Against Women on Wikipedia. We observed that there is a need to improve and expand some existing sections in the entry, as well as incorporate the other related and essential subtopics. Overall, the entry seems to focus the issue in a broad and universal sense. However, while some very important issues related to violence against women (which have gained much media attention in recent years) such as Female Genital Mutilation, or violence against women in the context of mass protests, are absent from this entry, other very specific ones such as Gender-based violence by male college athletes are included, which makes the article appear quite incomplete, random and un-professional. There is, at the right side of the main entry, a more thorough List of Topics, which includes links to many other sub-categorizations of Violence Against Women, but we consider that this one, being the main article on the subject, ought to include at least short and general introductions to topics such as Psychological and Physical Violence Against Women, Violence Against Women in the Context of Activism, and Legal Aspects of violence against women. We also plan to expand the section on “History of violence against women”, which is too short to be a detailed history or mention enough important historical aspects. We also plan to do an introduction on the concept of obstetric violence, which some scholars, especially in the Spanish-speaking world, have recognized as an important source of potential violence, around which there is still much denial and unrecognition.

The entry also appears to have insufficient ‘legitimate’ sources and research-backed approach. This is apparent throughout the entry while it is referring to a very limited number of: 1) United Nations’ treaty bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, on the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 48th UNGA Resolution [2] 2) The international human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, which is not even mentioned, and neither is the Convention of Bélem do Pará and the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action and 3) the empirical data and reports of the situation on the ground from the ‘Non-governmental organization ’being used to support the content of the entry. Some of these references were mentioned just in titles, but not in details. We deem that it is necessary for this entry to have more ‘legitimate’ and ‘human rights based’ sources to support the information related to this topic. Therefore, we propose a number of existing subsections to be expanded: history of violence against women and activism, and other subsections to be added as the following:

Emma: “History of violence against women”

The first section, History of violence against women is one of the first ones we would like to revise and expand. Firstly, it is only comprised of 3 paragraphs; one is just a one-sentence paragraph, with a brief theory of why violence against women has consistently existed (women being viewed/treated as property and being subservient to men). One paragraph makes a reference to UN declaration on the subject of violence against women. The last paragraph gives 2 examples (in the US and UK) of when courts ceased to recognize the legal right of a man to use corporal punishment against his wife. There is a lot more to be investigated and to be said about the history of violence against women, for example how and when it has been recognized as a societal problem, and what actions have been taken? Additionally, have other documents on violence against women, like the UN declaration [[3]], been produced? If so, at a national legal level in varying countries, or in regional organizations or associations of countries? Are there different patterns of violence against women in different countries or regions of the world, and how has violence against women been viewed, talked about, or recognized there?

Wipada: Activism

Another section that we would like to expand is the section of ‘activism’. From the existing entry, the information given was not enough for one to comprehend the activism for women’s rights, in this case, violence against women. The first sentence of the paragraph suggests a concept that there is a causal relationship/ correlation between Domestic violence and societal hierarchy based on sexism. However, this was claimed without any reference and that it refers ‘violence against women’ by employing the term ‘domestic violence’ which was not even mentioned anywhere in the page. In addition, there is a need to mention that the activism for the particular issue of violence against women is commonly known to be based on the concept that ‘women rights equal human rights and that the violence against women is considered as violation of human rights'. Also, we need to update some of the terms used in the context of activism that they seem to be out-of-date. We should employ the term ‘human rights defender’ rather than ‘activists.’ In other words, we should introduce the term that the human rights defenders working to improve the rights and situation of women call themselves: Women Human Rights Defenders [[4]] or WHRD (according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: for the human rights defenders, civil society groups and NGOs). Also, the campaign mentioned in this section was just one campaign which is not up-to-date anymore (the recent one would be Event:16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. And lastly, this section also omits the crucial aspects of the activism, which are the work of the human rights defenders and their ‘real’ situations and what they encounter on the ground and there also is a need to expand.

