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Sunday
Nov082009

Broadstrokes: violence against women

DateSunday, November 8, 2009 at 5:28PM

Life everywhere is touched by violence. It occurs in homes, at schools, in the workplace, and all across society. This violence cannot be explained away…as “cultural” or as a private matter; it is criminal. It is every nation’s problem and it is the cause of mass destruction around the globe. We need a response that is commensurate with the seriousness of the crimes. - Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, Testimony Before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight – Washington, DC, October 21, 2009

 

The truth is, violence against women and girls can happen outside of an abusive family or partnership.  UNICEF reported as early as 1984 that “abortions after prenatal sex determination stated that 7,999 out of 8,000 of the aborted fetuses were females.”  Alarming as this statistic was decades ago, what is more alarming is that this is simply a facet of the violence that occurs against women on a daily basis.

Women who tried to run away to a new country to establish a better life for themselves have found instead a life of forced prostitution.  In June of this year, Europol and Italian officials apprehended suspects across Western Europe who are being charged with affecting this very violence upon their victims, some of whom ended up also being used as drug mules to smuggle illegal substances from Spain to Italy.

Beyond this, women have for centuries been those who must bear the deepest wounds in war-torn areas.  Raping and pillaging didn’t stop with the Vikings – Bosnia, Croatia, the Domestic Republic of Congo.  We’ve all read the news articles, seen the reports on the evening news.  How can we stop the cycle of violence in this global context?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after the September 30, 2009 meeting on the adoption of a UNSC resolution to combat sexual violence in armed conflict, may have part of the answer.  “As I have said many times over many years, the role and rights of women in today’s world is a critical core concern of foreign policy. It is national security. Of course, it has a moral and human and social and economic dimension. But the more we know about conflicts, the more we realize that women who do not start conflicts are often the victims.”

Knowing the world around us in a broader sense and thinking globally about the violence we as humans perpetuate, but never forgetting that the big picture is comprised of individuals, might help each of us find her or his own solution to the criminal injustices carried out against someone’s mother, sister, daughter, or friend.

 
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