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Violence against women: Twenty years of developments to combat violence against women 2014, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- In general recommendation No. 19, the Committee establishes that gender-based violence, which impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms under general international law or under human rights conventions, is discrimination within the meaning of article 1 of the Convention and links gender-based violence to the different rights and substantive areas covered by the Convention. In practice, the Committee invokes several substantive provisions in the Convention to address the issue of violence against women, including article 5 on stereotyping and the consequences thereof; article 11 on sexual harassment; article 12 on sexual and reproductive health violations; and article 16 on matters relating to marriage and family relations. The adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, in 1999, and the subsequent jurisprudence thereunder further reinforce the Committee's position that violence against women equates to discrimination based on sex, which disproportionately affects women. It is important to note that these developments do not explicitly articulate violence against women as a human rights violation in and of itself.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women: Twenty years of developments to combat violence against women 2014, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Prior to, and during, the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1975 to 1985, the issue of violence against women in general, and more specifically domestic violence, was high on the agenda of women's rights activists. Advocacy at the World Conferences on Women, held in Mexico City and Copenhagen in 1975 and 1980 respectively, served as a catalyst for the adoption in 1985 of General Assembly resolution 40/36 on domestic violence. The Third World Conference on Women, held in Nairobi in 1985, and the Expert Group meeting on violence in the family, held in Vienna in 1986, further highlighted the global nature and concern regarding violence against women. In May 1991, the Economic and Social Council adopted resolution 1991/18 on violence against women in all its forms, in which it recommended the development of a framework for an international instrument that would explicitly address the issue of violence against women. The Council also urged Member States to adopt, strengthen and enforce legislation prohibiting violence against women and to take appropriate administrative, social and educational measures to protect women from all forms of physical and mental violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Existing legal standards and practices regarding violence against women in three regional human rights systems and activities being undertaken by civil society regarding the normative gap in international human rights law 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- In the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the member States stress the interdependence of rights and introduce unique features, such as the protection of community and group rights, and the imposition of duties on individuals. The Charter was the first human rights instrument to entrench the right to development. Specific references to women are included in the Charter, for example, in article 2, which prohibits discrimination, including on the basis of sex, and article 18 (3), which obliges States to eliminate all discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights of women as stipulated in international declarations and conventions. The Charter incorporates principles related to culture, group rights and respect for the family environment. Article 60 of the Charter mandates the African Commission to draw inspiration from international law in its promotion and protection of human rights. Some scholars have argued that despite having minimal provisions on the rights of women, the Charter by inference imposes a duty on member States to abide by international human rights standards on women's rights. The Charter has been criticized by some for being unrealistic and overambitious and for ignoring women's human rights, while others have praised it for protecting all human rights, both individual and collective.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Closing the gap in international human rights law: lessons from three regional human rights systems on legal standards and practices regarding violence against women 2015, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- In the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the member States stress the interdependence of rights and introduce unique features, such as the protection of community and group rights, and the imposition of duties on individuals. The Charter was the first human rights instrument to entrench the right to development. Specific references to women are included in the Charter, for example, in article 2, which prohibits discrimination, including on the basis of sex, and article 18 (3), which obliges States to eliminate all discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights of women as stipulated in international declarations and conventions. The Charter incorporates principles related to culture, group rights and respect for the family environment. Article 60 of the Charter mandates the African Commission to draw inspiration from international law in its promotion and protection of human rights. Some scholars have argued that despite having minimal provisions on the rights of women, the Charter by inference imposes a duty on member States to abide by international human rights standards on women's rights. The Charter has been criticized by some for being unrealistic and overambitious, and for ignoring women's human rights, while others have praised it for protecting all human rights, both individual and collective.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Pathways to, conditions and consequences of incarceration for women 2013, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Many countries hold women in pretrial detention for extremely long periods, and the number of female pretrial detainees is often equivalent to or larger than the number of convicted female prisoners. Pretrial detainees may have limited contact with other prisoners, fewer opportunities for health-care, vocational or job programmes, as well as restrictions on family contact.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 116d
- Paragraph text
- [In cases involving gender-related killings, the international and regional human rights systems have included some of the following standards regarding the due diligence obligations of States:] Ensure comprehensive reparations for women victims of violence and their relatives, including measures that are designed to address institutional and social factors;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 116c
- Paragraph text
