Gender Based Violence

2016
Africa: Legal Grounds: Reproductive and Sexual Rights in African Courts. University of Toronto Faculty of Law . 2016. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs-centres/programs/irshl-reproductive-and-sexual-health-law/irshl-legal-grounds-updates

These publications include summaries and analyses of cases pertaining to reproductive and sexual rights, including gender-based violence, HIV discrimination, property and family law, abortion, and claims of fetal interests. They examine how African national courts interpret and apply regional and international human rights laws. 

2015
World Bank Group - Gender Equality, Poverty Reduction, and Inclusive Growth. World Bank Group; 2015. Publisher's VersionAbstract

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23425

 

 

By many measures, 2015 marks a watershed year in the international community's efforts to advance gender equality. In September, with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Member States committed to a renewed and more ambitious framework for development. This agenda, with a deadline of 2030, emphasizes inclusion not just as an end in and of itself but as critical to development effectiveness. At the center of this agenda is the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls (SDG 5). In addition to governments, the private sector is increasingly committed to reducing gaps between men and women not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense. Gender equality is also central to the World Bank Group’s own goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. No society can develop sustainably without transforming the distribution of opportunities, resources and choices for males and females so that they have equal power to shape their own lives and contribute to their families, communities, and countries. Promoting gender equality is a smart development policy.

Chatterji AP, Buluswar S, Kuar M ed. Conflicted Democracies and Gendered Violence: The Right to Heal. Berkeley Haas School of Business; 2015. Publisher's VersionAbstract

https://impactmba.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/conflicted-democracies-and-ge...

The Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, (ACRes), focuses on the internal dimensions of armed conflict and mass social violence. Interdisciplinary in practice and rooted in local knowledge, ACRes contends with the condition of violence and the contested terrain of people’s rights, to understand how victim-survivors live with social suffering and ameliorate its effects, define mechanisms for transitional, transformative, and reparatory justice, seek psychosocial healing, and undertake the work of memorialization and social change. The Project works with a collaborative network of victim-survivors, scholars, and academic and civil society institutions. 

 

2014
Fahmina T. Stalkers must be Stopped. New Age . 2014. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://newagebd.net/49802/stalkers-must-be-stopped/

Another news of a teenage suicide came up recently. Umme Kulsum Ritu, a 15-year-old student of Class IX at the East Point Education School and College in Khilgaon, Dhaka committed suicide by taking pesticide on September 6. Her family and class mates alleged that Shimul Chandra, a 22-year-old man reported to be a miscreant, along with his friends had been stalking her on the way to school for a long time. The stalkers also started insulting her in front of her house, too.

Schools and colleges can form a coordinated committee including guardians, teachers, social workers, law enforcement agencies and so on to fight against stalkers. Social awareness programmes should be included in order to create moral values against stalking. 

Nyirinkindi L, Kirya MT. Towards an Anti-Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Norm in the Great Lakes Regional of Africa. Namati; 2014. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://namati.org/resources/towards-an-anti-sexual-and-gender-based-viol...

A Civil Society Review of the implementation of the 2011 Kampala Declaration on Sexual and Gender Based Violence of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region. This study was undertaken to assess the progress made by the eleven member states of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), in implementing the landmark 2011 Kampala Declaration to prevent, punish and respond to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the region. The 2011 Kampala declaration defined the actions to be undertaken to prevent the occurrence of SGBV, end impunity for sexual crimes and provide support with legal, financial, medical and psychosocial support. Three years later, Isis-WICCE has commissioned a research study on behalf of the Regional Civil Society Coordinating Committee on the SGBV Declaration, to examine the current status of implementation. The report looks at States efforts to domesticate and implement relevant protocols, provide concrete support for judicial and security sector reform, as well as ensuring strong supporting structures, special courts or specific legal procedures against SGBV.

Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault in the United States: A Human Rights Based Approach & Practice Guide. Columbia Law Human Rights Institute, Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic & The ACLU Women's Rights Project; 2014. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://web.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/publications

This Guide provides an overview of human rights law’s approach to addressing gender-based violence. 

Section I distills the core human rights principles related to gender-based violence, focusing on the “due diligence” standard: a comprehensive framework to address human rights violations in a systemic and proactive manner, whether committed by private or governmental actors.

Section II discusses the value added of human rights principles in the U.S. context, and identifies concrete ways to integrate core human rights principles into domestic policy.

Section III describes seminal international law cases related to gender-based violence.

Section IV concludes by offering several resources on human rights and gender-based violence, including U.S. government and NGO reports and recommendations related to eradicating gender-based violence, reviews of other countries’ approaches to these issues and a list of U.S.-based NGOs working on gender-based violence as a human rights issue.

The Appendix is a chart of the key provisions of international and regional human rights agreements that relate to gender-based violence.

2013
Solnit R. Hate Crimes: A Rape Every Minute, a Thousand Corpses Every Year. Tom Dispatch; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.alternet.org/gender/hate-crimes-rape-every-minute-thousand-co...

Here in the United States, where there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes, and one in five women will be raped in her lifetime, the rape and gruesome murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi on December 16th was treated as an exceptional incident. The story of the alleged rape of an unconscious teenager by members of the Steubenville High School football team was still unfolding, and gang rapes aren’t that unusual here either. Take your pick: some of the 20 men who gang-raped an 11-year-old in Cleveland, Texas, were sentenced in November, while the instigator of the gang rape of a 16-year-old in Richmond, California, was sentenced in October, and four men who gang-raped a 15-year-old near New Orleans were sentenced in April, though the six men who gang-raped a 14-year-old in Chicago last fall are still at large.  Not that I actually went out looking for incidents: they’re everywhere in the news, though no one adds them up and indicates that there might actually be a pattern.

Rullo M, Varia N. Claiming Rights: Domestic Workers’ Movements and Global Advances for Labor Reform. Human Rights Watch, The International Trade Union Confederation, and The International Domestic Workers' Network; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/10/27/claiming-rights/domestic-workers-m...

On September 5, 2013, the ILO Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (Domestic Workers Convention or C189) entered into legal force. This groundbreaking new treaty and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 201) establish the first global standards for the more than 50 million domestic workers worldwide—the majority of whom are women and girls, and many of whom are migrants—who clean, cook, and care for children and elderly in private households.

The Domestic Workers Convention provides desperately needed and long overdue protections for domestic workers and represents a significant breakthrough in human rights, including labor rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights. Despite the critical role that domestic workers play in providing key care services to households— including cooking, cleaning, child care, and elder care—they have been routinely excluded from standard labor protections. According to the ILO, almost 30 percent of the world’s domestic workers are employed in countries where they are completely excluded from national labor laws.

Sinha M ed. Measuring violence against women: Statistical trends. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2013001/article/11766-eng.htm

For the past three decades, Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers responsible for the Status of Women have shared a common vision to end violence against women in all its forms. Violence against women inCanada is a serious, pervasive problem that crosses every social boundary and affects communities across the country. It remains a significant barrier to women's equality and has devastating impacts on the lives of women, children, families and Canadian society as a whole.

This report marks the third time that the FPT Status of Women Forum has worked with Statistics Canada to add to the body of evidence on gender-based violence. Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile was released in 2002 and was followed by Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends 2006. The 2006 report expanded the analysis into new areas, presenting information on Aboriginal women and women living in Canada's territories. The current report maintains this important focus and also includes information on dating violence, violence against girls and violence that occurs outside of the intimate partner/family context. It also shows trends over time and provides data at national, provincial/territorial, and census metropolitan area levels. A study on the economic impacts of one form of violence against women, spousal violence, is also presented.

Bayat F. Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence in China through a Multi-sectoral Approach. United Nations Development Group; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://mptf.undp.org/document/search?fund=WAV00&document_areas=fund,proj...

