WUNRN
WIDOWS RIGHTS - NGO COLLECTIVE
STATEMENT FOR UN CSW 57
PREVENTION & ELIMINATION OF
VIOLENCE TO WIDOWS
STATEMENT submitted by Women for Human Rights, single women group of Nepal in association with SANWED member organizations ; Guild of Service, India, Widows for Peace through Democracy, UK, Small Fishers Federation, Sri Lanka, Tarango, Bangladesh, Bhutanese refugee Center, Nepal, Care Afganisthan and Aurat Foundation, Pakistan for CSW 57 on PREVENTION AND ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE TO WIDOWS
In light of the priority theme of CSW 57, “Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls We, the organizations representing widows, of all ages, in developing, conflict and post-conflict countries, draw attention to widowhood as an urgent and neglected cross-cutting issue, and particularly welcome the opportunity to highlight the often hidden aspects of violence perpetrated against widows and their daughters.
Widows of all ages – child widows, young mothers, elderly women -in developing countries, especially in Africa and South Asia, experience many different forms of violence. In conflict and post-conflict scenarios the violence is exacerbated in more complex environments, leaving scars that last a life time, and affect the whole of society and its future. This issue has been neglected by governments, and the international community.
Widows are likely to suffer, (in silence), extreme and systematic physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence both within their families, and in the outside community. Across regions, religions, cultures, caste and class, widows can be stigmatized as bringing bad luck, as “inauspicious”, or” the evil eye”. The vernacular word for “widow” in many dialects is usually pejorative, synonymous with names for “harlot, witch, prostitute, and sorceress”. Widow-related gender based violence has not been adequately researched, nor is there reliable data or qualitative information on the causes, nature, and consequences of these practices. Furthermore, even where Member States have legislated to criminalize violence against women, laws are poorly enforced, Harmful traditional practices, for example degrading and life-threatening mourning and burial rites that oppress widows within their families rarely get mentioned. Due to illiteracy, location, economic, social and cultural obstacles, widows often have little or no access to the justice systems. ,. In rural areas widows’ lives are determined not by modern laws, but by patriarchal discriminatory interpretations of religion, custom and tradition.
Much of the violence against widows occurs within the family. Deprived of rights to inheritance of property and land, they can be ”inherited” as a chattel, by a forced marriage to a dead husband’s relative; powerless, widows are often exploited as domestic, agricultural and sexual slaves. Mourning and Burial rites forced on widows may include “ritual cleansing by sex” (a practice believed to exorcise the evil spirits); extreme restrictions on mobility, diet, dress and freedom of association which causes grave psychological trauma that can lead to depression and suicide. Where evicted from the homestead impoverished landless widows often find their only means of survival is through begging or prostitution, putting them at risk of further violence, stigma and HIV and AIDS. In the event that widows are courageous enough to seek justice for their rights through the courts, they often provoke further physical and psychological violence because they dared to challenge deep-seated societal and patriarchal norms. Many poor rural widows migrate to urban centres in the hope of finding employment to feed themselves and their children, where again their poverty and powerlessness leaves them vulnerable to the worst forms of exploitation, including trafficking.
The daughters of poor widows are also at risk of the violence of a forced child marriage. A common action of poor widows is to remove their daughters from school and to marry them, or sell them to older men. In the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, such men are often widowers, and carriers of the HIV virus. Child marriage is itself a violence, but many of these little girls them become child widows, also subject to the stigma and violence that their mothers faced.
Armed conflict and post conflict has resulted in a huge increase in the numbers of widows, since a common feature of present day conflicts is the separation and killing of men and boys, and the sexual violence including rape of women and girls as a weapon of war. In some conflicts widows have had to witness the murder of their husbands before or after they have been raped. Widows face threats to their lives, violence and often death should they be brave enough to testify against the rapists at international or national tribunals.
Displacement as a consequence of war affects widows and their dependents disproportionately since without any adult male protector they are greatly at risk whether in IDP or refugee camps, or in flight seeking safety across frontiers. For example in camps they lack adequate security, and are in danger when they leave the site in search of water and firewood. Within the camps, a culture of “food for sex” often operates with particular impact on widows and their daughters.
Homelessness and displacement in the context of post-conflict transitional period leaves millions of uncounted widows, without any sources of support.. For example, in Afghanistan, widows in Kabul, unable to feed their children, are known to be selling their daughters for as little as $10, but many widows have committed suicide through self-immolation. Widows fleeing the violence of a forced remarriage to a brother-in-law are kept in prison ostensibly for their own protection, even though they have committed no crime. In Iraq, poor widows and their daughters are frequently subject to rape, abductions, kidnap, and forced prostitution. In the DRC widows and their daughters are subject to multiple rape and sexual mutilation. In Nepal, widows are subjected to face severe violence in the name of culture and religion.
The greatest obstacle to effectively preventing and eliminating violence against widows is the lack of data: numbers, ages, numbers of dependents, needs, roles, coping strategies, support systems, legal status, and access to justice, Also, the conception in the development community that women are an “homogenous” category, denying that there are sub-sects of women, such as widows, who suffer particular forms of discrimination and abuse that demand a specific response.
A conventional methodology to gather data have failed in the context of widowhood, since widows’ isolation and the cultural taboo on any discussions of their personal status requires alternative initiatives to hear their voices. Widows require financial and human resources to support them in establishing their own organizations and networks. Banding together, widows will have a collective voice, be able to access training so they can utilize national and international human rights mechanisms and norms, participate equally in decision-making bodies, such as peace-tables, and committees on law reform and constitutional redrafting. Also, as in Nepal, associations of widows can be supported to work with their governments to fill the gap in data so as to influence policy makers, and be key monitors of implementation of new laws.
We ask for the following recommendations to be taken up by the UN and governments.
1. Commission a United Nations Report on Widowhood in Conflict.
2. Appoint a United Nations Special Representative on Widowhood.
3. Create a fund to enable widows' organizations to mobilize and ensure the voices of widows are heard on their issues related to peace negotiations and legal reforms, including constitutional reform and law committees.
4. Urge State Parties to fund the collection and disaggregation of data based on marital status and family structure, including data to combat marginalization and multiple marginalization.
5. Recommend that the CEDAW consider monitoring the status of widows on the country level and adopting a “General Recommendation" to States Parties on this issue.
6. Organize international meetings in Asia and Africa during 2013 and 2014 on Widowhood and its relation to human rights, poverty, and justice.
7. Acknowledge and urge States Parties to recognize that the goals of the Millennium Development Goals and the Beijing Platform for Action cannot be reached if widows remain an invisible group within the larger, homogenous group of "women". The vital need is to Mainstream Widowhood issues into UN action to achieve the MDGs and the objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and its subsequent resolutions, including all international and regional policy meetings.
8. Include "widows" as a specific category in National Action Plans for implementing SCR 1325 and for Development.