- [In cases involving gender-related killings, the international and regional human rights systems have included some of the following standards regarding the due diligence obligations of States:] Include in the obligation of access to justice a requirement to treat women victims and their relatives with respect and dignity throughout the legal process;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Honour killings remain underreported and underdocumented globally. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has estimated that 5,000 women globally are murdered by family members each year in honour killings. With widespread urbanization, the proliferation of media and the changing roles of women, it has become difficult for such crimes to go unnoticed, and such killings are becoming more visible.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- In this report, the Special Rapporteur addresses the topic of gender-related killings of women whether they occur in the family or the community or are perpetrated or condoned by the State. Globally, the prevalence of different manifestations of such killings is increasing, and a lack of accountability for such crimes is the norm. Terms such as femicide, feminicide, honour killings and crimes of passion, among others, have been used to define such killings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- It has been acknowledged that violence results from a complex interplay of individual, family, community and social factors, and that, even though all women are at risk of violence in every society in the world, not all women are equally vulnerable to acts and structures of violence. Representing both the universality and the particularity of women's risk of violence requires the social location and bodily attributes of individuals and groups to be explicitly accounted for.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Adequacy of the international legal framework on violence against women 2017, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In addition, several organizations highlighted that there was a normative gap at the international level and persistent obstacles to the protection of women subjected to gender-based violence, for example the normalization of sexual violence against women or an emphasis on preserving marriages and family rather than addressing men’s impunity for family violence. Concern was expressed about the spiral of fundamentalism and extremism that was currently contributing to exacerbating violence against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Closing the gap in international human rights law: lessons from three regional human rights systems on legal standards and practices regarding violence against women 2015, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Importantly, in the preamble of the Protocol it is made explicit that positive African values are based on the principles of equality, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy. This clarification is important in the area of violence against women, as research indicates that violence, including wife beating, is considered or perceived to be one of the values of African families in some societies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- UNODC is leading global efforts to improve and compare crime and criminal justice data. Its report, entitled "Global study on homicide 2013", contains a section on interpersonal homicide. The approach of UNODC is that, given the numerous challenges of comprehensively measuring gender-related violence, exploring intimate partner and family-related homicide is one way of gaining a clearer understanding of the killing of women because of gender motives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The gender-motivated killing of women is a clear violation of women's rights, including the right to life, freedom from torture and to a life free from violence and discrimination. It is a global phenomenon that takes place in both the private and public spheres and results from, among other things, intimate partner violence, armed conflict, dowry disputes and the protection of family "honour". The gender-motivated killing of women is often the final and most serious consequence of pervasive discrimination, in particular acts of violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Existing legal standards and practices regarding violence against women in three regional human rights systems and activities being undertaken by civil society regarding the normative gap in international human rights law 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Importantly, in the preamble of the Protocol it is made explicit that positive African values are based on the principles of equality, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy. This clarification is important in the area of violence against women, as research indicates that violence, including wife-beating, is considered or perceived to be one of the values of African families in some societies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Pathways to, conditions and consequences of incarceration for women 2013, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Sometimes women are held in prisons in an effort to protect them from gender-based violence, including preventing them from becoming victims of so-called "honour" crimes. In Afghanistan, women who have accused a family member or members of domestic violence are sometimes detained for their protection. At one time, approximately 30 women were in prison in Jordan to protect them from honour-based violence, including one woman held in prison for 12 years. On a positive note, the number of such detentions appears to have decreased in recent years (A/HRC/20/16/Add.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The point of departure of UNODC in relation to data on gender-related killings is the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes, endorsed by the Statistical Commission in March 2015 and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in May 2016. The latter entity established an international statistical standard for data collection, drawn both from administrative records and survey-generated data. The classification adopted does not specify crimes but rather focuses on the motivation behind the crime. In other words, the crime classification framework is based on behavioural descriptions instead of legal codes. Femicide therefore falls under the classification of intentional homicide, namely, unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. Three classification criteria are applied once a particular act of killing is to be classified, which further characterize the intentional homicide and can be used to define it in more detail. These criteria are the situational context, the relationship between victim and perpetrator and the mechanism of killing. Of importance for femicide is that interpersonal homicide, namely, homicide committed by an intimate partner or family member, including a former partner, spouse or family member, other interpersonal homicide (i.e., relating to neighbour or property disputes, revenge-related killings or brawls or mass shootings) and homicide relating to other criminal activities and sociopolitical homicides, fall under the criterion of situational context. Within the additional disaggregation of a relationship between the victim and perpetrator, the intimate partner of a family member and other perpetrators known to the victim and perpetrators unknown to the victim are recorded. Lastly, within the disaggregation of "mechanism of killing", the type of weapon or other means used is recorded.