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URGENT - CALL FOR SIGN ON

UN Statement on Violence Against Women Mandate & Special Rapporteur

 

APWLD (Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development) together with World YWCA and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) will deliver a joint statement on

 5 June 2009 at the Human Rights Council.  We hope the statement will contribute to supporting the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women as well as to ensuring effective implementation of the recommendations of the SRs to advance women's human rights.

 

Your support will make our statement more powerful and we would very much appreciate if your organisations could join us by endorsing the statement. 

 

Please kindly send in your endorsement to misun@apwld.org on or before 4 June 2009 14:00 Bangkok time - 9:00 Geneva time.   When sending in your endorsement, also kindly inform if your organisations have ECOSOC status.

 

 

             

 

 

 5 June 2009

 

UN Human Rights Council

11th Session: 2-18 June 2009

Item 3: General debate

 

Joint Oral Statement delivered by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), World YWCA and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

 

 

Mr. Chairperson and distinguished members of the Human Rights Council,

 

I take the floor on behalf of the APWLD, World YWCA, OMCT and the xx undersigned organisations across the globe.

 

The last two decades have seen important developments at the international level in the struggle to free women’s lives of violence.  The establishment in 1994 of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) was a historic milestone in this fight against violence.

 

During its 15 years of existence, the mandate has accorded attention to grave and systemic manifestations of violence, elaborating on existing legal standards with recommendations for their effective implementation by the international community, individual States and private actors within the family, community and transnational arenas. The mandate has consistently brought out the effect of multiple layers of discrimination resulting from the intersection of gender with other systems of power, such as race, class/caste, rural location, ethnicity, immigrant status and armed conflict to draw attention to the most marginalized and vulnerable women.  Indeed, the understanding that violence against women is not static or fragmented but an outcome of structures that result in a continuum of violence is very critical to the formulation of effective responses.  

 

We especially commend the contribution of the current mandate holder, Ms. Yakin Ertürk, in establishing the linkages of violence against women with social, legal, economic, cultural and political structures.  In elaborating and emphasizing on the obligation to address the structural causes of violence against women, the mandate holders have significantly contributed to increase the focus on states’ legal obligation to prevent violence against women in addition to their strict legal duty to effectively protect women against such violence and provide them with full redress.  We call for support of the international community in addressing laws and policies that contribute to violence, rather than limiting state action to penal and palliative responses towards violence against women.  In this regard, we fully support the mandate holder’s report to the Human Rights Council on “Political Economy of Women’s Human Rights” (UN doc. A/HRC/11/6)” that provides a critical analysis of the current political economy that obstructs the enjoyment of all rights of women. 

 

Mr. Chairperson,

 

We express our deep concern about the increasing levels and new and emerging forms of violence against women, the serious inadequacy of national responses and the vast gap between standards and practice despite the efforts undertaken by the mandate-holders to advance women’s human rights.  The relevance of the mandate is more critical today to address emerging manifestations of violence against women, enable prevention approaches and monitor implementation.  We take this opportunity to remind governments of their obligation to effectively ensure the elimination of not only manifestations of violence but its root causes. 

 

We also urge states to fully assume their legal obligations under international law with regard to violence against women by holding all relevant actors fully accountable for violations of women’s right to human dignity as well as their right at all times to effectively enjoy the right to physical and mental integrity. This legal duty to hold perpetrators of violence accountable for their acts, include both state and non-state actors.  States must moreover considerably increase their efforts in combating rights violations perpetrated by transnational actors, who far too often manage to avoid being brought to justice.  This will however also require that all states concerned afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal proceedings brought in respect of violence against women.

 

In conclusion Mr. Chairperson,

 

We believe that the United Nations and the Human Rights Council in particular, play a critical role in addressing and promoting the eradication of violence against women around the globe. 

 

We therefore encourage the Human Rights Council to proactively monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the UNSRVAW and to urge governments to ensure that women’s human rights are effectively promoted, promoted and fully realised in all circumstances

 

Further, we urge the Human Rights Council to:

 

  1. Strengthen the UNSRVAW mandate by facilitating an organic collaboration with different UN mechanisms, in particular other Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies, the Universal Periodic Review and, when relevant, the UN Security Council;
  2. Strengthen its support to the UNSRVAW’s collaboration with women’s human rights groups that has always been a venue for women to dialogue and bring their issues to the attention of the mandate holder;
  3. Ensure consistent and effective follow-up measures for the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Special Procedures; and
  1. Hold a special session on how to effectively implement the right of women to be free from violence and ensure full accountability of both state and non-state actors - including transnational actors - with regard to violence against women, with the full participation of women’s human rights groups.

 

Thank you.

 

 

ECOSOC accredited signatories:

 

Supported by:





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