Paragraph 124(a)-(c) on Violence Against Women Through the Beijing Platform for Action
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/01/06
Strategic objective D.1.
Take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women
Actions to be taken
124. By Governments:
- Condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women;
- Refrain from engaging in violence against women and exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons;
- Enact and/or reinforce penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs done to women and girls who are subjected to any form of violence, whether in the home, the workplace, the community or society;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The ways in which violence against women becomes enshrined probably emerges from both social sanction, higher aggression in the males of our species, and the sociological interpretation of entitlement of men to engage in overt acts of violence against women based on some slight to the man’s core masculine identity.
Any condemnation of this entitlement, as per the calls of the Beijing Declaration, can be important in a first reaction, first-response preventative, to the overwhelming violence against women around the world. But also, we can examine the ways in which women remain are kept down through the excuses of tradition and religion within societies.
Indeed, we can see the religious injunctions in the language and the forms of misrepresentation of women throughout societies. It can be for the noblest or ignoblest of reasons, but it results in the same forms of explicit, and often tacit as well, discrimination against women.
The reduction and eventual elimination of violence against women become important movements connected to these early stipulations of paragraph 124. If we continue this into section (b), it follows from the condemnation of acts of violence against women with the refraining from engagement in it.
This amounts to more of an individual and state dual-level moral stipulation about the need to use due caution in cases of violence against women for the benefit of the wellness and health of the women. If we look at the instances of the false accusations, such as the American case of Rolling Stone, we can see the need to bear in mind some estimates state 2-10% of the claims of rape are false, with the FBI finding of 8%.
That is to say, in the cases of some of the most severe forms of violence against women, most claims are true – over 9 out of 10, according to the FBI. The national legislation should reflect this in addition to the severity of the situations involving the violence against women. This includes “due diligence” in investigations for proper justice and prevention, so this does not happen as much.
From the levels of “penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions,” violence against women as a global social health problem; mostly, men imposing on women. The purpose of the invocation of all these levels fo societies is to prevent, treat, and create a just reaction to and preventative framework for instances – very common – of violence against women.
Punishment for wrongs and comprehensive frameworks for prevention into the future. These remain important aspects of the work to reduce and eventually eliminate violence against women, whether “in the home, the workplace, the community or the society.”
–(Updated 2018-11-10) One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the optional protocol (1993).
- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Five-year review of progress (2000), 10-year review in 2005, the 15-year review in 2010, and the 20-year review in 2015.
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and the UN Security Council additional resolutions on women, peace and security: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), and 2242 (2015).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
- UN Women’s strategic plan, 2018–2021
- 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
- 2015 agenda with 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (169 targets for the end to poverty, combatting inequalities, and so on, by 2030). The SDGs were preceded by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015.
–Human Rights
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Led by: Scott Douglas JacobsenTo the socio-political Right, a disclaimer; to the socio-political Left, a trigger warning: the subject matter may be disturbing or triggering for some listeners, speakers, or call members. The statistics on international violence against women is disproportionately more than violence against men. In turn, there is violence against women committed by women against women but more often by men against women. It is the statistical difference, which is the basis for the international emphasis on violence against women in multiple spheres rather than localized differences. Wednesday morning, we will speak on violence against women for one hour or so.
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