Dilnoza: Female Genital Cutting

In this section there will be examined female genital cutting as a harmful traditional practice that is legally considered as a violation of women’s human rights since 1993 (Vienna Convention). There exist already Wikipedia entry named Female Genital Mutilation that covers definition, history, origins, and oppositions of Female Genital Mutilation. I found, however, that some aspects of that issue (for example little discussion of how FGC is related to Violence Against Women) is missed and would be relevant to shed light on Female Gental Cutting as a form of VAW namely within Wikipedia page Violence against women from gender studies perspective. Since in the main entry of FGM there is already provided detailed description of terminology and definition of four types of FGM, this section deals mainly with the heat debates over FGC among Western feminists and African (or Outsiders vs. Insiders, Cultural relativists vs. Universalists). It describes the arguments provided by both sides and illustrates the critiques of those arguments. In addition to that, several interventionist approaches set up by international organizations such WHO, UN, and NGOs (such as Tostan) will be described within secttion named Interventionist approaches and the shortages/critiques of those approaches will be defined. The section is based on the works of Bettina Shell-Duncan, Lisen Dellenborg, Jaqui True, Maria Malstrom, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Yeal Tamir, Andrew Koppelman, Lori L. Heise, R. Elise, B. Johansen, Nafissatou J., Diop, Glenn Laverack, and Els Leye. Statistics data are taken from WHO and UN reports, and Tostan findings. While we were working together and were on the process of editing and structuring this Wikipedia page, someone called "skydeepblue" has added several subsections (Honor killings, Dowry violence, Female genital mutilation, Acid throwing,Forced marriage) particularly to Domestic violence section. Therefore within subsection Female Genital mutilation I would suggest to:

1. Along with WHO's technical definition of FGM, to give other academic definion (recommended by scholars: Martha Nussbaum,Andrew Koppelman, Lori L. Heise, Duncan and etc. ) 2. to provide data on countries with the bottom rates for FGC; 3. to mention that FGC is spreading beyond the borders of Africa and Middle East due to emigration and globalization (which leads to actually familiarizing the Western world with existence of such practice); 4. due to existence of several misinformation about FGC, there will be subsection on "myths and biases related to FGC";


Camille: ‘Violence against women in the justice system’

We will discuss the different challenges and barriers that women victims of violence face in accessing justice. Among these challenges are : - The lack of criminalization of violent behaviors. We will give several examples of countries where the law does not criminalize Female Genital Mutilation, Rape, Domestic violence. There can also be a law criminalizing the mentioned above violent acts against women, but the legal framework is insufficient and there is in practice no possibility for women victims of such acts to access justice. We will mention for instance the difficulties to file a complaint for rape or other violent behavior; the difficulty to make a case in court (members of the judiciary continue to take evidence of struggle and injury as determinative medical evidence). Other related practical barriers are the delays in investigation and conviction, and the lack of remedies in court despite the possibility of conviction of perpetrators. Crimes against women can also be categorized as minor offences. We will also show examples of legislation allowing better access to justice for women in order to compare and show examples of good practice. Other barriers due for instance to immigration laws in a country. We will mention the case of undocumented women in countries where they would have, in theory, access to justice but in practice don’t for fear of being denounced and deported. We will then discuss discrimination and gender stereotyping as the cause for this lack of access to justice by women victims of violence. We will talk about the role of CEDAW in promoting gender equality and women’s access to justice. Gender stereotyping is often a key factor in failure of states to recognize violation of women’s rights. Influences the treatment of women in justice systems : failure in inquiries in rape by state authorities. State failing to punish violations because of stereotyping. Rejection of evidence based on stereotype. Discriminatory stereotypes affect women regardless of their behavior. It affects victims of violence, who have difficulties to access justice.

Clara Franco: Obstetric Violence

We want to include this part in our contribution because we feel that, especially in English-speaking countries, there is much denial and under-reporting surrounding the issue, challenging its very existence as a form of violence. The increasingly medicalized birthing practices that have prevailed in industrialized countries, and their cultural “trickle-down” into developing countries, can lead to an abuse of birthing practices that should normally be restricted to only a minority of births, such as c-sections, episiotomies, the abuse of medication and birth induction; or the use of instruments and maneuvers that have been recognized as risky to the health of the mother and child (forceps, Kristeller maneuver, vacuum extraction). Various NGO’s around the world have the purpose of defending “the right to a respectful and humane birth”, such as the canadian organization Humanize Birth, or the Spanish association El Parto es Nuestro [[5]]. Different scholars such as O. Fernández have analyzed the link between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and obstetric violence. Overall, it will be an interesting exercise to analyze the acceptance of the concept of “obstetric violence” among predominantly English-speaking Wikipedia editors. The WHO mentions “obstetric violence” only in a single article about a law recently passed in Mexico, which aims to further the respect for traditional medicine and “women’s right to a life free of obstetric violence, such as unnecessary cesareans”. Venezuela has recently included it as a legal term; in a law that defines obstetric violence as “appropriation of the body and reproductive processes of women by health personnel (...) expressed as dehumanized treatment, an abuse of medication, and to convert the natural processes into pathological ones, bringing with it loss of autonomy and the ability to decide freely about their bodies and sexuality, negatively impacting the quality of life of women”[[6]]. Three Mexican States have also legally defined obstetric violence, along with violence concerning reproductive rights. Cross-cutting issues: rights of indigenous women. Indigenous women are much more likely to suffer different forms of obstetric violence and can also be disproportionately affected by forced sterilizations or other ways of forced contraception.

