Publications by Year: 2009

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-egms-gplahpaw.htm

**Click on "Final report of the Expert Group Meeting" at the given link to access PDF

The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDAW/DESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) convened an expert group meeting on good practices in legislation to address harmful practices, which was held at the United Nations at Addis Ababa, from 25 to 28 May 2009. 

The expert group meeting was a follow up to an expert group meeting organized by UNDAW/DESA and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, from 26 to 28 May 2008, on good practices in legislation on violence against women. That meeting prepared a model framework for legislation on violence against women, including detailed recommendations, commentaries and examples of promising practices. The framework contains two types of recommendations: those that are applicable to all forms of violence against women; and those that are specific to domestic violence or sexual violence. The purpose of this expert group meeting was to further develop the framework by elaborating specific recommendations for legislation on harmful practices against women.

http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/women/decisions/ia_court_hr.asp

In its 2009 judgment in the Case of González et al. (“Cotton Field”) v. Mexico, the Court held Mexico to be responsible for human rights violations based on the handling of investigations into disappearances and deaths of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez. The state's actions, the court opined, contributed to the atmosphere of impunity surrounding the maltreatment of women in the city.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-egms-gplahpaw.htm#expert

"Harmful practices against women in India: An examination of selected legislative responses"

Violence against women, of which harmful practices against women is a part, has been acknowledged as “one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men” equality rights. Women face violence due to their position of inequality; their vulnerability to violence being exacerbated due to their positions of dependency as well as prevailing patriarchal attitudes. The Indian Constitution guarantees women equality before the law and the equal protection of laws under Article 14 and prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex under Article 15. A unique feature of the Indian Constitution is Article 15(3), which empowers the State to take special measures for women and children. Despite these guarantees, the position of women in India remains unequal.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02775395/32/3

*This full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

Domestic Violence Network (DVN) is a Chinese women's NGO that has emerged in response to the transnational women's human rights movement against violence against women. This article discusses and analyzes the socio-political processes of DVN's “translation” of the transnational issue frame of “violence against women” in its local programs. It reviews DVN's gender and human rights advocacy across three of its major areas of activism—research, gender training and legal advocacy. Moreover, it examines how DVN collaborates with state agencies, especially the governmental women's organization, to transform its advocacy into policy action. In particular, the article raises questions about the potential costs of this “politics of engagement,” arguing that this relationship with the state may dilute DVN's gender and human rights advocacy as well as curb its political autonomy in future activities.

http://genderlinks.org.za/gmdc/research/figure-it-out-reporting-on-traff...

Media coverage of trafficking of women and children, migration and sex work is confused and inaccurate. Media wrongly uses the terms ‘sex work’ and ‘trafficking’ synonymously, perpetuating stereotypes and stigmatisation and contributing to the violation of women’s right to free movement and livelihood options, say these authors. If media reports were to be believed, there would be no young girls left in Nepal. Oftquoted figures such as 5,000-7,000 Nepali girls being trafficked across the border to India every year and 150,000-200,000 Nepali women and girls being trapped in brothels in various Indian cities, were first disseminated in 1986 and have remained unaltered over the next two decades. The report that first quoted these statistics was written by Dr I S Gilada of the Indian Health Association, Mumbai, and presented in a workshop in 1986. Subsequently, a version of this report was published as an article in the Times of India on January 2, 1989. The source of this figure remains a mystery to date. Unfortunately, such a lack of clarity is more the norm than the exception when it comes to reporting on trafficking in women and girls.

http://www.taha.org.nz/library/research/national-study-domestic-violence...

The National Study on Domestic Violence against Women in Tonga was initiated and conducted by Ma’a Fafine mo e Famili (MFF). It is the first national study on violence against women ever conducted in Tonga.

The National Study on Domestic Violence against Women in Tonga consisted of two separate components: a quantitative study based on the methodology developed for the WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women; and a qualitative study based on Tongan methodology of Talanoa and Nofo. The use of qualitative and quantitative components was to seek results that complemented each other.

