Dear Working Group Members,
You have sent many suggestions for resources to the Working Group. We have
compiled them here for the period 11-17 March. We hope these resources will
be useful in your efforts to end violence against women.
Thanks again for all your messages!
Warm regards,
the Moderators
******************
RESOURCES SUBMITTED TO
THE END-VIOLENCE WORKING GROUP
11 - 17 MARCH 2002
Contents
A. ARTICLES
1. East Africa: Special Report on violence against women
B. CALL FOR PAPERS
2. "The human rights challenge of globalization in Asia-Pacific-US: the
trafficking in persons, especially women and children"
C. PUBLICATIONS
3. Women's Fundraising Handbook
D. OTHER RESOURCES
4. Speakers of Prostitution Prevention Project
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A. ARTICLES
1. EAST AFRICA: Special Report on violence against women
NAIROBI, 8 Mar 2002 (IRIN) - Throughout East Africa, human rights and
women's lobby groups have achieved a measure of success in pushing
for the recognition and legal protection of women's rights.
Unfortunately, in practice, women still face economic, social and
cultural disadvantages that continue to leave them exposed to
violence and abuse, according to regional gender experts.
Forms of violence against women common in the region include assault,
psychological and emotional torture by spouses, rape, female genital
mutilation (FGM), abductions in some cases, and even murder.
The level of many of these forms of violence is increasing, despite
heightened awareness and improved laws, according to Rosemary Mueni,
a member of the Kenya-based Coalition on Violence Against Women
(COVAW).
"When we look at domestic violence and other forms of violence
against women, the law and the practice are not matching. There is a
lot of violence taking place within the family, and in society," she
told IRIN.
COVAW, a grouping comprising human rights groups, and men and women
in their individual capacities, says it is particularly frustrated by
culturally sanctioned practices tending to entrench discrimination on
the basis of sex, and which contribute to violence against women
within society.
Eva Mulema, a member of the International Federation of Women lawyers
(FIDA), Uganda chapter, argues that although Uganda is currently
viewed as exemplary for its leadership in recognising women's rights
by putting in place laws which criminalise domestic and sexually
related violence, economic factors and the lack of supporting
infrastructure - such as shelters for abused women - continue to
prevent many women from lodging complaints against their abusers.
"The law is not perfect. There are criminal provisions for domestic
violence, but women don't want their husbands arrested and locked up
in jail. So the law still does not meet their needs," she said.
"It is generally agreed that gender-violence rates are quite high in
Uganda. What worries us more is that the perception that it is a
problem is not very apparent," Mulema noted.
In Uganda, domestic violence against women, including rape, remained
common throughout 2001, according to the US State Department country
report, released on Monday. According to UN statistics, 31 percent of
women have experienced domestic violence, it said. "Law enforcement
officials, reflecting public opinion, continued to view beating as a
man's prerogative and rarely intervened," it added.
However, the problem of domestic violence is getting increasing
public attention and a Domestic Relations Bill is expected, according
to the US report.
Meanwhile, police and court records indicated that cases of
defilement (statutory rape) were increasing to a worrying level; the
US cited figures from the Commissioner General of Prisons which
showed that 4,000 - or 38 percent - of capital cases during 2001 were
defilement cases.
Some men of the Karamojong ethnic group in northeastern Uganda were
continuing their cultural practice of claiming unmarried women as
wives by raping them (during raids on neighbouring districts), the
report said.
According to the FIDA Kenya chapter's 2001 report, domestic violence
was the most common human-rights violation in Kenya. Of a total of 62
murders reported between January and September 2001, 29 involved a
man killing his wife.
"This then means that 47 percent of all murders nationwide were the
result of domestic violence. Other manifestations of domestic
violence included breaks and fractures, amputations, other visible
marks, and missing hair and teeth," said Martha Koome, FIDA-Kenya's
chairperson, in a recent speech, received by IRIN.
"If we factor in the psychological impact of domestic violence, then
its negative impact becomes astounding indeed," she said. "Quite
clearly, domestic violence is a major public health problem in this
country."
Between January and November 2000, the Kenyan media reported some 50
deaths and 69 cases of severe injury resulting from domestic
violence, the Daily Nation newspaper reported on 3 November 2000.
In 1999, FIDA-Kenya, had reported 60 deaths resulting from domestic
violence, and said at least three out of every five women in the
country had been assaulted in the home.
However, organisations like COVAW have argued that the reported cases
are just the "tip of the iceberg", because many cases of domestic
assault are never reported, either due to women's economic dependency
on their spouses, or pressure exerted on them by the families of
their husbands.
Over and above the abuse they suffer, victims of gender violence
often have to confront hostile or insensitive police officers when
they go to report their cases, according to Mueni.
Moreover, sexual offences often take place in private, thus tending
to leave the burden of proof on the victim, especially in the case of
children, whose evidence must be corroborated by a witness, she said.