References

Browne, Angela. “Violence against women by male partners: Prevalence, outcomes, and policy implications.” American Psychologist, Vol 48(10), Oct 1993, 1077-1087.

Bulletin of the World Health Organization: “Mexico’s Midwives Enter the Mainstream”, in World Health Organization Website, http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/08-010408/en/, Visited October 2013.

Christian E. Molidor. Gender differences of psychological abuse in high school dating relationships. Child and Adolescent Social work journal. Vol.13 N1, February 1996. in http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01876596#page-1.

Ellsberg, Mary , and Lori Heise. "Researching Violence Against Women."A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR RESEARCHERS AND ACTIVISTS 1 (2005): 1-244. http://www.path.org/publications/files/GBV_rvaw_complete.pdf (accessed October 20, 2013).

Fernández I, O. “PTSD And Obstetric Violence”, in Midwifery Today - International Midwife, vol. 105, pp. 48-68, 2013.

Garcia-Moreno, Claudia and Henrica AFM Jansen , Mary Ellsberg , Lori Heise , Charlotte H Watts. “Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence.” The Lancet, Volume 368, Issue 9543, 7–13 October 2006, Pages 1260–1269.

GIRE, Group for Information in Informed Reproduction. “Omission and Indifference: Reproductive Rights in Mexico”, Yearly Report.

Goer, H. (2010). “Cruelty in maternity wards: Fifty years later”. Journal of Perinatal Education, 19(3), 33–42.

Krug , Etienne G and James A Mercy , Linda L Dahlberg , Anthony B Zwi. “The world report on violence and health.” The Lancet, Volume 360, Issue 9339, 5 October 2002, Pages 1083–1088.

Johanson, R., Newburn, M., & Macfarlane, A. (2002). “Has the medicalisation of childbirth gone too far?” BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 324(7342), 892-895.

Pérez D’Gregorio, Rogelio. “Obstetric Violence: A New Legal Term Introduced in Venezuela”, in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Vol. 111, No. 3, pp. 201-202, 2010.

Venis, Sarah and Richard Horton. “Violence against women: a global burden.” The Lancet, Volume 359, Issue 9313, 6 April 2002.

Villegas Poljack, Asia. “Obstetric Violence and Forced Sterilization Facing Medical Discourse”, in Venezuelan Magazine of Women’s Studies, vol. 14 No. 32, pp. 125-146, 2009.

External links

Organizations

[7]

United Nations Population Fund “Organic Law on Women’s Right to a Life Free of Violence”

Event:16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign

[8]

World Health Organization Gender. Gender-based violence. http://www.who.int/gender/violence/gbv/en/

UNFPA

[[9]]

Women Human Rights Defenders [[10]]

Wipada's contribution: edition/addition on the sections of "Introduction," "Definition," "Impact on society" and "Activism" (Please grade this)

Short description of my contribution

The edition and modification on "Violence against women" wikipedia page that I have contributed to are the sections on introduction, impact on society and activism. Besides, I have added the entirely new section on 'definition.'

Summary of contribution (word count):

  1. Introduction: 175 words added
  2. Definition: 360 words added
  3. Impact on society: 252 words added
  4. Activism: 2,145 words added

In total, I have contributed to the article on 'Violence against women' 2,932 words.

In terms of other general contribution in Wikipedia (Talk page), I have initiated the comments in the article's Talk Page in order to inform other contributors of our project and primary objectives. Other than that, I also managed to create logo signifying that this project is an educational project for the Gender and International Affairs class (2013) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Please see this: contribution on the talk page of Violence against women's article

Also, I am aware of the fact that I have not been able to keep the previous versions of my work and I hope that this is going to be fine if I just only leave my final version in the sandbox.

