Stand up to violence against women

Article: Salome Donkor
ON December 17, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly, by Resolution 54/134, designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and invited governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.
Before that, women's activists had, since 1981, marked November 25 as a day against violence. November 25, 1960 marked the brutal assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on the orders of the Dominican ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).
According to Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life
The Executive Director of The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, in a message to mark the day, called on all to take a stand and say loud and clear, ‘No to violence against women’.
She indicated that every day, women and girls were subjected to domestic violence, exploitation, sexual violence, trafficking, harmful traditional practices such as bride burning and early marriages and other forms of violence against their bodies, minds and human dignity.
“As many as one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way,” she said, and called on the global community to come together to demand an end to the most pervasive, yet least reported, human rights abuse in the world in the 16 days leading up to Human Rights Day and every day.
She welcomed the leadership example exhibited by what she termed “a new network of men leaders, led by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, as part of the United Nations UNite Campaign to end violence against girls and women” and lauded the commitment to actively engage men and boys in the cause to end impunity, promote justice and human rights and end widespread violence against girls and women.
She said whether they were policy makers, community or religious leaders, fathers or husbands, uncles, brothers or young boys, they could all do their part to eliminate all forms of violence against women.
The Executive Director also welcomed the recent Security Council resolutions 1888 and 1889 that strengthened accountability to women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations, adding that by condemning sexual violence, calling for a stronger role for women in peace building and mandating peacekeeping missions to protect women and girls, the resolutions signalled a political commitment to address sexual violence as a peace and security issue.
In a statement to mark the day read on the floor of Ghana’s Parliament, the MP for Savelugu and Chairperson of the Women Caucus in Parliament, Madam Mary Salifu Boforo, said in most cases, violence against women went unreported because majority of the victims were afraid to lose their marital status, while some were ignorant of their rights.
She noted that some harmful attitudes against women were reinforced by certain religious and other community leaders who exhorted women to stand by their husbands in all circumstances, while at the same time failing to take a clear stand against wife battery and marital rape.
A number of challenges and negative practices continue to affect the development of women in Africa and other parts of the world. Problems impeding their ability to expand their capabilities, how to attain their full freedom and dignity and how to promote and sustain empowerment programmes are some of the inequalities confronting African women in their daily lives.
In a report on violence against women in Ghana, the UN Division for the Advancement of Women indicated that widowhood rites included confining the widow to a room, shaving her head, having her wear a rope around her neck and making her go through a ritual bath.
In some African countries, women still lack access to economic rights and land ownership, ability to influence reproductive and family development such as who to marry, how many children to have and their spacing.
The Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008, has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevails in Africa, while increasing efforts are being made to address them.
All segments of society must, therefore, unite for the dignity and well-being of women and girls, for now is the time to build a society based on respect for fundamental human rights and the equal rights of men and women.