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121. Implementing the PWDVA: Safeguarding women from domestic violence

Author:
Pooja Parvati
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread, and yet the least recognized, human rights violations across the world. It can manifest in many forms, but the most common form experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted by an intimate partner. Documenting this continues to be a challenge due to lack of reliable, timely datasets. In 2005, the government of India enacted the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), which came into force in 2006. Nine years later, progress in its implementation is insignificant as it remains plagued by challenges such as inadequate funds and human resources, poor coordination across implementing agencies and ineffective monitoring mechanisms. Addressing these would go a long way in strengthening the Act and making it effective. This also corresponds with the Indian government’s wholehearted commitment to ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ by the year 2030 through its adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, Gender Based Violence, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
India, Asia, and Global Focus

122. Survivors Speak: Reflections on Criminal Justice System Responses to Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Majda Halilović and Heather Huhtanen
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Domestic violence has increasingly been recognized as a societal problem and a criminal act as opposed to a private family matter. This is demonstrated by legislation that criminalizes acts of family violence and promotes gender equality and human rights. The question remains, however, whether criminal justice system professionals (police, prosecutors and judges) are applying existing legislation intended to hold perpetrators accountable, protect victims and their children and ultimately interrupt the damaging intergenerational pattern of domestic violence. This research explores the experiences of survivors of systematic domestic violence and contrasts those stories with common theories on the causes of domestic violence and criminal justice system practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The resulting publication reveals the extent to which systematic domestic violence is not appreciated as a serious criminal violation, and as a result, places victims, their children and the community at increased risk. Survivors Speak goes on to concretely identify evidence based risk factors within cases of domestic violence, validated through qualitative research in BiH. These risk factors can be used by criminal justice system professionals to appropriately assess and tailor the police, prosecutorial and judicial response to domestic violence, thereby enhancing victim and community safety and interrupting the intergenerational cycle of domestic violence
Topic:
Crime, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, Gender Based Violence, Memory, and Violence
Political Geography:
Geneva, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

123. Women In The Lebanese Daily Newspapers Cartoons

Author:
Roy Jreijiry
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Many thousands of people demonstrated on March 8, 2014 demanding the promulgation of the law to protect women from domestic violence. It was the biggest feminist manifestation in the history of Lebanon and which started after a number of cases largely covered by the media of women killed or beaten by their husbands. In this context we have decided to observe how the daily press reflected the emergence of the feminist movement and what place it has reserved for women during this period through the cartoons. This article proposes the examination of a corpus of cartoons in four Lebanese daily newspapers (An-Nahar, As- Safir, Al-Mustaqbal and al-Balad) during a period of one year. The result that we reached is that the Lebanese cartoonists give little importance to the feminine figure. At the same time the struggle conducted by the feminist movements during the period of the study were almost absent from the cartoonists’ work. These cartoonists seem to be led by stereotypes that they reproduce, a rearguard struggle. One of these stereotypes is the model of the beautiful and sexy woman, an erotic object par excellence.
Topic:
Social Movement, Social Media, Gender Based Violence, Feminism, and Protests
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

124. Anti-Discrimination Exceptionalism: Racist Violence before the ECtHR and the Holocaust Prism

Author:
Ruth Rubio-Marín and Mathias Möschel
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Over the past years, the European Court of Human Rights has significantly developed and strengthened its Article 14 non-discrimination jurisprudence, including in a number of ground-breaking international law cases establishing increased state responsibility with regard to ethnic segregation in education and gender violence. However, in the type of cases that constitute a large part of its non-discrimination case load, namely physical violence against racial minorities, the Court has so far failed to adequately address Article 14 discrimination claims raised by the victims. We posit that this could be caused in part by what we call the ‘Holocaust Prism’. Put briefly, the experience of the Holocaust has shaped the manner in which continental European courts understand racism and race discrimination, at least (or especially) when it is combined with violence. Paradoxically, this entails that in the most heinous cases of race discrimination, the discrimination threshold is raised to the level of criminal conduct. Moreover, to the extent that it is, only the ethnic dimension of such discrimination is foregrounded even in cases that present obvious intersectional (for example, ethnicity plus gender) dimensions. We exemplify this phenomenon by discussing recent case law on forced sterilization of Roma women and argue that the Court should become aware of this issue, recognize intersectional discrimination and align its case law on racist violence with the discrimination doctrine emerging in its gender violence and educational race segregation cases, both for the sake of internal consistency and to better capture the structural nature of racial discrimination in Europe.
Topic:
International Law, Ethnicity, Gender Based Violence, Holocaust, Roma, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
Europe and Czech Republic

125. Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Issue: Rumor v. Italy

Author:
Ronagh J.A. McQuigg
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article focuses on the recent developments concerning domestic violence within the context of the Council of Europe. Since 2007, the European Court of Human Rights has issued a series of important judgments in cases involving domestic violence. The most recent of these is Rumor v. Italy, in which the Court issued its judgment on 27 May 2014. The article analyses this case in the context of the Court’s previous jurisprudence on domestic violence. In addition, on 1 August 2014, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence entered into force, and the article will include a number of reflections on the potential held by this Convention. No violation of the European Convention on Human Rights was found in Rumor; however, the question of whether Italy would have been in breach of the provisions of the new Convention, to which it is a party, had this Convention been in force at the time of the relevant events, will be examined.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Women, Gender Based Violence, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

126. From Rejection to Redress: Overcoming Legacies of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Northern Uganda

Author:
Virginie Ladisch
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
The conflicts in northern Uganda witnessed wide-scale perpetration of serious crimes, including murder, abduction, torture, forced displacement, forced recruitment, destruction of property, and various forms of sexual and gender-based violations, including rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage. While considerable resources have been expended on humanitarian, recovery, and development programs in conflict-affected areas, the crimes committed during past conflicts by both rebels and state actors have not been accompanied by any significant measure of accountability, truth seeking, or acknowledgment by the state. In many respects, this absence of redress has poisoned the atmosphere in some communities with recrimination, resentment, and stigmatization, a problem which particularly affects children born of conflict-related sexual violence and their mothers. Considering the unique and enduring consequences of sexual and gender based violations, this report focuses specifically on the impact of the lack of accountability for sexual crimes that lead to motherhood. The rights of women who suffered conflict-related sexual violence and the children they bore as a result have largely been overlooked by the state; the violations they suffered remain unredressed. In response to this accountability gap, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) conducted consultations across greater northern Uganda in April 2015 on the long-term challenges and unredressed justice needs of children born as a result of conflict-related sexual violence and of their mothers, in order to inform advocacy efforts that will contribute to acknowledgment, reparations, and justice for this category of victims. This report aims to capture the main issues that emerged from these consultations and offer policy recommendations on how these unmet justice needs could be addressed.
Topic:
Gender Based Violence, Transitional Justice, Conflict, Sexual Violence, and Youth Engagement
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

127. The Accountability Gap on Sexual Violence in Kenya: Reforms and Initiatives Since the Post-Election Crisis

Author:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
This briefing paper reviews the Kenyan government’s response to sexual and gender-based violence committed against women, men, and children during the 2007/2008 post-election crisis. It draws on interviews with over 40 survivors about their experience and analyzes the laws and transitional justice mechanisms, like the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, that have been put in place to address violations of the past and prevent their recurrence. It includes a set of recommendations to the government, the Attorney-General’s Office, and the National Police Service Commission on closing the accountability gap.
Topic:
Gender Based Violence, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, and Sexual Violence
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

128. Homophobia, Injustice and 'Corrective Rape' in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Author:
Kylie Thomas
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
Abstract:
This report offers a critique of the terms 'corrective rape' and 'curative rape' and argues for careful and nuanced application of the concept of 'hate crimes'. The report focuses on a particular, individual life history and experience of trauma. It also argues for understanding gender‐based violence as structural violence.
Topic:
Gender Based Violence, Rape, LGBT+, Sexual Violence, Hate Crimes, and Homophobia
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

129. South Sudan Women Face Human Rights Violations

Author:
Yobu Annet
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
A woman with her two-week-old baby was dragged out of her home at gun point in April at Hai-Mauna residential area over issues of domestic violence. In the process, Rose Mary Adare broke her finger as she was being flogged by the plainclothes, h armed men who were brought by the husband. “My husband has thrown me out of the house with my kids because he has a newly wedded wife. This has been his habit, chasing women out of the house, whenever he gets a new wife”, she said. As it started raining, the woman took off with her little baby and her two older children to a makeshift shelter that was just across what used to be her home. Michael Amule Joseph, Rose Adare's husband and the Commissioner General for the State Revenue Authority, drove off with the armed men, leaving onlookers wondering as to why a constitional post holder entrusted with a national responsibility had to drag the wife and the newly born baby out of the house at gun point. An eye witness says the arms scared the neigbours who intended to run to the rescue of the woman. “We wanted him to calm down so that we talk to both of them”, said a neighbour. Rose Adare had been married for a period of seven years, saying that the time has been hell on earth. “I tried complaining to my parents but they couldn’t help me out. When I approached Munuki Police station in order to help me, the police authorities advised me to settle the issues with relatives”. Lilian Riziq, the President and Chief Execitive Officer of South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, said it is unfortunate that South Sudan does not have family laws that protect women. They are always referred to the customary courts which are normally biased against the women, putting women on the wrong side in cases of domestic violence. A concerned citizen, who termed this a human rights violation, urged men not to behave inhumanely against their wives and children. “We are supposed to protect women but not to abuse them nor intemidate them when they say something. Why should armed men involve themselves into domestic issues? If the armed men have failed to maintain law and order, then, who will protect the civilians?” he asked.
Topic:
Human Rights, Women, and Gender Based Violence
Political Geography:
Africa and South Sudan