By Ceri Hayes
[This blog entry, contributed by WOMANKIND worldwide's Senior Policy Officer Ceri Hayes, addresses the many effective ways to globally tackle Violence Against Women. The second part will be posted tomorrow.]
The international ‘16 Days of Activism campaign' provides activists from around the world with an opportunity to raise awareness of the impact of violence against women - and to highlight the challenges that hinder their efforts to end this global pandemic. But what of the other 349 days of the year?
The principles set out in international human-rights instruments, in particular the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action provide a global framework for the activists' work that cuts across cultural, religious and national limitations. They also help us to ensure that our strategies to tackle violence against women are firmly located within a broader approach that enables us to both identify and challenge the underlying inequality and unequal power relations between women and men that fuel violence.
Ceri Hayes is Senior Policy Manager at WOMANKIND Worldwide
Education & prevention
Public awareness-raising campaigns and education initiatives are an increasingly popular tool for challenging stereotypical perceptions of male and female sexuality and status that underlie gender-specific discrimination and violence, yet most interventions still focus on responding to the effects of violence against women, rather than on addressing the root causes. Strategies to stop violence before it starts are essential.
In the UK, WOMANKIND's Challenging Violence, Changing Lives programme for secondary-school students and their teachers has developed a number of tools to transform the attitudes of young people around violence in relationships, including lesson plans, a ‘Stop Sexual Bullying' campaign and an interactive website called Respect4Us.
In Zimbabwe, the Musasa Project has combined the provision of services to survivors of violence, such as counselling, shelter and legal advice, with an education initiative that trains young people to educate their peers to resolve conflict in relationships by non-violent means, in an attempt to break the cycle of violence by transforming attitudes.
Protective laws & access to justice
Laws that prohibit all forms of violence against women are vital tools to strengthen local and national efforts to tackle violence against women. They also send out a clear signal that violence is a crime and will not be tolerated. However, without effective implementation, they are meaningless. Governments must also provide adequate training for law- enforcement officials and anyone dealing with cases of VAW and allocate adequate funding to raise awareness about the law, bring perpetrators to justice and support the survivors of violence.
Working with men and boys
Initiatives to tackle violence against women must be firmly rooted in women's experiences - and in building the capacity of women. But men and boys are also key actors. Beyond the issue of direct physical or emotional violence, men must speak out against violence - and women and men have to work together to challenge existing definitions of masculinity that provide the foundation for violence.
In India, the Irula Tribal Women's Welfare Society has made counselling and gender-training programmes for men an integral part of its programme. By providing men with a space to discuss the problems and pressures they face and helping them to understand the impact of their behaviour, the programme has been able to improve their approach to relationships, leading to a marked reduction in the levels of violence in the community and increased support for women's participation in community groups and local politics.
