Statement by Pr. Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, 62nd session of the General Assembly, Third Committee

Item 70 (b)

25 October 2007
New York



Mr. Chairperson, distinguished delegates, representatives of the United Nations and the NGO community,

It is with great pleasure that I address the 62nd session of the General Assembly in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

I would like to start by expressing my appreciation for this opportunity to inform the General Assembly of the trends and challenges with respect to violence against women as they have transpired through the activities I have undertaken over the past year and also briefly discuss my plans for the coming year.

I look forward to a fruitful dialogue with you all.

Mr. Chairperson,

As I had reported to the Assembly last year, my 2007 thematic report to the Human Rights Council A/HRC/4/34 was devoted to the intersections between culture and violence against women. In this report, I addressed the ways in which culture based discourses and paradigms are used to justify or explain violence against women, thereby confining the problem to a cultural realm. Such discourses challenge the primacy of the principle of gender equality and women’s human rights and divert attention from the system of inequality that underlies the occurrence of systematic violence against women.

In this connection, my report starts with the assumption that gender inequality is one of the common elements across all cultures and civilizations. Historically, significant deviations from this norm have taken place in many parts of the world. As a result, although much progress has been made towards achieving gender equality, no society has yet reached this aim. Violence against women, which is embedded in gender inequality, remains a universal phenomenon.

While the universality of violence against women and its socio-historical causes are firmly recognized in all relevant international instruments, cultural relativism or claims of cultural specificity are increasingly advanced to deny women the enjoyment of their rights. Parallel to this is a worrying trend towards singling out certain types of violence and essentializing certain cultures as the source of the problem. In the neo-liberal era, identity politics, based on cultural differences, has made culture the site of contestation and the notion of culture a tool of new forms of oppression of women, whether in its orientalist or occidentalist guise.

The implications of such cultural discourses are clearly alarming for all women and jeopardize the sustainability of the international agenda for gender equality which was made possible as a result of a joint and concerted effort of women worldwide uniting around a common goal to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

Cultural essentialism, in all its variations, are based on several myths that need to be challenged if we are to move forward in the international human rights agenda in general and the elimination of violence against women in particular. These are: (i) depicting culture as immutable and static; (ii) depicting culture as homogenous; and (iii) depicting culture as apolitical and detached from the material foundation of life. Such myths privilege dominant representations of culture while denying space for alternative voices; clouds over the material basis of life that underpin cultural claims, thus overlooking the political and economic conditions that sustain violations of women’s rights. We must bear in mind that culture evolves as a response to different and competing individual and collective needs and aspirations, which makes it diverse, dynamic and ever-changing.

Compromising women’s rights is not an option. Therefore, the challenge that confronts us today is to respect and prize our diverse cultures while developing common strategies to resist oppressive practices in the name of culture; and to promote and uphold universal human rights while rejecting ethnocentric encroachments.

Mr. Chairperson,

In 2006 I undertook official visits to Turkey, A/HRC/4/34/Add.2 the Netherlands A/HRC/4/34/Add.4 and Sweden. A/HRC/4/34/Add.3 I presented my mission reports to the Human Rights Council in March of this year and engaged in a constructive dialogue with representatives of the governments concerned. The dialogue was indeed a demonstration of a good practice in the interaction between governments and a human rights mechanism. I am most grateful to the concerned governments for their cooperation and the constructive spirit in which they responded to my findings and criticisms. I would like to share, with the Assembly, some of the main issues raised in my mission reports.

Turkey
My mission to Turkey, which took place from 22 to 31 May 2006, focused on suicides of women in the eastern regions and addressed the claims that the deaths of these women may be instances of murder and forced suicides. The suicide rates in Turkey in general and in the region in particular are well below international averages. However, the phenomenon has attracted attention because, contrary to world and national averages, in this region, more women than men commit suicide.

My queries in the region revealed that while there is good reason to believe that there are indeed cases of forced suicides and murder among recorded female suicides, the majority of cases probably do not involve direct criminal responsibility. However, in many cases family members and the wider society bear varying degrees of moral responsibility as the link between rigid patriarchal oppression and violation of women’s rights are all too clear. The suicides observed in the region are intimately linked to gender-based violence, which itself is embedded in the overall parameters of women’s subordinate position in society.

I would like to acknowledge with appreciation the letter dated 9 March 2007 from the Government of the Republic of Turkey providing follow up information to my mission. The measures taken since towards the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Circular of July 2006 to Combat Violence against Women are encouraging. It is also encouraging that violence against women is included in the 9th Development Plan (2007-2012) as a development issue, which will enable the State to tackle the much needed improvement of basic development indicators for women, such as literacy, employment, and political participation. However, the realization of these goals and the protection of women under immediate risk of violence require uncompromising political will and commitment and the channeling of sufficient resources to the creation of a protective infrastructure, including adequate safe houses.