Moreover, after having decided collectively, we would each like to be evaluated individually on our contributions.

Introduction

'Original text: '"The phrase violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, which it is sometimes considered,[1][2][3] this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive. The United Nations General Assembly defines "violence against women" as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life." The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women noted that this violence could be perpetrated by assailants of either gender, family members and even the "State" itself.[4] Worldwide governments and organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of programs. A UN resolution designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.[5]"

Revised Text: the addition to the original text is underlined:

"The phrase violence against women (or known in short as VAW), is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, which it is sometimes considered,[1][2][3] this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive.

Many types of violence are considered to be violence against women. These include violence carried out by ‘individuals’ as well as ‘states.’ Some of the violence perpetrated by individuals are rape; domestic violence; harmful customary or traditional practices such as diagnosis planning, honor killings, dowry violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, sexual harassment; coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide; prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence and mob violence. Some are perpetrated by state such as war rape; sexual violence and slavery during conflict; trafficking in women; forced prostitution; force sterilization; forced abortion; violence by the police and authoritative personnel; stoning and flogging.[1]

The World Health Organization, in its research on violence against women, suggested that there is a chance that women can encounter violence and its devastating effects throughout their life cycle. They categorized phases of life cycle into five stages: “1) pre-birth, 2) infancy, 3) girlhood, 4) adolescence and adulthood and 5) elderly” and illustrated the types of violence that women in each phrase might face. The summary table of these categories are provided below:

Table 1.1[2]
Violence against women throughout the life cycle
Phase Type of violence
Pre-birth Sex-selective abortion; effects of battering during pregnancy on birth

outcomes

Infancy Female infanticide; physical, sexual and psychological abuse
Girlhood Child marriage; female genital mutilation; physical, sexual and

psychological abuse; incest; child prostitution and pornography

Adolescence and adulthood Dating and courtship violence (e.g. acid throwing and date rape); economically coerced sex (e.g. school girls having sex with “sugar daddies” in return for school fees); incest; sexual abuse in the workplace; rape; sexual harassment; forced prostitution and pornography; trafficking in women; partner violence; marital rape; dowry abuse and murders; partner homicide; psychological abuse; abuse of women with disabilities; forced pregnancy
Elderly Forced “suicide” or homicide of widows for economic reasons; sexual,

physical and psychological abuse

Similar typology is also used by feminist scholar such as Krantz and Garcia-Moreno in their revised version of table from the World Health Organization (WHO)'s report:

Table 1.2[3] Violence against women: Typology of violence
Self-directed Interpersonal Collective
Suicidal behavior Family/partner Social
Self-abuse Community Political
Economic

Significant progress towards the protection of women from violence has been made on international level as a product of collective effort of lobbying by many women’s rights movements; international organizations to civil society groups. As a result, worldwide governments and international as well as civil society organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of programs. Among the major achievements of the women’s rights movements against violence on girls and women, the landmark accomplishments are "the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women” that implies “political will towards addressing VAW ” and the legal binding agreement, “the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).”[4] In addition, the UN General Assembly resolution also designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.[5]"

Definition

(Moved from the introduction to this section)The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution on the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, defines "violence against women" as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."[5] Also, the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women noted that this violence could be perpetrated by assailants of either gender from individual, communal to state levels.[6] (end)

In addition, the term 'gender-based violence' refers to "any acts or threats of acts intended to hurt or make women suffer physically, sexually or psychologically, and which affect women because they are women or affect women disproportionately."[7] Added by an argument from Krantz and Garcia-Moreno[8], the definition of 'gender-based violence' "is used interchangeably with violence against women," these definitions seem to imply that women are inferior and subordinate to men.[9] Some articles on VAW reiterate these conceptions by suggesting that men are the main perpetrators of these violence.[10]

