Skip to main content

Addressing violence against women with different approaches and different levels

PANEL DISCUSSION
at 60th CSW UN in New York on 22nd March 2016
From the Istanbul Convention to Implementation

The event was organized by INLW,  Rutgers, UN watch and Liberal International.
Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk, President of INLW, was the chair during the discussion.
Juliana Nikolova from Liberal Party of Macedonia stressed the importance of the protection of all women, moreover gender equality should be accepted on an international level. “There is no excuse for my country not to sign and ratify the Istanbul Convention. The Liberal Party will go on campaigning to this end, because violence against women and girls and domestic violence should fall under an international legally binding instrument."

Patricia Olamendi is consultant for the US Women and Human Rights. She is from Mexico. She gave us an insight in the amount of violence against women in her country. Seven women die every day in Mexico due to violence! The Inter-American Convention (1994) on violence against women is a beginning for legislation, “but an International instrument such as a globalized Istanbul Convention is necessary in the Latin American countries to get solid implementation. That will be the only way to make a real difference in the future”.

Fouzia El Bayed is Member of Parliament for Constitutional Union Party in Morocco.After the Constitution change of 2011 all laws are gradually being adapted to conform to the Istanbul Conventions. Even the programs at school are rewritten. Fouzia is as member of the Arab Women Parliamentarians Network of Equality. “I have started a commission to prepare a similar document to the Istanbul Convention for the Arab world. This is done with 17 other Arab countries”.

Jeroen Lorist, technical advisor at Rutgers WPF Netherlands and the Prevention+ project, started with the importance of institutions and NGO’s working together for gender equality, whereby involvement of men in the battle of violence against women is crucial. This should be done on all levels, individual, family, group, institutions and legislation level. Culture, values and customs in masculinity must be recognized and changed. A short film showed the impact of a new attitude of respect of women’s rights on men and women.

After their introductions one of the questions Margaret asked was: Is more legislation needed? Is an all encompassing comprehensive international legal framework on ending violence against women the answer? All participants agreed that International legislation is necessary, but at the same time education and a change of attitude of local authorities is crucial! 

Written by: Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk, 
President of INLW


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women’s Rights Caucus Statement – Protect Women and Girls by upholding the Beijing Declaration

  The Women’s Rights Caucus, representing over 900 feminist advocates from around the world, urges you to oppose the proposed US draft resolution entitled  “Protection of women and girls through appropriate terminology.” Despite the title, we do not feel protected nor represented by this initiative. Download this statement as pdf.   Download this statement in Spanish.   On the heels of the first-ever recorded vote on the agreed conclusions of the annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and in complete disregard of the significant opposition their proposal got in the negotiation room, the United States has circulated a new resolution proposal which attempts to falsely state that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action agreed that  “gender” was defined as “men and women”. It attributes to annex IV of the Report of the Fourth World Conference of Women a meaning that was never agreed by Member States, effectively rewriting th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog van ngo-vertegenwoordiger Joyce Brummelman: de onderhandelingen

Ngo-vertegenwoordiger Joyce Brummelman met Benjamin Nolan van de PV in de VN Deze week was het eindelijk zover: mijn reis naar de Verenigde Naties om van dichtbij te volgen hoe de afspraken en onderhandelingen rondom de Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) steeds meer vorm krijgen. Access to justice – toegang tot het recht – klinkt misschien als één thema, maar in werkelijkheid bestaat het uit talloze dimensies. Elk land heeft een andere juridische werkelijkheid, andere barrières, andere verhalen. Als NGO vertegenwoordiger mocht ik deze discussies mede volgen en luisteren naar wat landen, experts en activisten hierover te zeggen hebben.   Ondanks de sneeuwstorm landde ik dinsdagmiddag in New York en ging ik direct door naar de Nederlandse Vertegenwoordiging van de Verenigde Naties. Daar hoorde ik hoe Nederland werkt aan een zo sterk mogelijke uitkomst van de CSW: ambitieus, principieel en met oog voor de realiteit van vrouwen en meisjes wereldwijd. De aftrap: landen in gesprek o...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Beat back the radicals!"

“We will beat back the radicals and we will fight all their falsehoods and we will help as best we can all the faithful UN delegations trying to help the unborn child. But, the Friday Fax and our presence at UN headquarters is not free. In fact, it is terribly expensive. Would you be able to make a sacrificial donation to our work of $500? $100? $50?” This quote is from a newsletter of an American based organization working to stop any agreement at the UN that might possibly be understood to mean that women can have a choice in their  reproduction. It is quite ironic to see the violence in the language, beat back the radicals, from a group who are working at the UN meeting devoted to ending Violence Against Women. Being here at the UN makes you feel in your body and soul that maintaining and advancing freedom of choice for women (and men) is a battle and not everyone fights fair. Some of our Dutch civil society friends attended a panel in which the two main speakers where ...
4 comments
Read more