The Netherlands
Between 2 and 12 July 2006, I made an official visit to the Netherlands. Despite significant progress over the last decades, gender inequality still affects native Dutch women. This inequality is visible with regard to labour market participation patterns, gender wage gaps and representation in decision making positions. The Government’s gender mainstreaming strategy does not effectively address the remaining inequalities since fragments of the problems associated with gender inequality are delegated to various State entities, often as gender neutral tasks.

Domestic violence committed by a current or former male partner remains the most prevalent form of violence against women in the Netherlands. The many commendable measures undertaken to address violence against women are compromised by a tendency to address different forms of violence through a gender neutral legal framework. This has resulted in de-linking violence against women from its root causes.

The socio-economic position of women with a foreign background is substantially worse than that of native Dutch women as revealed by levels of unemployment, poverty, social exclusion and welfare dependency. This, coupled with a culturally essentialized perspective to problems faced by women with a foreign background, has put these women in a precarious situation. Consequently, the wider context of gender inequality and immigrant status, which underlies the specific vulnerabilities of foreign women, including those with a non-permanent residence status, remains only partially addressed.

The operation of brothels and the organization of prostitution have been legalized in the Netherlands, and are thus subject to regulation. This overtly regulation-oriented policy has not necessarily served to eliminate violence nor has it strengthened the ability of women in this sector to pursue their interests. A grey sex sector that escapes monitoring is said to have become a point of attraction for illegal exploitation of women, including minors.

Sweden
From 11 through 21 June 2006, I visited Sweden, a country where there is a strong gender equality framework and equality is a highly upheld value by society at large. Yet, challenges remain: While women are overrepresented in the service sector, part-time and low paid jobs, they remain underrepresented in senior management positions in private business and in some important public institutions such as the police and armed forces. Most importantly, the equal opportunity agenda has not been effective in addressing the deeply rooted unequal power relations between women and men, which underlie the continuation of significant levels of violence against women, particularly in the domestic sphere.

Despite an excellent penal framework addressing the problem of violence, low prosecution and conviction rates show the need for further improvements in its implementation. There are also some deficiencies in the protection of women exposed to violence. I have noted protection gaps particularly for women with disabilities, Saami women, and women of immigrant, asylum or refugee background.

A further issue is that of women in prostitution. While Sweden does not penalize women in prostitution, the buying of sex and pimping are criminal offences, regardless of the consent of the women involved. Government institutions consider that the policy has successfully reduced the number of women in prostitution and made Sweden a less attractive destination country for the trafficking of women from abroad. At the same time, the vulnerabilities for local women who remain in the sector, especially women addicted to alcohol or hard drugs, appear to have increased. A comprehensive and independent study of the policy has yet to be concluded.

Finally, I am very pleased to note that Swedish media gave significant coverage to the findings of my report. Many civil society organizations have also actively followed up on my recommendations.

Mr. Chairperson,

In the course of 2007 I conducted missions to Algeria, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am in the process of formulating my findings and recommendations and I look forward to reporting in detail on these missions in 2008. For now, I would like to briefly highlight a few of my preliminary findings for each mission.

Algeria
During my visit to Algeria, from 21 to 31 January, I noted the progress Algeria has made towards gender equality, both in legislative reform and in some social policy areas such as education. However, despite the existing legal equality in many fields, women lack equal access to the labour market and decision-making positions. Legal gaps remain in the newly reformed Family Code. As a result, women continue to face discrimination particularly with regard to marriage, child custody and inheritance.

Violence against women in the private sphere is pervasive and yet largely invisible in the society at large. The ejection of women and girls into the street is a particularly devastating form of violence, with dire consequences for the victims as it leaves them totally vulnerable to unchecked abuse and exploitation on the streets. Sexual harassment and abuse in public institutions are also increasingly being addressed as priority public policy issues. Finally, violence from the past continues to pose a challenge for the Government of Algeria as well as for women who suffered from the legacy of the Black Decade. The trauma of severe oppression, systematic and widespread rape and sexual enslavement of women, continues to haunt many women. Wives, mothers and sisters of men who disappeared during this period still await access to justice and truth.

Ghana
From 7 to 14 July, I conducted an official visit to Ghana. Violence against women is all too pervasive and some groups of women are particularly vulnerable. The girl-child may be sexually abused in the family, subjected to early/child marriage or exploited as a Kayeye (porter) or domestic worker. Female genital mutilation and ritual servitude of Trokosi also remain prevalent in various parts of the country, even though these practices have been criminalized and are on the decrease. Women accused of witchcraft are often violently driven from their communities and forced to take refuge in “witch camps.” Widows are subjected to violent evictions from their homes, lose of inheritance, and left destitute.

The Ghanaian Parliament took a commendable step towards passing the Domestic Violence Act this year. I would like to congratulate the Government once more for this initiative. Steps towards implementation are now crucial, a Domestic Violence Action Plan must be adopted and an adequate budget to implement the Act earmarked. These efforts have to be coupled with further legislative reform to ensure equal rights between women and men across the board, for instance with respect to the customary law on inheritance and the consequences of divorce.