Please enter "Consolidated Report China" into the search engine in order to find this document.

The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund to EVAW) is a leading multilateral grant-making mechanism devoted to supporting national and local efforts to end violence against women and girls. Established in 1996 by a UN General Assembly Resolution, the UN Trust Fund to EVAW is now administered by UN WOMEN. In 2008, the UN Trust Fund to EVAW began awarding grants on a competitive basis for Joint Programmes submitted by UN Country Teams. 

EWL Barometer on Rape in the EU 2013. European Women's Lobby; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.womenlobby.org/EWL-Barometer-on-Rape-in-Europe-2013

The European Women’s Lobby is pleased to unveil its 2013 Barometer on Rape in Europe.

Thanks to the work and expertise of the experts to the EWL Observatory on violence against women, the EWL has produced a strong policy document analysing the incidence of Rape in Europe.

The Barometer is a very important tool to get a European overview of national actions on violence against women and compare European countries with regards to their commitment to eradicate such violence.

 

Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States: Violence against women Victim support - Report. European Institute for Gender Equality; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://eige.europa.eu/rdc/eige-publications/violence-against-women-victi...

Domestic violence against women remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations of our time, and one of the biggest global problems. In the EU, 9 out of 10 victims of intimate partner violence are women. It harms women, families, communities and society.

The EU is committed to combatting violence against women. This commitment is affirmed in the Women’s Charter (2010), the European Commission’s Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010−15 and the Stockholm Programme for 2010−14. However, domestic violence against women still remains widespread and under-reported.

The current report aims to support policymakers and all relevant institutions in their efforts to combat and prevent domestic violence, by providing them with reliable and comparable data and information for effective, evidence-based decisions and policy improvement.

McBride M. India: A heartless nation for women. Asian Human Rights Commission; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-PAP-001-2013?searchterm=...

Violence towards women prevents equality and hinders the personal security and dignity of individuals, contradicting Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A governments' inability to protect the rights of half its citizens also hinders the state's economic growth. This issue has come to the forefront of international discussion as current events, namely the brutal attack on Ms. Y, a young physiotherapy student on a New Delhi bus, have focused the world's gaze to the severe issue of gender violence in India.

Manjoo R. Papua New Guinea - Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/CountryVisits.aspx

Find this report under "Papua New Guinea (March 2012);" Report Symbol Number: A/HRC/23/49/Add.2

The present report contains the findings of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, following her visit to Papua New Guinea. The Special Rapporteur examines the situation of violence against women in the country, including violence that is perpetrated within the family and the community; violence occurring in institutional settings; and violence related to the development of the country's extractive industries. She discusses the State's legislative and institutional responses to such violence, and provides recommendations. 

Kervinen E, Heiskanen M. Study on International Activities in the Field of Data Collection on Gender Based Violence Across the EU. European Institute for Gender Equality; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://eige.europa.eu/node/356

The report first summarises the policy framework on combating gender-based violence in the European Union, the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

Secondly, the findings of the study are presented organisation by organisation. Past as well as on-going activities will be discussed, after which future plans will be explored. Finally, the main findings will be discussed.

de Alwis R. Draft Curriculum: Institute at China Women's University, in Institue at China Women's University. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ; 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://womeninpublicservice.wilsoncenter.org/institutes-and-programs/ins...

Institute Handbook

The China Women’s University Institute is supported by a three year grant by the Ford Foundation and addresses the challenges and barriers to women’s public service in China. The Institute will provide a toolbox to address those challenges. The first Institute will take place July 23-29, 2013 with subsequent Institutes planned for the summer of 2014 and 2015. According to the China Women’s University, “This Project will provide a high profile training which would genuinely engage women from China Women’s University and other universities.” The China Women’s University is the sole institution for higher learning accredited by the Ministry of Education that is for women only. The training in  2014 and 2015 will also bring together 20 students from outside of Beijing including students from Hunan University and Shandong University. The curriculum was developed by the WPSP Director in close consultation with faculty from China Women’s University, as well as gender and law experts in China.

