A Life Free of Violence: It’s Our Right

Violence is nothing new. Virtually everyone, men and women alike have been subjected to violence at some moment of their lives. For women and girls, however, the risk of violence arises from the sole fact of being female.

One of the first major achievements of the United Nations was the adoption by the General Assembly, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That Declaration was also a milestone in the advancement of women since it opposes discrimination against women in Article 2:

Fifty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there remains a serious gap between de jure and de facto recognition of women’s rights. While women have advanced more rapidly in some societies than others, women and girls in all societies continually face discrimination, both subtle and flagrant, and are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across age, class, culture and ethnicity.

The situation is no different in the Caribbean, where:

• Thirty per cent of women surveyed in an island-wide sample in Barbados were battered as adults with 1 in 17 reporting severe, continuous abuse. Nearly 1 in 3 reported being sexually abused during childhood or adolescence (Handwerker 1992, quoted in Heise 1992).
• The use of young children, particularly girls, in the trafficking of drugs, the carrying of guns and ammunition and for prostitution, is cause for concern in Dominica.
• In the Dominican Republic, two women are killed every week by an intimate male relative, partner or friend.
• According to a 1995 study, 70 per cent of Haitian women have been brutalised in one form or another.
• Forty per cent of 11-15 year-old Jamaican girls interviewed for a study on teenage pregnancy reported the reason for first intercourse as "forced" (Allen, 1982, quoted in Heise 1992).
• Incest is the most common reason for suicide among teenage girls in Trinidad and Tobago, a country where the suicide rate exceeds that for murder...

Violence against women includes degrading portrayals of women in the media, like sexist and misogynist lyrics in popular music culture; and violence perpetrated or condoned by the State. Examples of the latter are the recent strip-searching of female patrons at a Barbados night club by police officers; maternal deaths as a result of routine obstetric procedures; and depriving young women of educational and employment opportunities because of early pregnancy. Poverty can also force women into situations in which they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and physical abuse.

March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD), is commemorated by women and women’s groups around the world and in an increasing number of countries, is designated a national holiday. In recent years, the growing international women’s movement, strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences and parallel NGO forums, has helped make IWD a rallying point for co-ordinated efforts to demand women’s rights and participation in the political and economic process.

This year, six United National agencies operating in Latin America and the Caribbean are sponsoring a Campaign for Women’s Human Rights, the theme of which is A Life Free of Violence: It’s Our Right. The one-year Campaign is being staged at this time, because several events will provide a unique occasion for the international community to refocus attention on the issue of women’s human rights. Among these are:

• the March 2-13 Meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which will consider four of the critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action - Women and Armed Conflict, Human Rights of Women, The Girl-Child, and Violence Against Women;
• the fifty anniversary of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights which redefined human rights to include the rights of women;
• The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The purpose of the Campaign is to raise public awareness of violence against women and promote a culture of non-violence and respect for universal human rights. A primary objective is therefore to sensitise and motivate governments to develop and/or change policies, legislation and practices to prevent violence against women and girls. It will also seek to strengthen the capacity of governments, women’s organisations and networks to effectively address violence against women and girls and provide a responsive environment in which the partners in development can co-ordinate activities and information on the issue.

To this end, CANA Radio, in association with CAFRA and UN agencies in the Caribbean, presents a special 90-minute call-in, discussion programme in commemoration of International Women’s Day. Entitled, The Cost of Violence against Women, the programme will be aired on local radio stations throughout the region via the CANA Network, on Sunday 8 March at 8:30 p.m. In addition to discussion and call-in segments, the programme will feature vox-pops, music and interviews with survivors/victims and offenders.

The Women’s Human Rights Campaign is co-ordinated regionally by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and sub-regionally by the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), with Crisis Centres and Women’s Bureaux in 20 Caribbean countries.

UNIFEM is the United Nations agency mandated to promote the economic and political empowerment of women in developing countries. UNIFEM also acts as a catalyst within the UN system for efforts to link the needs and concerns of women to all critical issues on the national, regional and global agenda.

CAFRA is a Caribbean network of feminists, individual researchers, activists and women’s organisations which seeks to celebrate and channel the collective power of women for individual and societal transformation, thus creating a climate in which social justice is realised.