The formal State institutions in Ghana coexist with a customary system which enjoys Constitutional recognition. The challenge confronting the Government is to ensure that traditional authorities are bound by Ghana’s international commitments to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sex and are fully engaged in enforcing existing laws against practices such as domestic violence, FGM or ritual servitude and refrain from “settling” cases involving serious crimes such as rape or sexual abuse.

Mr Chairperson,

Democratic Republic of Congo
The situation of women in the DRC is dramatic, requiring urgent attention of the international community. Sexual violence has been a defining feature of the DRC’s armed conflicts. During my visit in DRC from 16 to 27 July, I witnessed that the war on women is continuing, perpetuated by members of the Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC), “Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo” the National Congolese Police (PNC), non-state armed groups and increasingly also civilians.

The situation is most acute in South Kivu, where non-state armed groups, particularly foreign militia, commit sexual atrocities that are of an unimaginable brutality and aim at the complete physical and psychological destruction of women with implications for the entire society. In many cases, the scale and brutality of the violence amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sexual violence extends beyond Eastern Congo. In Equateur Province, PNC and FARDC have carried out systematic reprisals against the civilian population, including mass rape. Soldiers and police, who commit these acts, are rarely held to account by the commanding officers.

Impunity for crimes against women is massive in the DRC. Security and the justice system fall short of addressing the problems of sexual violence and women survivors of rape lack sufficient care. Survivors are often also socially stigmatized and they are systematically denied the compensation to which they are entitled under international and Congolese law.

Given the multitude of actors involved in the conflict in the DRC and the continuation of crimes against humanity, the international community, in cooperation with the Congolese authorities, has a responsibility to protect women in the DRC, particularly in South Kivu, from further violence. The Security Council, in its Resolution 1674 (2006), condemned in the strongest terms all sexual and other forms of violence committed against civilians in armed conflict, in particular women and children, and demanded that all parties put an end to such practices. It further undertook to ensure that peace support operations employ all feasible measures to prevent such violence and address its impact where it takes place. Security Council Resolution 1674, S/RES/1674 (2006), adopted on 28 April 2006, paragraphs 11 and 19 Women living in the DRC are in dire need for these commitments to be implemented.

Mr. Chairperson,

Consultations with NGOs have become an integral part of my work as a Special Rapporteur. In 2007, I attended several consultations: In January, I met European NGOs in a consultation in London, United Kingdom, which focused on domestic violence and the situation of immigrant and refugee women. This was organized by ‘NAWO’ - Connecting Women to Europe In May, I went to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a consultation with women from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Violence in times of armed conflict, domestic violence and trafficking were among the main issues that were raised. Organized by Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education Finally, in September I attended the annual Asia-Pacific consultation, which took place in Manila, Philippines. Organized by the Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development (APWLD) The discussion centered on issues related to globalization and militarization.

Regional consultations provide important input into my work by highlighting regional specificities. They also allow civil society actors to become familiarized with opportunities my mandate offers in advancing their national and regional initiatives. I would like to call on the donor community to generously support such empowering civil society initiatives in other regions as well.

Mr. Chairperson,

I am pleased to inform the Assembly that I have received invitations from the governments of Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan to undertake official missions in their countries in 2008. I plan to visit Tajikistan in January and Saudi Arabia in February 2008. I am looking forward to these visits which I believe will enhance our understanding of the diverse experiences of women in different contexts. I have also made official requests to visit Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. I hope to be able to inform the General Assembly on the findings of my visits to these countries at its 63rd session.

My next thematic report to the Human Rights Council focuses on indicators on violence against women and on State response to violence. This initiative is in response to the 2004 Resolution of the Commission on Human Rights, Commission on Human Rights’ resolution on violence against women, 2004/46 which mandated me “to recommend proposals for indicators in violence against women and on measures taken by, inter alia, Member States, to eliminate violence against women.” The General Assembly, in its Resolution 61/143 of 19 December 2006, expressed support for the development of such indicators, and requested the UN Statistical Commission to propose, “building on my work, possible indicators to assess the scope, prevalence and incidence of VAW.” State interventions to eliminate violence against women need to be based on accurate empirical data. It is therefore crucial to establish indicators to generate reliable statistics concerning violence against women and monitor interventions designed to eliminate it. I look forward to presenting you with proposals in this regard.

Mr. Chairperson,

Violence against women has gained visibility world wide and has clearly become a major agenda item within the work of the United Nations and its entities. The Secretary General’s report on violence against women, presented to the General Assembly in 2006, provided a comprehensive assessment of the problem and established the ground for the close monitoring of progress made towards the eradication of violence against women. An effective follow-up of the process requires collaboration and coordination among all relevant actors. Particularly important in this regard is to ensure that strong linkages are established between the CSW, CEDAW and the Special Procedures’ VAW mandate. The move of CEDAW to Geneva may provide some opportunities towards this end but may also widen the already existing gap in the relationship among the three mechanisms. I trust that the General Assembly will provide guidance to bridge the gaps.

Thank you for your attention.