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Research on homicide resulting from intimate partner violence makes clear that, almost without exception, women are at greater risk than men and that the majority of women homicide victims are killed by intimate partners who are men. Studies by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also confirm that, in many countries, intimate partner or family-related homicide is the major cause of homicide against women and that their homicide rates are much more likely to be driven by this type of violence than by the organized crime-related homicide typology that disproportionately affects men. In 2012, almost half of all women who were murdered worldwide (47 per cent) were killed by a family member or intimate partner, compared with 6 per cent of homicide victims who were men. As with all forms of intimate partner violence, intimate partner femicide is likely to be significantly undetected and underreported. Prosecutions usually do not integrate a gender perspective. There is a clear need to focus on femicide for the purpose of establishing modalities for a national femicide watch and observatories on violence against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The issue of femicide has received serious attention since the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. It is examined systematically during country visits. In 1995, the Special Rapporteur presented a thematic report on violence in the family to the Commission on Human Rights, in which it was highlighted that the dominance of a familial ideology entrenched women's roles as wives and mothers and impeded them from gaining access to non-traditional roles and exposed women who did not fit within or ascribe to traditional sex roles to gender-based hate crimes. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that such an ideology legitimated violence against women, including honour killings and other forms of femicide (see E/CN.4/1999/68). In 2002, the Special Rapporteur presented a thematic report on cultural practices in the family that were violent towards women, referring to honour killings, and noted that those types of crimes were carried out by husbands, fathers, brothers or uncles, sometimes on behalf of tribal councils (see E/CN.4/2002/83). The Special Rapporteur organized an expert meeting on the gender-motivated killing of women in New York in 2011 in order to consolidate and build on national, regional and international expertise with regard to the manifestations and root causes of and State responses to gender-motivated killings of women, discuss policy, legal and institutional challenges at the national, regional and international levels and identify good practices and lessons learned in that regard in various regions (see A/HRC/2016/Add.4). The 2012 thematic report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council was focused on the issue of the gender-related killing of women (see A/HRC/20/16).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women: Twenty years of developments to combat violence against women 2014, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- A brief analysis of the mandates and principles of organizations associated with engaging men and boys in efforts to counter violence against women reveals a series of internal contradictions which compromise the understanding of the foundational principles linked to women's human rights. This is reflected in several ways, including reaffirmation of patriarchal norms of men as "protectors" and, by extension, women as "victims"; reinstatement of the family as the principal referent for analysis; depoliticization of the understanding of both gender equality and gendered violence; reinforcement of the public/private dichotomy; instrumentalization of arguments for the elimination of violence against women; conceptual confusion over men, masculinity and gendered roles; and the justifications and contradictions in the shift to men and boys and its supposed link to binding international law obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women: Twenty years of developments to combat violence against women 2014, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The annual thematic reports produced between 1994 and 2003 were closely aligned to conceptual developments of the objectives set in the resolution by which the mandate was established. Those reports focused on different manifestations of violence, its causes and consequences, including violence in the family; in the community; perpetrated or condoned by the State, including in times of armed conflict; and violence in the transnational arena. The reports expanded the scope of the mandate to consider the intersection and continuum of violence in the private and public spheres, with a particular focus on race, ethnicity, culture, migration, trafficking and economic empowerment. The mandate holders highlighted how traditional law and order approaches to violence, coupled with ineffective and discriminatory policing and gender-biased court and sentencing processes, prevent women from accessing justice and obtaining effective redress.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- A brief analysis of the mandates and principles of organizations associated with engaging men and boys in efforts to counter violence against women reveals a series of internal contradictions that compromise the understanding of the foundational principles linked to women's human rights. This is reflected in several ways, including the reaffirmation of patriarchal norms of men as protectors and, by extension, women as victims; the reinstatement of the family as the principal referent for analysis; the depoliticization of the understanding of both gender equality and gendered violence; the reinforcement of the public-private dichotomy; the instrumentalization of arguments for the elimination of violence against women; the conceptual confusion over men, masculinity and gendered roles; and the justifications and contradictions in the shift to men and boys and its supposed link to binding international law obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- For a long time, traditional human rights advocacy viewed gender-based violence through a public versus private lens, where States are responsible only for violence committed against women in the public sphere. This flawed understanding of gender-based violence ignores the reality that violence crosses the public and private domains and ranges from intimate and interpersonal violence to structural, systematic and institutional forms of violence. In more recent times, there has been greater acceptance that the State has a responsibility for violence occurring in the cultural, social or family life, as such violence does have an impact on the ability of women to exercise their full citizenship rights. It is argued that women are full agents that are at once sexual, civil, political, economic, social and cultural beings, and that States must recognize women as such to guarantee their full and equal citizenship rights. Thus a more holistic examination of root causes, including potential economic and social remedies for rights violations, is necessary.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
