VIOLENCE WITHIN THE FAMILY
“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.”
United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
General Assembly Resolution 48/104, 20 December 1993
Violence within the family takes different forms. Studies differentiate between acts of physical aggression, such as slapping, hitting, kicking and beating; psychological abuse, such as intimidation, constant belittling and humiliating; and various controlling behaviours, such as isolating a person from their family and friends, monitoring and restricting their movements or access to information or assistance. Marital rape also constitutes violence within the family. In some countries, laws governing rape do not include marital rape. Violence in the family often goes unreported and statistics are incomplete.
United States
:arrow: Domestic violence occurs in one half of all American homes at least once a year. (US Department of Justice 2003)
:arrow: A woman is battered, usually by her husband/partner, every 15 seconds. (UN Study on the World’s Women, 2000)
:arrow: 28% of women reported at least one episode of physical violence from their partner. (A, UNICEF 2000)
:arrow: Women accounted for 85% of the victims of domestic violence in 1999 (671,110 compared to 120,100 men). (A, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences 2003)
:arrow: Black women have a 35% greater chance than white women of becoming victims of violence within the family and 22 times greater chance than women from other races. (US Department of Justice May 2000)
:arrow: Over 30% of murdered women are killed by a partner. (US Department of Justice, 2000)
:arrow: 23 women a week were killed by intimates in 1999. (E, Joni Seager 2003)
United Kingdom
:arrow: 25% of women had been punched or slapped by a partner or ex-partner in their lifetime. (A, UNICEF 2000)
:arrow: About two women per week are killed by their partners. (E, Joni Seager, 2003)
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
"The actus reus of the crime of rape in international law is constituted by:the sexual penetration, however slight:(a) of the vagina or anus of the victim by the penis of the perpetrator or any other object used by the perpetrator; or of the mouth of the victim by the penis of the perpetrator; where such sexual penetration occurs without the consent of the victim. Consent for this purpose must be consent given voluntarily, as a result of the victim’s free will, assessed in the context of the surrounding circumstances. The mens rea is the intention to effect this sexual penetration, and the knowledge that it occurs without the consent of the victim.
International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, 22 February 2001
Rape represents a profound violation of a woman’s bodily integrity. It can be a form of torture, because of the severe mental and physical pain and suffering it causes. It is prevalent throughout the world. Rape has been used as a weapon of war and has been documented in many conflicts in every region of the world (See section Women and war). This type of sexual violence, which is committed within the family as well, can profoundly affect the physical, emotional, mental and social well being of victims. Rape is also associated with unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. However, it is a human rights abuse that is greatly underreported because of the stigma attached to it. Statistics are likely to underestimate the problem.
United States
:arrow: A woman is raped every 90 seconds. (US Department of Justice, 2000)
:arrow: 248,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2001, down by half since 1993. (US Justice Department: National Crime Victimization Survey 2001)
:arrow: About 44% of rape victims are under age 18; about 15% are age under 12. (US Justice Department: National Crime Victimization Survey 2001)
England and Wales
:arrow: 4.9% of women have reported rape or sexual assault on at least one occasion since the age of 16. (2000 data). (E, London Metropolitan University, 2003)
Ireland
:arrow: 20.4% of women have reported a sexual assault as adults, and 6.4% - rape. (A 2002 study) (E, London Metropolitan University, 2003)
WOMEN AND WAR
Violence against women during conflict has reached epidemic proportions. Civilians, and especially women, have become the primary targets of armed groups and rape is increasingly being used as a weapon of war. Mass rape has been so systematic and brutal in the Democratic Republic of Congo that the country has probably seen the largest numbers of women raped in any conflict. During conflict women are physically and economically forced into prostitution, sometimes in order to secure the basic necessities for their families. War impacts on women in other ways - for example, women and children are also the majority of refugees and internally displaced persons.
Iraq
:arrow: At least 400 women and girls as young as eight were reported to have been raped in Baghdad during or after the war, since April 2003. (Human Rights Watch Survey, 2003)
Afghanistan
:arrow: Rape, including a significant incidence of mass rape and rape of women and girls from minority communities in the north, women and girls from nomadic groups, female aid workers and female members of aid workers’ families, has been a common and recurrent manifestation of the current insecurity. (D, Amnesty International, AI Index: ASA 11/023/2003)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
:arrow: 20,000 - 50,000 women were raped during five months of conflict in 1992. (IWTC. Women’s GlobalNet #212. 23rd October 2002; The Monee Project/UNICEF 1996).
Kosovo
:arrow: Threat and practice of rape formed part of the Serbian “ethnic-cleansing” campaign. The most conservative estimates point to 30,000 Kosovar rape victims during the conflict. (A, UNIFEM , http://www.womenwarpeace.org/)
LESBIANS AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
“Unless women come to be seen as individual beings with rights to determine their sexuality, their inferior social position will continue to permit violence against them.”
