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 Human Privacy 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

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

)

Making the violence visible

What makes it Invisible

Amnesty International Survey 2009Student 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%)

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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

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Post ConflictNew 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)

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)

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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

Neglect by national and international actors

”The international community supported us and pointed to our work as important. But when it came to ”real” decision-making, we were not recognised as relevant players”(Informant from Bosnia-Hercegovina)

04/18/2329

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

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Not All Arms Are Imported

In the reconstruction, attitudes, policies and structures all require change

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

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HAVE TO KEEP MARCHING

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UNTIL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE SAFE

39 BEYOND RHETORIC TO

ACTION