http://journal.yiil.org/home/archives_v2n2_10

*The full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

International attention first focused on the use of rape as a tactic of warfare in Bosnia between 1991 and 1995. Rape was also employed by Hutu troops against Tutsi women in the genocidal campaign in Rwanda in 1994. In December of 1993, The United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and with that the international community acknowledged its global dimensions. What became clear to the world was that women's distinctive needs, experiences, vulnerabilities, and perspectives were being excluded in the development of both the substantive and procedural rules of international humanitarian law, as well as the remedies it offered victims. A community of elite women legal policy makers comprised of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and investigators evolved to try these cases in International Criminal Tribunals in Europe and Africa. During the Bosnian war of 1992-95 Yugoslav women and hundreds of other Muslim women were systematically raped and tortured in a clear attempt to advance the cause of ethnic cleansing. Several of the women took to court, and testified against, three Bosnian soldiers in the courtrooms of the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. The ruling made on the rape cases between Yugoslav women and the Bosnian Serb army is a landmark in establishing that systematic rape during conflict is not merely a violation of the practice of war but a crime against humanity. In turn, sexual assault during slavery has been recognized as an independent crime under humanitarian and human rights laws. The ruling is very significant because it opens the door for many other victims of sexual violence to press for their recognition as victims, for penalties, and for compensation. It also means that effort will consequently be made to promote its application. However, whether the codification of such laws can be translated into the practical protection of women during conflict remains to be seen.

http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=publisher&publishe...

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25622227

*This full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

This article examines the legacy of the ground-breaking judgment in Aydin v Turkey in which the European Court of Human Rights held that rape could constitute torture. Ten years on, it examines jurisprudential developments in the conceptualisation of torture in the specific context of the offence of rape. It is argued that while all rapes should be found to satisfy the minimum threshold for Article 3, rape does not per se satisfy the severity of harm criterion for torture. Nonetheless, where the severity of harm is established, the case is made that the purposive element of torture is satisfied in all cases of rape. Finally, in relation to the scope of State responsibility for rape, particularly by private individuals, the article suggests that while the Court's achievements in recognizing rape as a serious harm are considerable, there remain further avenues for jurisprudential development which would ensure that rape as a form of torture is recognized in a wider range of situations and circumstances than is currently the case.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohamed_Mattar5/publication/2377798...

I am delighted to be here at this very special event celebrating 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). I would like to share with you some of the most important recent developments in the anti- trafficking movement and the violence against women movement as linked to developments in international family law since the passage of the UDHR. In doing so, I would like to focus on two main developments: (1) at the substantive level—the expansion of the concept of human trafficking itself, originally limited to prostitution, to include the institution of marriage; and (2) at the procedural level—allowing victims of trafficking access to the international justice system as victims of a form of violence against women. Mohamed Y. Mattar

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/protocol/why.htm

An overview of the Optional Protocol and the different procedures within this mechanism. 

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/jurisprudence.htm

CEDAW/C/44/D/13/2007

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/jurisprudence.htm

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/jurisprudence.htm

https://www.thursdaysinblack.co.za/about

Thursdays in Black Campaign has its roots in groups such as Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina, Black Sash in South Africa and the Women in Black movements in Bosnia and Israel. Thursdays in Black, as a human rights campaign, was started by the World Council of Churches during the 1980's as a peaceful protest against rape and violence - the by-products of war and conflict. The campaign focuses on ways that individuals can challenge attitudes that cause rape and violence.

http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol16/iss1/4/

The protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (African Women's Protocol or Protocol) is a legally binding multilateral supplement to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter), adopted in July 2003 by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Also referred to as the "Maputo Protocol," alluding to the place of its adoption, the Protocol entered into force on November 25, 2005. By June 30, 2009, it had been ratified by 27 of the 53 members of the African Union (AU), all of whom are also States Parties to the African Charter.  

http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/resources.shtml

The document can be found by clicking "Fact Sheets." 

Violence against women takes many forms – physical, sexual, psychological and economic. These forms of violence are interrelated and affect women from before birth to old age. Some types of violence, such as trafficking, cross national boundaries. Women who experience violence suffer a range of health problems and their ability to participate in public life is diminished. Violence against women harms families and communities across generations and reinforces other violence prevalent in society. 

http://www.refworld.org/docid/4a6d87f22.html

Please see last paragraph before "Mandate."

http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=201&CM=8&DF=06/07/2015&CL=ENG

I. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe took note of this Explanatory Report at its 1002nd meeting held at its Deputies' level, on 12 July 2007. The Convention was opened for signature in Lanzarote (Spain), on 25 October 2007, on the occasion of the 28th Conference of European Ministers of Justice.

II. The text of this explanatory report does not constitute an instrument providing an authoritative interpretation of the Convention, although it might be of such a nature as to facilitate the application of the provisions contained therein.