Violence against women as a core equalities issue and towards

transnational indicatorsLiz Kelly

Roddick Chair on Violence Against Women

London Metropolitan University

In a nutshell

• The UN context– International law and obligations– Definition, forms and contexts of violence

• Why VAW as an equalities issue– Some links to employment

• The SRVAW indicators project– Examples

The international context

• International law/obligations – Beijing Platform for Action– CEDAW – Council of Europe and EU

• Commission of the Status of Women report for 2005– Governments should accelerate their efforts towards implementation of

comprehensive strategies against violence against women, adequately funded and with a clear time frame. (para 238)

– National strategies of plans of action will be major instruments for combating violence against women. (Para 753)

• Secretary Generals report on VAW, 2006 – Requires addressing violence as a gender equality and human rights issue

The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action

• VAW as one of 12 priority areas for action and placed at core of objectives n Violence against women is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of

equality, development and peace. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The long-standing failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in the case of violence women is a matter of concern to all States and should be addressed. Knowledge about its causes and consequences, as well as its incidence and measures to combat it, have been greatly expanded since the Nairobi Conference... The low social and economic status of women can be both a cause and a consequence of violence against women.(Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, China, 4-15 September 1995. A/CONF.177/20 (1995), section D para 112)

Definition• … the term “violence against women” is understood to mean any act

of gender-based violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately... It does not address gender-based violence suffered by men. The term “women” is used to cover females of all ages, including girls under the age of 18… manifested in a continuum of multiple, interrelated and sometimes recurring forms… physical, sexual and psychological/emotional violence and economic abuse and exploitation, experienced in a range of settings, from private to public, and in today’s globalized world, transcending national boundaries.

(UN Secretary General’s Report on VAW, 2006,para 28 and 104)

Deep rooted beliefs and practices, gendered meanings and harms that constitute the micro inequalities of everyday life

Forms of VAW For girls, young and adult women• Domestic/intimate partner violence• Rape, sexual assault/abuse• Sexual harassment at work, school and in public• Femicide - including in the name of honour • Trafficking and sexual exploitation • Harmful traditional practices - FGM, child and forced

marriage• Less documented forms - acid attacks, ritual abuse

Conducive Contexts

• Family and intimate relationships• Residential institutions - including being in custody• Communities (neighbours, friends)• Workplace, college, school• Sex industries• Public space• Conflict and transitions • Migration

VAW and women’s equality

• The crucial thing is the structure of society – the fact that a woman cannot drive or travel without authorisation, for example – gives a special sense of strength to the man, and this strength is directly connected to the violence. It creates a sense of immunity, that he can do whatever he wants, without sanction. Rania al Baz, 2005

Mainstreaming in UN • Resolutions

– Honour crimes• Work of special rapporteurs

– SR on Violence Against Women its Causes and Consequences– SR on Trafficking– SR on Harmful Cultural Practices– SR on the Difficulties of Establishing Guilt to Crimes of Sexual

Violence • International Criminal Court• Work in UNIFEM, UNDP, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNICEF,

Regional examples

• ECHR– Have been legal cases on state failure to protect

• COE– Plan of Action– Police and Human Rights Programme– Proposed Convention– Campaign

• Stock take study• Standards for services

Some observations 1• VAW has not – until recently – considered a necessary

element in international or national gender equality measurements or schemes

• Reporting on to CEDAW committee often limited• Extensive academic knowledge base, but often

disconnected from HR and/or women’s studies• Offers a point of entry into debates on

agency/empowerment; health; law and crime (crimes of dominion); human security; intersectionality; capabilities

• Nordic countries always highest on Equality indices, yet have as high – some would argue higher – levels of VAW as lower ranked countries– Relative independence and/or VAW as resistance to equality

Some observations 2

• Limits women’s exercise of fundamental freedoms

• Recreates/reinforces other strands of gender equality

• Continues throughout the life course• Impunity – male entitlement

Connections: consequences and women’s lives

• Is a barrier to women’s equality at practical and symbolic levels– Limits space for action – Costs in lost opportunities

• Symbolic meanings– ‘to be a victim’ barriers to disclosure, under-reporting– worth less than men and other women – negative social capital

• Injury, damage to sense of self, safety and connections to others – betrayals of trust, breaking social connections