2012
Rizzo H. Targeting Cultural Change in Repressive Environments: The Campaign against Sexual Harassment in Egypt. Egyptian Center for Women's Rights; 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://ecwronline.org/?p=1579

This paper examines the ECWR’s multi-faceted campaign to combat sexual harassment from 2005 to 2008. A timeline of the organization’s major events during this period is presented in Table 1. In examining the campaign mobilization, its framing of the issue, and its tactical repertoire, theoretical insight comes primarily from the literature on high-risk social movements (specifically those in authoritarian environments) and movements with cultural targets. We also draw from research on women’s organization in non-Western contexts and the role of globalization in creating awareness of women’s status in different societies.

Komsan NA. The Year 2012:The Massive “Going Out” of the Egyptian Women. Egyptian Center for Women's Rights; 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://ecwronline.org/?p=4575

When President Mohammed Morsi stood before the United Nations this year, he was asked about the status of women in his country and confronted with international concern regarding their status and the challenges they face. He responded to these concerns, saying that “Egyptian women have the same rights as men. There even are some men who ask to be guaranteed the same rights as women!”

Of course the President was joking. However, recent data shows the severity of the situation for women in Egypt and reveals Egypt to be first in the world as far as the deterioration of women’s rights. Those in attendance were not receptive to Morsi’s joke, finding this humor an inappropriate response to a very serious issue. The delegation hoped that President Morsi could present a plan outlining the methods and procedures intended to advance the position of women in Egypt as the first elected president after a revolution that demanded justice and equality.

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights compiled this year’s status report on the status of Egyptian women but faced a number of challenges during the research process. The most notable of these challenges was the scarcity of information and statistics portraying the situation of women. Most writings expressed admiration for Egyptian women and their presence in society and astonishment at their participation in public work, from which they were absent for decades.

As for the approved research institutions, they are, like Egypt as a whole, facing many problems that made the intellectual production and monitoring so modest compared with the previous years. Therefore, there are neither statistics nor sufficient analytical writings available to help us. The center, like many human rights and women’s organizations in Egypt, was also under intense pressure from the Ministry of Social Affairs. The approval of many of the center’s programs was delayed by disagreements and attempts to limit the NGO’s activities or paralyze them. This situation made the report dependent upon a limited number of researchers who exerted tremendous efforts in research and documentation. The center hopes to introduce a useful report on Egyptian Women in 2012 despite these challenges.

Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-IDN-CO-6-7.pdf

The Committee expresses its appreciation to the State party for its combined sixth and seventh periodic report, which was well structured and, in general, followed the Committee’s guidelines for the preparation of reports, although it lacked references to the Committee’s general recommendations and to some specific sex disaggregated data. The Committee expresses its appreciation to the State party for its oral presentation, the written replies to the list of issues and questions raised by the pre-session working group, and the further clarifications to the questions posed orally by the Committee.

Grape M. The Role of Faith Based Organisations in a Strategy to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/previous-sessions/csw57-2013/preparations/expert-group-meeting

This presentation does not reflect a formal position of the World Council of Churches. It does not have any ambitions to be a scientific contribution to the discussion of the expert group. Instead, my paper is basically a reflection of my own experience of working for thirty-five years in the intersection of faith and politics, both out of Sweden and in the global arena.

It is a scandal that violence against women is still an everyday reality in the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and girls all over the world. The scandal is aggravated by the fact that, more often than not, victims are accused of bringing the violence upon themselves – for being disobedient wives or for dressing in a provocative way, or for any number of reasons, all of which aim at pushing the responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim.

The magnitude of the on-going violence against women, in homes, in public spaces, and in wars and conflicts, is well-known and carefully documented. Scientific studies and testimonies from abused women have been presented over the years at conferences, in reports, in media, and in courts of law. No one can say: We did not know.

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