Consequently, some feminist and other academic scholars find such a definition provided by the UN as well as other definitions along the same line to be unsatisfactory and problematic. They argue that these definitions of 'violence against women' appear to be in a very patriarchal understanding that signifies an unequal relations between men and women.[11] In addition, the definitions disregard violence against ‘masculine body,’ or men and that the term “gender,” as used in gender based violence, only refers to ‘women.’ Thus, employing the term ‘gender’ in this particular way may introduce notions of ‘inferiority’ and ‘subordination’ for femininity and 'superiority' for masculinity[12][13]. Moreover, the definition stated by the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence also introduced the notion that violence is rooted in the inequality between men and women when the term violence is used together with the term 'gender-based.'[14] So, there is no perfect definition as of now that can cover all the dimensions of 'gender based violence' rather than the one for women that tends to reproduces the concept of binary oppositions: masculinity versus femininity.[15]

Impact on society

Original text:

"The World Health Organization reports that violence against women puts an undue burden on health care services, as women who have suffered violence are more likely to need health services and at higher cost, compared to women who have not suffered violence.[12] Several studies have shown a link between poor treatment of women and international violence. These studies show that one of the best predictors of inter- and intranational violence is the maltreatment of women in the society.[13][14]"

Revised text: the addition to the original text is underlined:

According to an article in the Health and Human Rights Journal[16], regardless of many years of advocacy and involvement of many feminist activist organizations, the issue of violence against women still "remains one of the most pervasive forms of human rights violations worldwide."[17] The violence against women can occur in both public and private spheres of life and at any time of their life span. Many women are are terrified by these threats of violence and this essentially has an impact on their lives that they are impeded to exercise their human rights, for instance, the fear for contribution to the development of their communities socially, economically and politically. Apart from that, the causes that trigger 'VAW' or 'gender-based violence' can go beyond just the issue of gender and into the issues of age, class, culture, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and specific geographical area of their origins.[18]

Importantly, other than the issue of social divisions, violence can also extend into the realm of health issues and become a direct concern of the public health sector.[19] A health issue such as HIV/AIDS is another cause that also leads to violence. Women who have HIV/AIDS infection are also among the targets of the violence.[20] (copied from the existing text on the impact on society section)The World Health Organization reports that violence against women puts an undue burden on health care services, as women who have suffered violence are more likely to need health services and at higher cost, compared to women who have not suffered violence.[12]

Another statement that comfirms an understanding of 'VAW' as being a significant health issue is apparent in the recommendation adopted by the Council of Europe, violence against women in private sphere, at home or Domestic violence, is the main reason of "death and disability" among the women who encountered violence.[21]

In addition, several studies have shown a link between poor treatment of women and international violence. These studies show that one of the best predictors of inter- and intra-national violence is the maltreatment of women in the society.[13][14]"(end).

Activism

Original text: "Many activists believe that working towards the elimination of domestic violence means working to eliminate a societal hierarchy enforced through sexism. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence cited racism within the anti-violence movement and suggest that violence against women will not end until the anti-violence movement re-directs its goal from "ending violence against women" to "ending violence against women of color."[131] The same conclusion can be drawn for other systems of oppression. Shows red card to abuser (Spanish: Saca tarjeta roja al maltratador) is a campaign against domestic violence launched by the Spanish Ministry of Equality that has the support of many famous artists, journalists and athletes.[132] It is considered very effective in helping "to abandon complicity and take a step in favour of justice."[133]"

Revised text:

Background and history

Activism refers to “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue.”[22] In the activism for violence against women, the objectives are to address and draw public attention on the issues of VAW as well as seek and recommend measures to prevent and eliminate this violence.[23] Many scholarly articles suggest that the VAW is considered as a violation of human rights[24][25][26] as well as “public health issue.”[27]

In order to better comprehend the anti-violence movements against VAW, there is a need to also understand the generic historical background of feminist movements in a holistic manner. Talking about the international women’s movement, many feminist scholars have categorized these movements into three waves[28] according to their different beliefs, strategies and goals.[29]

The emergence of the first women’s movements, or so called the first wave of feminism, dated back in the years the late 19th Century and early 20th Century in the United States and Europe. During this period, the first series of feminist movements developed from the context of “industrial society and liberal politics” that trigger the ‘feminist groups’ with the concern of equal access and opportunity for women.[30] This wave marks a period of “suffrage, independence, rights to nationality, work and equal pay” for women.[31]

The second wave of feminist movements was the series of movements from the period of the “late 1960s to early 1970s.” It was noted by feminist scholars that this wave could be characterized as a period of women’s liberation and the rise of a branch of feminism known as ‘radical feminism.’[32] This wave of feminism emerged in the context of postwar period[33] and society where other mainstream movements also played a large role; for instance, the civil rights movements[34], which meant to condemn ‘capitalism,’ ‘ imperialism’ and ‘oppression’ of people based on the notion of race, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation.[35] This wave marks a period of equal rights at home and workplace as well as rights to development[36] for the purposes of people of different races, ethnicities, economic statuses and gender identities.