• Survival and coping strategies– ‘safety work’ – for all women, factoring in personal safety– ‘violence work’ – investment to undo harm – Trajectories into drug misuse, criminality, mental health problems including

suicide

Connections: policy level, MDGs

• As barrier to achievement of MDGs– Cause and consequence of inequality– Used by individuals to resist moves to equality – Ensures women as a group are diminished, worth less

• Nexus of poverty and VAW – World Bank study - women cite poverty as reason for violence,

and violence as background to poverty– VAW implicated in creating, maintaining and deepening women’s

poverty– Women settle for less if it means they are safe– Controlling for class (poverty) VAW has serious health

consequences - depression, suicide, child mortality (World Bank)

Research• Special issue of VAW, IPV and Poverty – 9:10, 2003• Longitudinal study

– Abuse decreases ability and capacity to work full-time– Lower income, lower quality housing, poor health

• increases vulnerability to further violence• child poverty

Other selected findings– Twice as many women on welfare had experienced IPV– Current employment decreased IPV– Women experiencing IPV worked less in the year and were more likely to loose a job– PTSD – three times higher for women with histories of csa and/or IPV– Longer IPV increased health consequences, with spin offs into employment

• Low income, hardship, no car, no health insurance• Vicious circles – never making ends meet

The Next Steps

• Proposal by SRVAW in 2003 to develop two sets of indicators– Measuring violence and state responses

• Commission on HR’s resolution on VAW in 2004 (2004/46), para 25, need to develop, with international consensus on ways to measure VAW and state responses to it – Link to human rights and international obligations– Reflect wider VAW agenda– Not overburden states– Draw on current knowledge base and best/promising practices

• Technical report ‘The Next Steps’ completed in 2007, SRVAW report on indicators submitted to HR Council in March 2008– 19 sets of indicators, but many did not fulfil SMART requirements

Which Indicators? Measuring VAW

Need to set baseline and track trends over time, whilst not expecting reduction over the short term

Mainly DV, with some sexual assault, especially in Africa Issues and questions

DV not necessarily the most common form, but the most measured All/any incidents/pattern of coercive control?

Cannot do specialist surveys regularly, but modules limit what can ask Harmonisation issues – language, cultures, resources

Assessing state progress Are many in international obligations, and less contested Global HR indicators

Structure/process/outcome

Measuring violence: prevalence Comparable surveys, comparable modules, comparable questions or comparable data? Re-focus discussion to find new basis for common ground

International agreement on ‘grave VAW’ as single composite indicator: Over life time and last 12 months measurements

Only VAW which is a HR violation Route out of longstanding, and ongoing political, legal and technical debates Requires more in depth research to calculate

Collect comparable data, same analytic measure Initial contours, needs more detailed technical elaboration

Any incident of rape/serious sexual assault/sexual coercion in child or adulthood, FGM, child/forced marriage, trafficking and sexual exploitation.

IPV, stalking, sexual harassment inclusion would be on the basis of seriousness and/or frequency, building on the analytic definitions developed in the Irish and Finnish studies

Pilot across various VAW prevalence studies, resource poor and resource rich countries

Layered compliance. Layer 1: IPV, rape and sexual assault and FGM Layers 2 and 3: harmful marriage practices; sexual harassment and stalking;

trafficking and sexual exploitation; sexual abuse of girls.

Measuring violence: Femicide index

• Is most serious form, but not recorded through prevalence

• Homicide data amongst the more accurate of crime data– Intimate partner violence

• Men killing women• Women killing abusive men

– Sexual murder– ‘Honour’ killings– Women in prostitution– Local issues – Cuidad Juarez– Could adapt to include other issues – dowry, female infanticide

where locally relevant

Proposed outcome indicators

The outcome indicators Proportion of female population who experienced grave

VAW in last 12 months (based on a population survey) Proportion of female population who experienced grave

VAW ever (based on a population survey) The trend in female deaths due to femicide (using a

national femicide index) Evidence of decreasing tolerance of VAW (as measured

by national surveys and analysed across key demographics)

Assessing State Responses

International law: required to prevent, protect, prosecute and provide compensation

Structural indicators drawn out of proposals already in international law and policy

Process more complex – project in process

Examples of structural indicators

Ratification of CEDAW Ratification of CEDAW without reservations Ratification of the Optional Protocol Ratification of CEDAW with few reservations Ratification of CEDAW with significant reservations contrary to the object & purpose of

