From the diaries by susanhbu. Ghostdancers way’s diary is the second in a special BooTrib series of the ten most overlooked stories in the world. Please sign up here to shed light on another ignored story.
I chose this diary for personal reasons. One having grown up in a family permeated with violence not only toward women, but children as well. Second because I chose upon finding recovery to seek help for a problem that I deemed would take me back to using drugs and alcohol, I was an abuser of women. Not something I am proud of and not something I relish in openly discussing on a blog, but there it is. I have been clean and free of drugs, alcohol and violence against anyone for more than 17 years. I spent more than 9 of my 17 years in seeking help and treatment for my violence and uncontrolled rage. I am happy to report that I actually have a life that has been free of violence and my wife and children are the most glorious gift I could have received in this life. More below:
I thank the Great Spirit for all the gifts, joys, happiness and pleasure I have found in this life. I am blessed each day and hope that this small contribution will help someone become free of the horrors of these despicable acts against women.
· The Story
Violence against women and girls is a universal problem of epidemic proportions, but its human cost often remains invisible. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The abuser is usually someone known to the victim.
The Context
· Violence against women occurs in all regions and countries and much of it is invisible. Police in countries around the world say that many rape victims do not report the crime.
· Often, countries reporting the incidence of violence are the ones doing the most to counter it.
· In the Dominican Republic, reports indicate that in cases of violence against women, the aggressors are partners or former partners of the victims in 40-68 per cent of the cases. In Georgia, it has been reported that 50% of families experience some form of domestic violence. In India, statistics indicate that 14 wives are murdered by their husbands’ family every day.
· According to a 2002 report by the World Health Organization, studies in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the US have shown that 40-70 per cent of women who have been murdered were killed by their intimate partners, usually in the context of an abusive relationship. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in the United Kingdom 40 per cent of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends.
· A study in Sweden found that 70 per cent of women had experienced some form of violence or sexual harassment. Statistics from the Netherlands show that about 200,000 women are subjected to violence each year by their intimate partners.
· It has been reported that 6 in 10 women in Botswana are victims of domestic violence, while in Moldova, 31 % of girls and young women (ages 16-19) are reported to have experienced sexual violence.
http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/story.asp?storyID=1800
Women and Violence
Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socio-economic and educational classes. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the right of women to participate fully in society.
Violence against women takes a dismaying variety of forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. All are violations of the most fundamental human rights.
In a statement to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995, the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said that violence against women is a universal problem that must be universally condemned. But he said that the problem continues to grow.
The Secretary-General noted that domestic violence alone is on the increase. Studies in 10 countries, he said, have found that between 17 per cent and 38 per cent of women have suffered physical assaults by a partner.
In the Platform for Action, the core document of the Beijing Conference, Governments declared that “violence against women constitutes a violation of basic human rights and is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace”.The Work of the Special Rapporteur
The issue of the advancement of women’s rights has concerned the United Nations since the Organization’s founding. Yet the alarming global dimensions of female-targeted violence were not explicitly acknowledged by the international community until December 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Until that point, most Governments tended to regard violence against women largely as a private matter between individuals, and not as a pervasive human rights problem requiring State intervention.
In view of the alarming growth in the number of cases of violence against women throughout the world, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, including its causes and consequences.
As a result of these steps, the problem of violence against women has been drawing increasing political attention.
The Special Rapporteur has a mandate to collect and analyse comprehensive data and to recommend measures aimed at eliminating violence at the international, national and regional levels. The mandate is threefold:
· To collect information on violence against women and its causes and consequences from sources such as Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and to respond effectively to such information;
· To recommend measures and ways and means, at the national, regional and international levels, to eliminate violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences;
· To work closely with other special rapporteurs, special representatives, working groups and independent experts of the Commission on Human Rights.
http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1772e.htm
Stop Violence Against Women
The Power of Change Is in Our Hands
Welcome to the Stop Violence Against Women Campaign. Every day, women and girls around the world are threatened, beaten, raped, mutilated and killed with impunity. It’s time to recognize that violence against women is a global human rights scandal that affects us all. Across the world, Amnesty International members will unite to work towards making women’s human rights a reality.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/index.do
Worldwide scandal
Violence against women is the greatest human rights scandal of our times.
“I really don’t know what it was that evening that made me decide to call the police, but I always say it was the sight of cleaning up my own blood.” Lorraine, a British woman, was regularly beaten by her partner for eight years before telling anybody. “People have asked me why I didn’t just leave, but …. I was very, very frightened of him. So you get to the point where you live with it, it becomes a normal pattern of life, you adapt, you cope, you hide it.” In the UK, emergency services receive an average of one call per minute about violence in the family.From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family.
· At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
· More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
· Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
· Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence.
· The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
· Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.
http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/scandal-index-eng