Gender and Violence

GENDER AND VIOLENCE

Women are the weakest part of society whenever a war or conflict takes place either between two countries or within one single country.  For these reasons, the UN some years ago adopted UN Resolution 1325 to develop the idea of women, peace and security.  This UN Security Council Resolution (UNSC) is two-folded; on the one hand it addresses the fact that women are the ones that suffer most from a war or conflict, so they have to be protected.  Sexual abuses and violence against women are used as a tool in a war against the opponent.  This causes a lot of despair and suffering among women in the populations undergoing a situation of conflict.

On the other hand, the UN tries to involve more women in security and peace processes, as it is rare to have a female special representative of the UN in a conflict and or post conflict zone.  Both ideas complement each other and thus implemented would give a better understanding and a faster access to a stable situation of peace in a post conflict area, country or region.  This UNSC Res was followed by other UNSC Resolutions that adapted, expanded, clarified and reinforced the idea and the steps to follow in order to achieve the aim of respecting the rights of women in a conflict.  Still today there is much to be done to implement this idea and train all the actors involved to understand and take into account these UNSC Res as legal principles to be respected with no exceptions.

This last week G-8 countries, England, France, USA, Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Canada, represented by their Foreign Ministers assembled in London and adopted a historic declaration, last 12^th April 2013,  stating that violence and serious sexual violence in conflicts are with no doubt  breaches of the Geneva Conventions and considered war crimes.  70% of sexual abuses are committed during conflicts and perpetrated by armed forces, many of them towards children, as a direct strategy against the population.  Hundreds of thousands of women and children were sexually abused in the war of Bosnia, Rwanda, and at present in Congo.  This document, agreed and signed, means a historic step forward for searching for and punishing those who have committed such war crimes.  The declaration was encouraged by the UN Secretary General, UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflicts and UN Ambassador for High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie.  The Agenda of the G-8 meeting included this item by English representative of the Foreign Office, William Hague.

On the other hand we have Gender Based Violence (GBV), this is understood as any kind of violence against a human being based on it weakness or gender.  GBV can be committed against men and women, although we all know that the majority of it is against women and girls.  The issue is to identify GBV happening, when, how, by whom, why, to whom.  Many times the so called victim is not capable to talk about the sufferings and the violence that she or he has to suffer.  The terminology that GBV uses for the person who suffers is “suspect” instead of victim.  Once we have identified GBV we have to be able to give support and alleviate the suffering of the “suspect”.   We have to try to give this support in private so that he or she will not feel stigmatized and incapable of leading a normal life.  It is important for the suspect to be surrounded by a family that supports her, gives her care, and whether aware or not of the situation, makes her understand that she is a good person who does/did not deserve all the pain and suffering and is worthy to be a member of the family.

However, crisis, conflicts and wars occur all around us in our lives and we have to identify the problem and tackle it, report it and punish it.  Certainly society has to change the way it addresses and tackles GBV through education and “tolerance zero” policy.  It is surprising that still today in some regions of the world some human beings can justify this behaviour.  We should all be united to erase it from the world.