CEDAW [i.e. reservations to Articles 2 & 16]) Still to be ratified

Action Plan on VAW: AP has sufficient resources to deliver implementation AP covers all forms of VAW within an explicit gender analysis AP covers some forms of VAW within an explicit gender analysis AP is monitored by an independent external oversight body with specific VAW mandate

(National Observatory, National Human Rights Institution with VAW mandate) AP has clear time frames and targets

Process indicators

The basic process indicator will be case attrition – the proportion of reported cases that fail to result in any form of sanction for the perpetrator. This requires tracking of reporting, prosecution and conviction rates on a year-by-year basis. Increasing reporting rates can be seen to indicate decreased tolerance and

increased exercise of the right to redress by women. Prosecution rates should not only mirror increases in reporting, but also

increase if legal and procedural reforms are having the desired impacts. Conviction rates should, similarly, stay at minimum constant and increase if

procedural reforms are effective. They should not be lower than for other crimes, especially since in many cases the identity of the perpetrator is known.

At national level an index of support needs to be constructed with access calculated through capacity, population ratios and 12 month prevalence findings. The precise contours of the index will be contained in a technical report to be agreed by nation states.

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

Reported Prosecutions Convictions

Reported 1,842 2,288 2,417 2,855 3,305 3,391 4,045 4,142 4,589 5,032 4,986 5,759 6,281 7,636 8,409 8,593 9,449 11,766 12,760 14,192

Prosecutions 844 927 1,048 1,288 1,400 1,467 1,711 1,648 1,704 1,782 1,604 1,696 1,880 2,185 2,169 2,046 2,651 2,945 2,790 2,689

Convictions 450 415 453 540 613 561 559 529 482 460 578 573 599 675 659 598 572 655 673 751

1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Attrition in rape cases: England and Wales 1985-2004

0

1500

3000

4500

6000

7500

9000

Cases

Reported 6725 6598 6576 6904 6925 6708 6723 5954 5919 5604 5281 5251 4987 5112 5454 5568 6376 6095 6175 6228 6636 7914 7565 7499 7891

Prosecutions 1703 1617 1603 1609 1711 1651 1683 1660 1480 1456 1461 1403 1297 1194 1138 1298 1323 1415 1323 1341 1321 2401 2480 2490 2451

Conv ictions 1190 1162 1166 1177 1310 1303 1333 1333 1180 1156 1161 1110 1017 923 897 1014 1053 1124 1021 1010 1009 1873 1917 1877 1876

1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Attrition in rape cases: Germany 1977-2001

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Cases

Reported 430 491 434 469 562 483 622 653 593 622 485 438 457 468 470 438 410 436 417 423 392 346 331 294 321

Prosecutions 479 415 499 523 474 505 399 326 328 315 324 298 288 297 278 281 251 219 201 159 199

Conv ictions 542 424 406 398 410 443 400 489 490 460 386 325 291 257 212 236 184 264 238 195 224 203 173 162 157

1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Attrition in rape cases: Hungary 1977-2001

An index ofthe extent andavailablity of services usingGIS systems

Disproportionality in provision, inequitable

access

• Violence has not been mainstreamed in equalities thinking or mechanisms– Limited work by the Equal Opportunities Commission

• Silo thinking– An emphasis on IPV and criminal justice

• Reported cases and risk– Policy conflicts and tensions – trafficking and forced marriage, between

Justice and Immigration• Limited application and understanding of relevance of human rights• Recent recognition by new Equalities and Human Rights

Commission– Interest in developing intersectional approaches– Equality duties – public bodies have responsibilities to promote equality

with respect to race, disability and gender (GED)– Using research and lobbying through coalition – EVAW – have a

commitment that VAW will be a key equality measure, included in ‘The State of the Nation’ bi-annual reports and in monitoring implementation of GED at local levels

Current context in England and Wales

Process Indicators 1

Increased reporting rates (measured by administrative data from the criminal justice system) Increased reporting across all forms of VAW Increased reporting across most forms of VAW Increased reporting of some forms of VAW Flat rates reporting for some forms Flat rates of reporting for most forms of VAW

Decreased attrition rates for prosecution and conviction (measured by administrative data from the criminal justice system) Increased rates of prosecution and conviction for all forms of VAW Increased rates of prosecution and conviction for some forms of VAW Flat rates of prosecution and conviction for all forms of VAW Flat rates of prosecution and conviction for some forms of VAW Decreasing rates of prosecution and conviction for some forms of VAW