The third wave of feminism is the newest wave of feminism led by young feminists whose understanding and context are of the globalized world order with an invention of many new technologies Also, this wave is a transition of the fall communism[37] to more complex issues of new kinds of ‘warfare,’ threats and violence. This new wave also “embraces ambiguity”[38] and introduced a feminist approach of ‘intersectionality’ that includes the issues of “gender, race, class and age-related."[39] Other than that, the third wave marks a period of feminism dealing with identity politics, body politics as well as the issues of violence.[40]

Nonetheless, the VAW movement was initiated in the 1970s where some feminist movements started to bring the discussion on the issue of violence into the feminist discourse[41] and that many other groups, on the national as well as international levels, had attempted to push for the betterment of women through lobbying of the state officials and delegates, demanding the conferences on ‘gender issues'[42] and thus made the VAW known to a wider range of population. Therefore, to put this into the theoretical context, VAW can be categorized along with the third wave of feminism whose one of its focuses is on ‘violence.’

VAW activist movements come in many forms and operate through different levels at "local, national and international levels "[43] and different approaches: health and human rights frameworks.[44] The movements stemmed mostly from social movements and groups of women who see the need to create organizations to 'lobby' their governments to establish "sanctuaries, shelters" and provision of services that help protecting these victims or so-called battered women from acts of violence. The term battered women was used in a number of VAW movements and had its root in the early stage of organizing efforts to tackle the problem of violence against women in many regions of the world such as Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin American and the Caribbean.[45] The activist organizations against VAW, some with and the others without the support of their governments, attempted to develop "innovative efforts" to assist the battered women by providing services such as shelters and centers for these women; drafting and lobbying the governments to include the recognition and language of VAW into national legislations and international human rights instruments; advocating to raise the awareness of people via education and training sessions; forming national, regional as well as international networks to empower the movements; organizing demonstration and gathering more efforts to end violence acts against women.[46] In addition, many women’s rights activist groups see the issue of violence against women as a central focus of their movements. Many of these groups take ‘human rights’ approach as the integral framework of their activism. These VAW movements also employ the idea of ‘women’s rights are human rights,’ transform the concepts and ideas of ‘human rights,’ which are mostly reckoned to be ‘Western concepts’ and 'vernacularize' them into the concepts that can be understood in their local institutions.[47]

Levels of activist movements

On the local or national level, the VAW movements are diverse and differ in their strategic program of intervention. The strategies used in a number of the movements focus on the individual level with the emphases on individuals, relationships and family. Also, many of them take the 'preventive' as an approach to tackle the issues on the ground by encouraging people to "reexamine their attitudes and beliefs" in order to trigger and create fundamental changes in these "deep-rooted beliefs and behaviors."[48] Despite the fact that these strategies can be life changing, helpful to those who participate and feasible over a long time frame, the impacts on societal level seem to be restricted and of minimal effects. In order to achieve the objectives of the movement, ending the violence against women, many activists and scholar seem to argue that they have to initiate the changes on the communal level in the norms and cultural attitudes, which were the sources that permit the abusive behavior of men toward women.[49] An example of activism on the local level can be seen in South Africa. The movements of VAW in this context employ a strategy that is based on the ‘prevention’ approach, which is applicable on individual and societal levels: in families and communities. This movement encourages the individuals and small populations to rethink about their attitudes and beliefs in order to create a possibility to alter these deep-rooted beliefs and behaviors, which lead to the act of violence against women.[50] Another example is the local level movement in East Africa that employs the prevention approach, which is applicable on the communal level. They call this approach a ‘raising voices’ approach. This approach employs an ‘ad hoc’ framework that can be used complementarily with the individual approach where the strategy is to aggravate the status quo issues onto the individuals’ and communities’ perception and establish a common ground of interests for them to push for the movement, but in a short time of period.[51] In addition, on the domestic level, there seems to be many 'autonomous movements.' [52] Whereas autonomous feminist movements (for VAW) can be understood as "a form of women's mobilization that is devoted to promoting women's status and well-being independently of political parties and other associations that do not have the status of women as their main concern."[53]

