Panafrican News Agency

Experts call for end to global epidemic of killings of women

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and other UN and regional human rights experts have called on all States and relevant stakeholders to end the global epidemic of ‘femicide’, or gender-related killings of women, and gender-based violence against women.

In a joint statement issued ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, they said data from both States and the United Nations show that 80 percent of victims of all intentional killings involving intimate partners (in which there is an established intimate relationship between perpetrator and victim) are women.

Several Member States, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions have also provided data on ‘femicide’, following a call for contributions issued by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

“While the #MeToo and #NiUnaMenos movements have broken the silence and demonstrated that violence against women, girls and adolescents is happening throughout our communities, they have not always been followed by adequate reforms of laws and policies, nor have they produced much needed results and changes in women’s daily lives,” read the statement.

“Gender-based violence, including new forms of gender-based violence and online violence against women, remain widely unpunished across the world. As such, States must comply with their international and regional obligations in terms of their due diligence to investigate, identify those responsible and hold them accountable.

“We call for strengthened cooperation between independent global and regional mechanisms, as common synergies and efforts to address violence against women under the existing normative framework on human rights, and reiterate calls to end the global epidemic of gender-based killings or ‘femicides’ (#NiUnaMenos) and to support the voices of those speaking up against endemic violence against women (#MeToo).”

The #MeToo movement has also demonstrated that violence impacts women from all social backgrounds, of all ages, and in all professional settings, and is deeply linked to damaging gender stereotypes and women’s lack of equality.

While the movement has broken the silence on sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence, for the most part, it has not always been followed by adequate reforms of laws and policies, nor has it produced much needed results and changes in women’s daily lives.

“ International and regional mechanisms should capitalize on this transformative movement to re-affirm States’ obligations under various human rights instruments that protect women’s rights in order to promote lasting change,” the joint statement said.

As women, girls and adolescents strive access to fair, unbiased and opportune justice, impunity prevails in cases of femicide, sexual violence, harassment and other violent and discriminatory crimes against them, the experts said, highlighting that gender-based violence remains widely unpunished across the world.

As such, States must comply with their international and regional obligations in terms of their due diligence to investigate, identify those responsible and hold them accountable. The prevalence of impunity breeds social tolerance to this phenomenon which perpetuates these inadmissible crimes.

In the view, the lack of inclusion in political decision-making and societal leadership helps to fuel the myriad other human rights violations that women face on a daily basis, including acts of discrimination against women in the areas of work, education, marriage and property rights, as well as the denial of sexual and reproductive services and rights, including safe and legal abortion.

They pointed out that harmful practices such as disappearances, human trafficking for sexual purposes, female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage, and bride kidnapping, are all forms of gender-based violence that are exacerbated by the persistent discriminatory gender stereotypes that prevent women from fully exercising their autonomy and enjoying their rightful dignity as human beings.

“The development of concrete tools to identify and address these emerging and increasing forms of violence against women who exercise their political rights is a crucial component of the protection of democratic governance,” the statement stressed.
-0- PANA AR 24Nov2018