"The major frustration is with children. Many sexually abused
children do not get justice, especially when it happens within the
family. It becomes an issue of family image," Mueni added.
Another major cause of worry for many Kenyan women is the emergence
of so-called cultural groups which have recently been making frequent
physical attacks on women, sometimes stripping them of clothes they
consider inappropriate.
In October 2001, for a group of youths belonging to the controversial
cultural sect known as "Mungiki" attacked and stripped six women in
the Kayole area in the east of Nairobi. They had deemed the women
"improperly" dressed, because they were wearing slacks. The incident
sparked a public outcry.
Jane Kiragu, FIDA-Kenya's executive director, argues that the
emergence of "patriarchal groups" like Mungiki, which claim to assert
true African values in women, are merely a response to male rejection
of women's increasing share of power in society.
She told IRIN that her organisation was persevering in its efforts to
sensitise the public and the government on the need to recognise that
women, too, had a right to self-determination.
"We insist that groups which target women for violence, especially
because of the way they dress, must be resisted strongly. Women are
human beings as well, and should be accorded their rights as equally
as men," Kiraga told IRIN on Tuesday.
"These rights are not privileges, but are entitlements, which, when
violated by groups of men, are clearly an affront to women's human
rights and dignity. All these allegations of taking us back to our
roots are just a guise to put women under their control," she added.
FGM remains a serious concern in the region, despite the Kenyan,
Ugandan and Tanzanian parliaments having adopted legislation to
outlaw it.
Widely condemned by international health experts as damaging to both
physical and psychological health, FGM continued to be practised
among the Sabiny tribe in the rural district of Kapchorwa in
southeastern Uganda, and by the Pokot (also known as the Upe) in the
northeast (and in western Kenya), according to US State Department
report on human rights in Uganda, released on 3 March.
The are about 10,000 Sabiny people and 20,000 Upe (Ugandan Pokot),
with initiation ceremonies involving FGM generally occurring about
every two years, the report stated. The practice continued despite
the Ugandan government, women's groups and the UN Population Fund
continuing to carry out programmes to combat it through education, it
said.
"These programmes have received strong government support and some
support from local leaders", in addition to significant media
coverage bringing public attention to the problem, the US State
Department added.
In Tanzania, although the government officially discourages FGM, it
is still performed at an early stage by about 20 percent of the
country's 130 main ethnic groups, a problem attributable mainly to
the lack of laws expressly prohibiting the practice," according to
the this week's US State Department report on Tanzania's human rights
practices in 2001.
In addition, the report says the police do not have adequate
resources to protect victims of FGM. Under Tanzanian law, it says,
FGM is only covered under the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act,
which prohibits cruelty against children.
Women's rights groups have often blamed their governments for failing
to do enough on the legal front and through public education on the
issue.
In Uganda, for example, a new Domestic Bill sought to address the
culturally sanctioned gender practices responsible for much of the
violence in the home, including the outlawing of polygamy. The bill
was, however, withdrawn, after much protest from Muslims, who claimed
it violated Islamic provisions permitting men to marry four wives.
The bill is now undergoing "further work", according to Mulema.
The situation of women is not very different in neighbouring
Tanzania, where domestic violence is not expressly included in the
law, according to Rehema Karefu, acting director of the Tanzania
Women's Legal Aid Centre, in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Karefu's
centre receives an average of 80 cases of domestic violence a day.
Although common law - particularly that of Britain, the former
colonial power - which prohibits gender-based violence is
automatically applicable in Tanzania, its implementation has been
hampered by a combination of socioeconomic factors, according to
rights activists.
"There is no law prohibiting domestic violence, so to say, but sexual
offences provisions, which outlaw rape, child exploitation and
trafficking of women, have covered some of it," Karefu told IRIN from
Dar es Salaam.
Of key concern to organisations like COVAW in Kenya is the continued
under-representation of women in parliament (despite the fact that
women form 52 percent of the country's population of about 28 million
people), thereby reducing women's ability to fight for their rights.
This is in contrast to Uganda and Tanzania, which have put in place
affirmative-action policies that guarantee a critical proportion of
women's representation in government.
There are only eight women in the current eighth Kenyan parliament,
as opposed to 210 males, and none in president Daniel arap Moi's
cabinet - a fact which women leaders regard as a "sad reality"
illustrating women's lack of political muscle to advocate for
legislation to protect their rights.
In November 2000, the Kenyan parliament published a Domestic Violence
Bill, which, among other things, sought to provide stiffer penalties
for domestic-related assaults and battery, but it has yet to be
passed into law, according to Mueni.
A regional forum which convened between 11 and 13 February in the
Kenyan capital, Nairobi, urged governments in the region to
collaborate with nongovernmental organisations to help curb the
sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
The forum, organised by children's organisations in the region,
recommended, among other things, the mounting of campaigns to
sensitise communities, families, schools and the police on the rights
of children, particularly those vulnerable to sexual abuse, the
African Church Information Service (ACIS) reported on 28 February.