On the transnational or regional level, the anti-violence movements also deploy different strategies based on the specificities of their cultures and beliefs in their particular regions. On this level, the activist movements are known as "transnational feminist networks" or TFNs.[54] The TFNs have a significant impact, like the autonomous movements on the national level, in shaping sets of policies as well pushing for the recognition and inclusion of language of VAW in the United Nations human rights mechanisms: the international human rights agreements.[55] Their activities are ranging from lobbying the policy makers; organizing demonstrations on the local and regional levels; to creating institutional pressure that could push for changes in the international institutional measures.[56]

On the international level, the movements that advocate for women's rights and against VAW are the mixture of (civil society) actors from the domestic and regional levels. On this level, the objectives of VAW movements focus on "creating shared expectations" within the domestic and regional levels as well as "mobilizing numbers of domestic civil society" to create "standards in global civil society."[57] The global women's movement determine to transform numbers of international conventions and conferences to "a conference on women's rights" by pushing for a "stronger language and clearer recognition" of the VAW issues. In addition, the United Nations also plays a vital role in promoting and campaigning for the VAW movements on the international level. For instance, in 2008, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General has initiated and launched the campaign called "UniTE To End Violence Against Women." This campaign "calls on governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the private sector, the media and the entire UN system to join forces in addressing the global pandemic of violence against women and girls."[58] Moreover, this campaign also announces every 25th of the month to be "Orange Day" or "a day to take action to raise awareness and prevent violence against women and girls."[59]

In conclusion, each level of activism is intertwined and has the common purpose to end violence against women. The activism on the local level can significantly affect the movements on the other levels: transnational and international levels. All in all, the effort on different levels lead to change that can perpetrate to all levels. In a scholarly article on Combating Violence Against Women, the authors illustrated from their research analysis on how the norms of international society can shape and influence the policy making on the domestic or national level and vice versa. They argue that there are ‘three’ mechanisms, which have effects on the making of national policies as well as global agreements and conventions. Three of which are “1) the influence of global treaties and documents such as CEDAW on women’s rights" - on the national policies "2) the influence of regional agreements on VAW (particularly after certain tipping points are reached)" - on both domestic policies and international conventions and "3) regional demonstration effects or pressure for conformity captured as diffusion within regions” - on the international norms and agreements.[60]

Achievements of the VAW movements

On the Global level:

  • The first major document that highlights the recognition of violence against women as a human rights violation: the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Vienna, 1993.[61] [62] [63] It was a result of collective effort of global feminist movement to transform the Vienna conference from a general and mainstream human rights conference into the conference on women's rights. As before the other human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did not focus on the issue of VAW and did not consider rape and domestic violence as violations of human rights despite of the fact that they also have agenda on women's rights.[64]
  • The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing[65] During the 4th Women Conference, VAW was emphasized and named as a critical concern. Also, the spillover effect was that this push highlighted the need for the development of "new international norms" that have often been used by activists and governments the proposition of legislation that provide other action to redress the acts of violence.[66][67][68]
  • Subsequently, the push from the global feminist movement also push for the fully incorporation of the VAW issues into the "Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women" or CEDAW[69] whereas the "original text of CEDAW in 1979 did not explicitly mention violence against women"[70]

On the regional level:

  • Americas: the Inter-American Convention on Violence Against Women, which was formally announced and adopted by the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1994, immediately after the Vienna Conference[71]
  • Europe: The European Union (EU)’s initiatives to combat violence against women after the 1990s: the 1997 resolution calling for a zero tolerance: specifically on UN human rights instruments of CEDAW and the Vienna Declaration.
    • The Council of Europe also developed "a series of initiatives" related to the issue of VAW: "the 2000 resolution on trafficking, the 2003 resolution on domestic violence, and the 2004 resolution on honor crimes" as well as promoted "the 2002 recommendation on the protection of women against violence and established its monitoring framework." [72]
  • Africa:
    • There emerged a series of regional meetings and agreements, which was triggered by the UN processes on the international level such as Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, 1985; the 1993 Kampala Prep Com; the 1994 Africa-wide UN women's conference [73] that led to the identification of VAW as a critical issue in the Southern African Women's Charter.[74]

See also

Reference list

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