WUNRN
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.
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:
Thank
you.
ECOSOC
accredited signatories:
Supported
by:
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