State responsibility for eliminating violence against women 2013, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- States have amended or passed new laws at the criminal and civil law levels, either relating to gender equality in general with violence against women as one aspect, or specific laws on violence. The latter laws use a range of terminology and are applicable to family violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, trafficking, sexual violence, and female genital mutilation respectively. Most responses reflect developments in the sector of domestic violence, both civil and criminal law remedies, and trafficking. The trend towards gender neutrality in laws, as well as a shift in focus from violence against women specifically, is visible in developments in some countries. Also, law reform initiatives do not necessarily reflect international law developments, whether in respect of equality, non-discrimination, or bodily integrity rights, among others. Despite the existence of laws, reporting, prosecution and conviction rates remain low for acts of violence against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
State responsibility for eliminating violence against women 2013, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- As regards the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 2 refers to the obligation of States to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women. However, there is no specific provision pertaining to a State's responsibility to act with due diligence in eliminating violence against women. In an attempt to address the defect, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued interpretative guidelines in the form of two general recommendations. General recommendation No. 12 (1989) highlights the obligation of States to protect women from violence in the family, workplace, or any other area of social life under articles 2, 5, 11, 12 and 16 of the Convention. In general recommendation No. 19 (1992), the Committee stated that "gender-based violence may breach specific provisions of the Convention, regardless of whether those provisions expressly mention violence" (para. 6). The Committee reiterated "that discrimination under the Convention is not restricted to action by or on behalf of Governments" and that "States may also be responsible for private acts if they fail to act with due diligence to prevent violations of rights or to investigate and punish acts of violence, and for providing compensation" (para. 9). Interpreting within specific articles in the Convention a cumulative prohibition on gender-based violence, the Committee recommended in its general recommendation No. 12 that States include in their periodic reports information concerning legislative and other measures in force to protect women from violence, the existence of support services for women, and statistical data on the prevalence of all forms of violence against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Women accused of witchcraft in Ghana are often violently driven from their communities and forced to take refuge in "witch camps". Many widows are subjected to property-related violence, including violent evictions and loss of inheritance; and subjected to sexual abuse and harassment by relatives. In India, based on accusations of being a dayan (witch) or practising banamathi (witchcraft), physical violence is sometimes employed against Dalit women as a mechanism to take possession of their family lands and/or to keep them under economic subjugation, sexual exploitation, gender domination and control. In Nepal, particularly in the southern Terai region, elderly women, widows, destitute women and women of low caste are often targeted and deprived of their property rights or victimized to settle a personal vendetta.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The discrimination and violence that is reflected in gender-related killings of women can be understood as multiple concentric circles, each intersecting with the other. These circles include structural, institutional, interpersonal and individual factors. The structural factors include macrolevel social, economic and political systems; institutional factors include formal and informal social networks and institutions; interpersonal factors include personal relationships between partners, among family members and within the community; and individual factors include personality and individual capacities to respond to violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 102
- Paragraph text
- In 2010, El Salvador passed the Integral Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women, which defines and classifies two types of femicide: when the perpetrator of the death of a woman is motivated by hatred or contempt based on gender; and aggravated femicide, when the perpetrator is a civil servant, government official or member of the police or army, when two or more persons are involved, when the killing is committed in the presence of any of the victim's members of the family, when the victim is a minor or with a disability, or when the aggressor has abused any authoritarian power held in the family, work or educational environment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Violence against women with disabilities 2012, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- The causes of violence against women with disabilities originate in social norms about the nature and type of disability and gender roles. Women with disabilities face many barriers to escaping, resisting, preventing or obtaining redress for violence. Such barriers include, but are not limited to, emotional and financial dependency on the abuser; unwillingness to be stigmatized; fears regarding child custody or single-parenthood; inaccessibility or unavailability of violence prevention programmes and facilities; fear or loss of assistive devices and other supports; concerns about being believed when disclosing the abuse; and reluctance to take any action that may escalate the violence. Also when they seek assistance from police or other members of the community, their complaints may not be taken seriously or may be disbelieved, due to stigma and stereotyping.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women 2011, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- There is a need for a holistic approach to both physical and ideological restrictions as an issue in the human rights discourse around violence against women. Mainstream human rights discourse has demonstrated its capacity to acknowledge as a human rights violation the violence that flows from physical restrictions which are created and/or maintained by the State, communities, families or individuals. The same cannot be said, however, for the violence of ideological restrictions which may be deployed to justify physical violence against women or to restrict women's choices in ways that make submission to violent acts necessary to access resources and to demonstrate community membership. Ideological constraints help either to normalize the differential vulnerability based on the violence inherent in the context, the personhood of the women involved, or some combination of the two.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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