It was just a domestic

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It was just a domestic.
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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

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Too Much Of A Balancing Act

• Family
  Human Privacy Rights
• .

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Shifting violence against women from

• Customary to criminal
• Private to public
• Personal to political
• Individual to systemic

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Systemic

• Gender violence of everyday life linked to
• Economic systems that sustain inequalities
• Continuum of violence
• Exploitation

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(No Transcript)
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Having power and control can mean

• Discriminatory laws and norms
• Slander and threats against women
• Sexual exploitation
• Feminisation of Poverty
• Corruption

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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 Im an
  educated person, Im an engineer.
• (Iraqi informant)
• Too many constitutions allow these discriminatory
  practices to continue permitting customary law
  to dictate womens role in public life,
• as well as the age of marriage/divorce/ violence
  against women

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Demarcation of roles through culture and religion

• Lebanon Women are victims of personal status
  lawsfamily relations are not regulated it is as
  if one is living in a jungle
• South Africa patriarchy is still dominantsense
  of immunity that perpetrators feel
• Northern Ireland you make your bed so you have
  to live in it
• An English mans home is his castle

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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

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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)

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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

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Closing down the public space

• Intimidating womens rights activists and women
  politicians through slander.
• Questioning womens 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.

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The NI Peace Talks
Political resentment to the Womens Coalition
they (the Womens Coalition) must be a cult
so they will grow into each other and
disappear shut up and sit down you stupid
woman
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Outsiders Becoming Insiders Can Be Unwelcome

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• Imposing New
  Standards

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Making the violence visible

• 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
• )

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What makes it Invisible

• Amnesty International Survey 2009
• Student 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)

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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?

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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

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FOURTEEN YEARS ON ARE WOMEN FULLY PRESENT?
Womens 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.
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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

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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

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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 Womens Aid is vital as we
  move forward (Minister of Justice David Ford)
• www.dojni.gov.uk 26 October 2010)

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UN1325Changing 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

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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)

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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
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UN 1325 NATIONAL ACTION PLAN

• DECEMBER 19TH 2011 WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OBAMA
• Peace accords are too often negotiated between
• Armed combatants who originally fought the war or
• Groups whose experiences are not easily
  transferred
• When women are included as meaningful
  participants
• Enlarge the scope of agreements
• Include the broader set of critical societal
  priorities
• Insert needs required for lasting peace.
• Made reference to the NIWC as an example of
  above

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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

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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

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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

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THESE RIGHTS ARE CENTRAL

• AND SHOULD NOT BE PICKED OVER

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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 womens needs

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HAVE TO KEEP MARCHING
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UNTIL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE SAFE

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BEYOND RHETORIC TO ACTION