It was just a domestic….
Public/Private Approach is rooted in patriarchy
 The crimes against women are largely left
unpunished
 The law fails to capture the severity of crimes or to
adequately punish them
 The law is insensitive to the victims’ needs
Too Much Of A
Balancing Act
Family
Privacy
.
Human
Rights
Shifting violence against
women from
Customary to criminal
Private to public
Personal to political
Individual to systemic
Systemic
Gender violence of everyday life
linked to
• Economic systems that sustain
inequalities
• Continuum of violence
• Exploitation
Having power and
control can mean
•
•
•
•
•
Discriminatory laws and norms
Slander and threats against women
Sexual exploitation
Feminisation of Poverty
Corruption
Discriminatory
laws and norms
”In the beginning many men
refused to sit next to me because of
me being a woman. I tried to
change their thinking about women.
I told them: I’m an educated
person, I’m an engineer.”
(Iraqi informant)
Too many constitutions allow these
discriminatory practices to continue
– permitting customary law to
dictate women’s role in public life,
as well as the age of
marriage/divorce/ violence against
women
Demarcation of roles
through culture and religion
• Lebanon – ‘Women are victims of personal
status laws…family relations are not
regulated; it is as if one is living in a jungle’
• South Africa: ‘patriarchy is still
dominant…sense of immunity that
perpetrators feel’
• Northern Ireland –‘you make your bed so
you have to live in it’
• ‘An English man’s home is his castle’
Internalised
powerlessness
• Beliefs: women are told it is against their
nature to be decision makers
• Transference of dominant (male) thinking
and language on to women
• Women have to get a sense of who they
really are as opposed to what the dominant
group has made them believe
Slander and
threats
“As
women activists we get a lot
of death threats. Over the
telephone, SMS, e-mail, or they
send someone to warn you. All
of us have received such
threats. I have been threatened
by local politicians, governors
and members of parliament.”
(Informant from DRC)
Kvinna till Kvinna research
• Armenia and Bosnia Hercegovina: women who
dared to enter male-dominated political spaces were
referred to as prostitutes.
• Azerbaijan: the questioning women's moral character
linked to the demeaning of women in political life.
• DRC: women politicians were referred to as ‘rebels’
or ‘prostitutes’
Closing down the public space
• Intimidating women’s rights activists
and women politicians through slander.
• Questioning women’s morals can lead
women to withdraw from political life
• As an effective exclusion mechanism, it
can lead women to work behind the
scenes in order to maintain anonymity.
The NI Peace Talks
Political resentment to the
Women’s Coalition
‘they (the Women’s
Coalition) must be a cult so
they will grow into each
other and disappear’…
‘shut up and sit down you
stupid woman…’
Outsiders’ Becoming ‘Insiders’ Can Be
Unwelcome
Imposing New Standards
Making the violence visible
We know that
 One in ten women experience domestic violence
currently and one in four at some time in their lives
in non conflict situations
 One in five women have experienced rape or
attempted rape at some time in their life
Make the connections and understand the variations
 Cultural factors can impact on how it is counted
 Political conflict can impact on what gets counted
What makes it Invisible
Amnesty International Survey 2009
Student attitudes on violence against women
- A women who had been raped was partially or
totally to blame if she:
had been acting flirtatiously (46%)
was drunk (48%)
- It was acceptable for a man to hit his girlfriend or
partner if she:
flirted with another man (10%)
nagged (9%)
18
Before and After
Conflict
• Initially non intervention due to the
‘Troubles’ and lack of training
• Viewed as ordinary (decent) crime with low
rates of arrest
Introduced
• Domestic Violence Units with Domestic
Violence Officers
• Specialist advisors in police stations
Post Conflict
New relationships between
the state the individual
• The new relationship
has to be just, inclusive
and fair
• What do constitutions
do for women and what
do they do to women?
(Fionnuala Ní Aoláin)
20
Where there is a gender
imbalance....
• Are patriarchies rejected or merely reinvented?
• Is gender inequality allowed to be
perpetuated?
Is the judiciary still sitting on the bench?
Re-establishing Trust in State Institutions
•
•
•
•
•
How representative are the judiciary?
What are the mechanisms for accountability?
Are human rights at the centre of the changes?
How will the institutional culture be reoriented?
Who will do the training and who will oversee it?
Institutional Reform is key. Oversight is crucial
FOURTEEN YEARS ON: ARE WOMEN FULLY PRESENT?
Women’s representation can
decline post conflict
No women judges in the high court; few women on the policing board, none
on the monitoring bodies for peace and disarmament and less than 15% in
the legislative assembly.
Institutional reforms
In Liberia
• Special measures to increase the
number of female judges
• Special courts to deal with VAW
Timor Leste
• Court advocates
• Enforcing new legislation on domestic
violence and sexual abuse
What we need to
know
• Of all murders of women, over half are
“domestic” and women may have
already left the relationship.
• Homicide reviews 2013 to learn lessons
from what happened
• Gun licenses should be rescinded if
used against partners
Victim Centred Approach
• “As we work to reshape the justice
system, victims must be at the heart of
everything we do and the important
support role played by organisations like
Women’s Aid is vital as we move
forward” (Minister of Justice David
Ford)
• www.dojni.gov.uk 26 October 2010)
UN1325:Changing
Thinking
• Violence against women is purposeful
behavior (not irrational or spontaneous)
• Its purpose is to control the victim and
the relationship
• Violence against women is
unacceptable in every culture
• The perpetrator is entirely responsible
for his violence
• Change is possible
27
4/13/2015
Neglect by national and
international actors
The international
community
supported us and
pointed to our work
as important. But
when it came to
”real” decisionmaking, we were not
recognised as
relevant players”
(Informant from
Bosnia-Hercegovina)
”
Linking Safety to
Human Security
• Recognize all abusive behaviors
• Understand the effects on victims
• Taking responsibility to change
attitudes towards women and girls
• Holding perpetrators and not victims
accountable
• Learning respectful ways of
communicating from an early age
29
4/13/2015
Not All Arms Are
Imported
In the reconstruction, attitudes, policies and
structures all require change
30
DECEMBER 19TH 2011 WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT
OBAMA
Peace accords are too often negotiated between
• Armed combatants who originally fought the war or
• Groups whose experiences are not easily transferred
UN 1325: CHANGE THE
CONTEXT
BILL OF RIGHTS
... values the role of
women in public and
political life and their
involvement in
advancing peace and
security
Democratic Rights and
Special Measures
• Public authorities must take effective
measures to facilitate the full and equal
participation of women in political and public
life, including, where appropriate, the use of
temporary special measures
• The membership of public authorities must as
far as practicable be representative of society
in Northern Ireland
Freedom from violence
• Everyone has the right to be free from
all forms of violence and harassment,
from either public or private sources,
including but not limited to:
• Domestic violence or harassment
• Sexual violence or harassment
• Gender-related violence or harassment
THESE RIGHTS ARE
CENTRAL …
AND SHOULD NOT BE PICKED OVER
To summarize: post conflict
•
•
•
•
•
•
Recognising the pattern of abuse
Challenging norms leading to controls
Including rights for women in new settlement
Training (judiciary and cjs) for transformation
Special measures for representation
Inclusion of women’s needs
HAVE TO KEEP MARCHING
37
UNTIL WOMEN AND
CHILDREN ARE SAFE
38
BEYOND RHETORIC TO
ACTION
39