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, 2000.
The legal and social situation for lesbians varies across the world’s regions: in some countries they enjoy degrees of legal protection from discrimination; in others they are treated as criminals where same-sex relationships may be punished by the death penalty. In many countries lesbians are exposed to homophobia and yet the nature of families is changing to encompass same-sex couples. Statistics on violence against women in lesbian relationships is scarce. Lesbians experience discrimination at work; they are often raped as a punishment or as a “treatment” for their sexuality. Lesbian women of colour experience discrimination compounded by racism, sexism and homophobia.
United States
:arrow: Between 2% and 5% of households consist of same-sex partners. (2000 Census, the first to enumerate these) (E, Joni Seager, 2003)
:arrow: Sodomy is still illegal in a number of US states. (E, Joni Seager, 2003)
:arrow: Lesbians earn up to 14% less than their heterosexual peers with similar jobs due to discrimination. (Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 1995)
United Kingdom
:arrow: At least 44% of 450 lesbian, *** or bisexual trade unionists reported discrimination in their work place. (1999 Trade Union Congress study)
AIDS/HIV
Increasingly, violence against women is recognized as a major public health concern. Violence can affect woman’s reproductive health as well as other aspects of her physical and mental well being. Sexual violence against women has led to higher infection rates of HIV/AIDS than among men of the same age group. Thus gender inequality turns into a key variable in the incidence of HIV/AIDs. A decade ago, women seemed to be on the periphery of the epidemic. While women rely on male cooperation for protection against HIV/AIDS - researchers estimate that women risk contracting the disease from unprotected sex at a rate twice that of men. The increase in heterosexual transmission means an increase in risk for women.
AROUND THE WORLD
:arrow: 40 million people (0.66% of the world population) are registered as infected with HIV. (A, UNAIDS, 2003)
:arrow: 51% of all people living with HIV/AIDS today (over 20 million) are women. (A, UNIFEM, 2003)
:arrow: 55% of the 16,000 new infections occurring daily are women. (UNIFEM, http://www.aids.undp.kg/unifem.htm)
:arrow: over 60% of HIV-positive youth between the ages of 15-24 are women. (UNFPA, http://www.unfpa.org/adolescents/facts.htm)
:arrow: AIDS now ranks as one of the leading causes of death among women aged 20 to 40 in several cities in Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and North America. (A, UNAIDS, 2001)
:arrow: Three million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2003. (A, UNAIDS, 2003)
AFRICA
:arrow: In some countries close to 40% of the population is infected. (B, CIA, 2004)
:arrow: Nearly 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are women. (A, UNAIDS, 2003)
:arrow: There are roughly 12 or 13 women (55%) infected per 10 infected men. (E, Ana Elena Obando, 2003)
:arrow: In some countries with an HIV/AIDS pandemic, more than 50% of young women have been shown to lack sufficient knowledge about the syndrome. (2003 UNICEF survey)
:arrow: Condom use by single women in sub-Saharan Africa aged 15-24 almost doubled between 1995 and 2000/2001. (A, WHO, http://www.who.int/inf-new/aids2.htm)
:arrow: 2.3 million Africans were killed by AIDS-related illnesses in 2001 or 6,300 a day. (E, Joni Seager, 2003)
AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN
:arrow: 52% of HIV adults in the Caribbean in 2002 were women, compared to 35% in 2000. (A, UNAIDS, 2002)
:arrow: In Latin America, the proportion of the HIV positive adults who are women is 25%. (A, UNAIDS, 2002)
:arrow: In North America, the proportion of the HIV positive adults who are women is 20%. (B, CIA, 2004)
:arrow: 12 countries in this region (including the Dominican Republic and Haiti, several Central American countries, such as Belize and Honduras, and Guyana and Suriname) have an estimated HIV prevalence of 1% or more among pregnant women. (A, UNAIDS, http://www.unaids.org/wad/2003/Epiupdate2003_en/Epi03_07_en.htm)
India
:arrow: An estimated 3.9 million people were living with AIDS in 2001. (A, UNAIDS, 2003)
:arrow: 14% of women, who are being treated for sexually transmitted diseases and who had only one sex partner in their whole life, are infected with HIV. (A, UNAIDS/WHO, 2002)
:arrow: More than 80% of urban men recognized the protective value of consistent condom use, compared to just over 43% of rural women. (A, UNAIDS/WHO, 2002)
United Kingdom and Northern Ireland
:arrow: Over 50% of the 4,279 new HIV infections diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 2001 resulted from heterosexual sex, compared to 33% of new infections in 1998.
No figures for Muslim majority countries for sexually transmitted diseases? I wonder why :?
Source:
Amnesty International, 5 March 2004
AI INDEX: ACT 77/036/2004