PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Violence against women was a universal problem that was often overlooked, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, told correspondents at a press briefing this afternoon.

Ms. Coomaraswamy said she was making her first visit to the Commission on the Status of Women in her official capacity and thanked the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of Communications and Public Information for arranging the press briefing.

As the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Coomaraswamy said she reports to the United Human Rights Commission in Geneva. She was appointed as the Special Rapporteur in 1994, after groundwork was laid at the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in June 1993. Women groups attending the Conference demanded that two things be done: the adoption by the General Assembly of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; and the creation of the post of Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Within six months after the conclusion of the conferences, both tasks were completed.

Ms. Coomaraswamy said the Special Rapporteur's mandate include three basic functions. Those functions were to write a general report to the Human Rights Commission on the problem of violence against women, with regard to a particular year or theme; to visit countries on specific issues concerning violence against women; and to discuss individual communications from women victims of violence with governments, in order to clarify those situations.

In addition to a general report, Ms. Coomaraswamy said she had submitted to the Human Rights Commission reports on the following topics: violence against women in the family; violence against women in the community; and violence against women by the State and in times of armed conflict. She also had undertaken several fact-finding missions -- to Rwanda, to look at the issue of armed conflict; to Poland, to study the phenomenon of trafficking of women from Eastern to Western Europe; to Brazil, to look at the issue of domestic violence; to South Africa, to study the problem of rape; and to Japan and the Republic of Korea, to examine the problem of comfort women and the issue of military sexual slavery during wartime.

The Special Rapporteur was most effective in her visits to specific countries, Ms. Coomaraswamy said. At those times, she engaged in a constructive dialogue with elected officials, non-governmental organizations and the victims on specific issues. Her office attempted to formulate policies and recommendations that could be implemented by the specific country.

A correspondent asked if violence against women was widespread or if it was most common in developing countries. Ms. Coomaraswamy said it was a

universal phenomenon, but different issues prevailed in different countries and cultures. In developed countries, there was a large movement to prevent violence against women, particularly domestic violence. In certain regions, there also existed the problem of armed conflict, and that issue was afforded high priority in the Special Rapporteur's mandate. The post of Special Rapporteur was created, in part, because of the international community's reaction to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Specific traditional practices were unique to some countries, she continued. For a long time, the United Nations viewed those practices, such as female genital mutilation and dowry debts, in terms of development and health. Yet, the Human Rights Commission and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women redefined them as issues of women's human rights.

Were Western countries more to blame for the trafficking of women from Asia and Eastern Europe to Western Europe? a correspondent asked. Ms. Coomaraswamy said international trafficking was the consequence of the policies of both the exporting and receiving countries. Both sides had to take steps to stop that kind of activity.

Those who have studied the problem have said that it occurred in waves, she continued. The first wave of trafficking came from South-East Asia, especially Thailand and the Philippines, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The second wave came from Latin America, especially the Dominican Republic and Brazil. The third wave was from Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the current wave originated from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Whether the four waves were based on supply or demand was not known.

Asked if her report was limited to the countries she had personally visited, Ms. Coomaraswamy said there were two reports this year. One covered the whole world regarding violence by the State and during times of armed conflict, and the second was based on her field visit to Rwanda.

A correspondent asked if the report covered instances of violence against women during the conflict in Chiapas, Mexico. The Special Rapporteur said she had received little information about the situation in Chiapas before the report was written, but it was mentioned in one paragraph. The report stated that Chiapas was an area where the problem of violence against women existed, but, as of yet, there was no evidence of sexual violence.

Did the report mention the horrendous conditions women migrant workers from Asia faced in the Middle East? a correspondent asked. Ms. Coomaraswamy said her second report devoted an entire section to the problem of migrant labour. The report also recommended that countries implement the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. A future report would focus on trafficking, and her office hoped

Women Briefing - 3 - 4 March 1998

to visit a Middle Eastern country in the next two to three years to examine that problem.

Asked for some examples of violence against women by the State, Ms. Coomaraswamy said those were cases of violence perpetrated or condoned by States or occurring in situations of armed conflict.

A correspondent asked if the Special Rapporteur received negative reactions from the countries named in her reports. Ms. Coomaraswamy said countries did care about the work her office performed, and they did not want to be shamed in an international forum. While the United Nations human rights mechanisms could not force change, they did exert a moral pressure and countries did respond. The problem of violence against women was often invisible. In her field visits, she had discovered that many people did not see it as an issue. The office of the Special Rapporteur hoped to be a catalyst for policy changes within countries.

Asked about the increasing number of women and girls who were being used as soldiers in armed conflicts, she said that the issue was addressed in the report. It posed two questions. The first was that the Geneva Conventions did not address the issue of women as prisoners of war. Women might need special conditions that other soldiers did not. The other question was if women in military units were empowered. In her writing outside the office of the Special Rapporteur, she had argued that such women did not become emancipated when they were perpetrators of violence.

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