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This page offers topic-specific guidance on the use of the Human Rights and Reproductive Health Matrix, created by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported POLICY Project Human Rights Working Group. To view other aspects of the Matrix, including guidance on other topics, please click on the Matix icon above.
Gender-Based ViolenceDefinition The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence against Women was the first international human rights instrument
to deal exclusively with gender-based violence (GBV). Although non-binding on countries, the
Declaration uniformly defines GBV as "any act. . . that results in, or is
likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to
women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of
liberty, whether occurring in public or private life." Another international consensus statement,
the Platform of
Action from the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing), explains
that GBV includes physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the
family or within the general community, including battering; sexual abuse of
female children; dowry-related violence; marital and non-marital rape;
traditional practices harmful to women; sexual harassment and intimidation at
work, in educational institutions and elsewhere; trafficking in women; and
forced prostitution. Physical, sexual
and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State is also GBV. The
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is a treaty that requires
countries to prevent and prohibit GBV.
Although the Convention itself does not specifically address violence
against women, the Convention?s monitoring body, the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, has stated that GBV is gender-based
discrimination prohibited by the Convention.
The Committee?s General Recommendation (GR) 19 specifies that GBV is violence
that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women
disproportionately. GR 19 cautions States Parties to
take all appropriate measures to eliminate gender-based violence, especially in
the home. Links to Reproductive Health GBV places in jeopardy women?s lives by putting them at risk
of sickness or death from physical and mental trauma. GBV often involves unprotected sex that is
coerced through force or the threat of violence. Women suffering GBV are thus also exposed to
sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and unwanted pregnancy. Human Rights
Implicated Impairing their health and lives, GBV obviously nullifies women?s human right to life and right to health. Other human rights violated by GBV include
the following:
Relevant Human Rights Documents A country that sanctions, permits, or does not deter GBV
violates international human rights treaties the country has ratified. Such treaties could include CEDAW (mentioned
above); The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and The Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. These three treaties have been signed by most
countries and have bodies that review countries? compliance with their treaty
obligations. The Beijing Platform of Action provides
countries direction in how to comply with human rights treaties addressing
GBV. Key
Human Rights Arguments You Could Use Under
international human rights law, states are required not only to avoid violating
human rights, but also to prevent and respond to human rights abuses. This concept of state responsibility also
obligates countries to prevent and punish rights violations by private actors. The following three doctrines must be considered
when dealing with violence against women by private actors:[1]
Advocates should call for countries? due diligence in
investigating and punishing acts of violence; the existence of a national legal
system criminalizing and providing sanctions for GBV is not sufficient.[2] States must ?pursue by all
appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against
women? and ?exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance
with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those
acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons.?[3] Victims of gender-based violence
must also be assured adequate compensation from their abusers.[4] In GR 19, the Committee for Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the CEDAW treaty body)
recommends measures states should take to provide effective protection of women
against violence. Similarly, The Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (or the Convention of Belem do Para) provides State Parties a detailed list of
duties to prevent and punish GBV.
If a country?s law enforcement discriminates against the
victims in cases involving violence against women, then advocates may ask an
international treaty body or court to hold the State liable for violating
international human rights standards of equality. CEDAW requires State parties to
?pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating
discrimination against women.?[5] This obligation includes a duty to ?refrain
from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to
ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with
this obligation? and ?to take all appropriate measures, including legislation,
to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which
constitute discrimination against women.?
Depending on the severity and the circumstances, GBV can constitute
torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment actionable
under human rights treaties such as The International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, and The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). Some GBV involves the four critical elements
that constitute torture: (a) it causes severe physical and or mental pain, it
is (b) intentionally inflicted, (c) for specified purposes and (d) with some
form of official involvement, whether active or passive. Rape, for example, is a form
of torture, and courts have required used CAT to require countries to
prevent and punish rape. Legal Remedies You Could Try Subjecting
a country to international scrutiny is an effective way of pressing a country
to modify laws and policies that permit human rights abuse. The international legal system offers
advocates several ways to address GBV in their own countries.
[1] This analysis is taken from Radhika Coomaraswamy, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Combating Domestic Violence: Obligations Of The State, 6 Innocenti Digest 10 (2000), available at http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/digest6e.pdf. [2] See Veláquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, 4 Inter. Am. Ct. HR, Ser. C, No.4, para. 167 (1988). [3] Committee on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Eleventh Session, General Recommendation 19, Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/47/38), Ch.1. [4] See Veláquez Rodríguez at 174 (requiring Honduras to ?take reasonable steps to prevent human rights violations and to use the means at its disposal to carry out a serious investigation of violations committed within this jurisdiction, to identify those responsible, to impose the appropriate punishment and to ensure the victim adequate compensation?). [5] CEDAW, Art. 2. |
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