In its latest efforts to curb violence against women, the United
Nations Development Fund for Woman (UNIFEM) has launched a new
publication, which showcases a number of strategies from around the
world to end violence against women, according to a recent UNIFEM
statement. [see http://www.unifem.undp.org/resour.htm]
The publication, "Picturing a Life Free of Violence: Media and
Communications Strategies to End Violence against Women", is a
collaborative project between UNIFEM and the Media Materials
Clearinghouse of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Communication Programs.
"The publication seeks to facilitate information sharing between
organisations working to end violence against women, so that strong
and effective strategies used in one country can be replicated in
other contexts," the statement added.
In her address to commemorate the day to end violence against women
on 25 November, Noeleen Heyzer, the UNIFEM executive director,
expressed delight that the international community had recognised
that efforts to confront gender-based violence were central to human
security and development.
"It is notable how the actions and networks to end violence against
women [including FGM and so-called honour killings] have joined
forces across nations, ethnicities, race, class, caste and other
diversities," she said.
"Violence against women is universal, and the struggle to put an end
to it involves each and every one of us."
The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the
views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy,
archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit
and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to
the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be
re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All
materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs 2001
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=24161
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B. CALL FOR PAPERS
2. Conference Announcement & First Call for Papers & Abstracts
"THE HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF GLOBALIZATION IN
ASIA-PACIFIC-US: THE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS,
ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN"
Honolulu, Hawai'i USA
November 13-15, 2002
----------------------------------------------------------
This international conference is presented by the Globalization Research
Center-University of Hawaii-Manoa .
Trafficking in human beings is modern slavery, the
underside of globalization. In Asia, a recognized
"supply" and "demand" zone for trafficked persons, the
practice is fed by economic disparity, materialism,
the low status of women and girls, corruption, lax
law enforcement, and is tied to global criminal economies.
This conference aims to bring together knowledgeable
stakeholders in Asia-Pacific-US with an action-oriented
mandate to provide concrete tools for governments to more
effectively prevent trafficking. The practical focus of
the conference will be to monitor progress and evaluate
implementation strategies of two important international
initiatives:
1. The Asian Regional Initiative Against
Trafficking in Women & Children (ARIAT).
2. The Anti-Trafficking Protocol of the UN Crime
Convention.
----------------------------------------------------------
TARGET AUDIENCE: Government/law enforcement/legal/
immigration officials, researchers, NGOs, intergovernmental
(IGOs), international organizations, human rights
advocates, and other committed persons.
All interested participants are encouraged to email us at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] for registration information.
----------------------------------------------------------
ABSTRACT DEADLINE: MAY 15, 2002
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For program information and abstract guidelines including:
Abstract Submission Instructions, Suggested Topics, and
Abstract Submission Form, visit our web-site:
http://www.globalhawaii.org/PDF/trafficking.htm
or print out the conference PDF attachment.
----------------------------------------------------------
If you are not able to access the web-site, we will email,
fax or mail complete information. Please contact :
Nancie Caraway, Ph.D
Director Women's Human Rights Projects
Globalization Research Center
1580 Makaloa Street, Suite 970
Honolulu, Hawaii USA 96814
Tel: (808) 945.1450, ext. 120
Fax: (808) 945.1450
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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C. PUBLICATIONS
3. WOMEN'S FUNDRAISING HANDBOOK
The Book explores key ideas about raising money to fund women's rights
work. It is especially designed for first-time fundraisers and for women's
groups in developing countries. It captures the essence of the Global
Fund's Women, Money and Empowerment workshops, which were given for
activists at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
On-line in full-text at:
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/4news/fundraising-handbook/1-intro.html
(Source: Pambazuka news)
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D. OTHER RESOURCES
4. SPEAKERS OF PROSTITUTION PREVENTION PROJECT
Escape: The Prostitution Prevention Project has added Pennsylvania
based Yvonne Haller as a member of our speaking team. Contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED] for more details or go to
www.escapeprostitution.com or http://home.att.net/~rhiannonn
Yvonne Haller (Speaker) graduated Phi Beta Kappa in psychology from Penn
State University in 1998. She received her Master's Degree in
Counseling and Human Services from Lehigh University in 2000. As a
psychotherapist for children and teens with emotional and psychological
issues, she has witnessed first hand the devastating effects of
childhood poverty and abuse. Yvonne has worked hand in hand with a wide
range of feminist activists in the crusade against pornography and
prostitution. Since she first began grassroots organizing in the early
1990's, she is an outspoken advocate for children's rights and
emphasizes the importance of intervention with children who are at risk
for sexual exploitation at a very early age. Yvonne is available to
speak internationally on the harm of prostitution and pornography as
well as the importance of developing prevention programs for at risk
youth. Yvonne is not a director or founder of Escape but works as an
advocate for the agency and its mission. She is available to lecture
and host educational workshops nationally and internationally and is
based in Pennsylvania.
***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from
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