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Paper Gender and the Law
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Paper Gender and the Law University of Bologna
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IntroductionViolence against women is an ongoing problem in the world. In recent years, women's
human rights have been at the top of the international agenda. Even though this subject is
high on the agenda and there are more women's rights activists than ever, women still are
victims of violation of their human rights. Violence against women occures in every country
and culture. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, violence against women has
increased.1 According to the WHO, nearly 30% of the women have been subjected to
physical and/or sexual violence by intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence
in their lifetime.2 The United Nations General Secretary even recognized violence against
women as a "global pandemic".3 This shows that we are far from done fighting violence
against women.
In this paper we will look at how we can define of violence against women, why combating
violence against women is so important, what is already being done to combat violence
against women and we discuss different cases concerning violence against women. Besides
that, we will discuss different declarations and conventions like the Istanbul Convention and
the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
How is violence against women defined?
It is necessary to have a good understanding of what violence against women is in order to
combat violence against women. Defining the definition violence against women strengthens
policy making and it can help with understanding the ongoing problem. Unfortunately, it is
sometimes very hard to define violence against women. Every individual has a different
opinion on how we define violence against women. This could be the result of differences in
cultures, politics, education and perspectives.
DEVAW
In 1993 the General Assembly recognised the urgent need for the universal application to
women of the rights and principles like equality and liberty. According to article 1 in the
declaration violence against women means: "any act of gender-based violence 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 deprivation of liberty, wether occurring in
public or in private life".4 This declaration condemns gender-based violence in the private
and public spheres and obliges UN member states to work towards an elimination of
violence against women.5
Differences of violence
Violence against women can consist of violence such as intimate partner violence and
sexual violence. Intimate partner violence - frequently named domestic violence - is one of
the most common forms of violence against women.6 It refers to behaviour by an intimate
1 UN General Assembly, "Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women," 1993.
2 Supra note 4.
3 Campbell, "Health Consequences of intimate partner violence," The Lancet, 1331 (2002).
4 Supra note 2.
5 Supra note 16.
6 Joachim, Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender violence and Reproductive Rights, 130.
, partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. This violence can
consist for example of punching, kicking and homicide.7
According to the WHO is meant by sexual violence "any sexual act, attempt to obtain a
sexual act, or other act directed against a person's sexuality using coercion, by any person
regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the
physically forced or otherwise coerces penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other
body part or object, attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching and other non-contract
forms".8 Sexual violence consists of different behaviours and can vary from verbal
harassment to forced penetration. It is mostly committed by non-state actors, but if we look
at Nigeria for example we see that there are reports about the fact that women are victicms
of sexual violence committed by the military of Boko Haram.9 Especially in the case of sexual
violence, women are often too afraid to seek help for reasons such as shame, fear of not
being believed, fear of being blamed and fear of retaliation.10
7 Supra note 16.
8 Council of Europe, "What is gender-based violence?".
9World Health Organization, "Violence against women: A priority health issue," July 1997.
10 Jamie Grierson, "Domestic abuse killings 'more than double' amid covid-19 lockdown,΅ The
Guardian, April 15, 2020.
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