PRESS CONFERENCE ON ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

PRESS CONFERENCE ON ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

“We are walking up the down escalator” in terms of eradicating violence against women, correspondents here told today at a Headquarters press conference.

Introducing the report, “Not A Minute More:  Ending violence Against Women” to Executive Director of United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Noeleen Heyzer, said it reflected developments in the 10 years since the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.  At that Conference, women everywhere had broken the silence and culture of shame and brought violence against them out of the private sphere and into the public one.  Everyone knew that such violence had devastated lives, fractured communities and destroyed the potential of many girls and women.  One out of every three girls in a classroom would experience violence in her lifetime. 

Ms. Heyzer, speaking one day before the International Day aimed at eliminating such violence is observed, said that many strategies had worked, and things had improved in several places in the past 10 years, in terms of the legal framework, the priorities, partnerships, awareness, networking, and bringing men and boys on board.  At the same time, however, the world was becoming more violent.  Women’s capacity should be strengthened to enable them to influence the direction of their world.  The strategies that had worked should be turned into common practices in all agendas, and adequate resources should be provided.  Eradicating violence against women must become an urgent global priority, she emphasized.

Recalling that, in 1996, the General Assembly had established a Trust Fund to eradicate violence against women, and had entrusted that to UNIFEM to manage, she said that $7 million had been allocated worldwide in the past five years.  Each year, however, there was a demand of up to $15 million, but the Fund had only enough to provide $1 million each year.  Considering the difference that that amount had made, imagine the possibilities of better funding, she said. 

Commissioner of the New York-based Office to Combat Domestic Violence, Yolanda Jimenez, said that New York City was a microcosm of the world, with more than 120 languages and dialects spoken, and 36 per cent of the population, or nearly one in four New Yorkers, foreign born.  That diversity brought richness, but it also posed challenges in terms of reaching out and ensuring that everyone who lived there understood both their rights and responsibilities.  Nearly two years ago, when the City Charter was amended, the voters supported the creation of an office to combat domestic violence, as a permanent part of city government. 

That office was subsequently established to ensure that all women received the help they needed, and to coordinate resources and programmes with the city’s agencies, she said.  Some work had been in the criminal justice area, and others had been in the areas of health care and social services.  New York City spent more than $112 million on that issue and that was money that could also be utilized to also educate and create awareness to ensure safe families and a safe city. 

She said that things were moving in the right direction –- the number of family-related homicides declined from last year by almost 19 per cent.  Previously, that figure had not changed in more than 10 years.  Clearly, however, one homicide was too many, as was one act of violence.  The New York City Police Department responded daily to more than 600 calls about domestic violence.  Clearly, that issue affected communities at all levels, she added.

A judge in the High Court of the United Republic of Tanzania, Nathalia P. Kimaro, told reporters that she had trained six judges and magistrates, both males and females, and held six seminars.  The training had equipped them with the knowledge and skills necessary for resolving cases involving violence against women, in accordance with international instruments, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. 

Jivka Marinova, of the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, said that three years ago her office launched a campaign against violence, thanks to the support of UNIFEM’s Trust Fund.  Several educational programmes had been developed and she had managed initiatives involving such aspects of the problem as legal and psychological assistance for victims.  It was not enough to work only with victims and only with women.  It was also necessary to work with men, especially young men who had not yet committed violence.  Since 2000, more than 500 teenagers had completed the programme, which created a safe space in which they could discuss the things that were ruining their lives. 

As a result of the campaign, boys had become more tolerant and the girls became empowered, she said.  Thus, the programme had managed to change the violent patterns in their families.  It was also aimed at working in jails with men who had already committed violent crimes against women.  All of them managed to change their behaviour in return for a lighter jail sentence.  The main challenge ahead was the sustainability of the programme, and all efforts would be geared towards that goal.

To questions about plans to further empower women and specific examples of successful strategies, Judge Kimaro said the training programmes in Tanzania had sought to ensure that cases were determined fairly, despite some discriminatory society traditions.  The training had identified obstacles to making fair decisions when women were before the court.  She described women who, when their husbands had died those were chased out of the marital homes by the in-laws and denied any property or inheritance.  She had tried to explain to the judges and magistrates that it was crucial to see to it that those women were protected. 

Ms. Marinova added that, concerning economic empowerment, the issue was to challenge the gender stereotypes and teach equality.  That was a challenge to the educational process –- to teach young people that they were born equal, with the same obligations and rights.

Ms. Jimenez pressed for better awareness to ensure that women, whether in New York or elsewhere, were aware of their rights and resources, particularly immigrant victims in the city.  Many of them still held to the cultural beliefs that they should not report such violence, particularly when their status here in the city or in the United States was shaky.  The mayor recently signed an executive order preventing the police from inquiring about the immigration status of any victim or witness to a crime, or to anyone who sought help.  She knew of stories where women had not reported the offences against them for fear of being deported, or fear or retribution, or fear their husband might be deported as well.  She was working with agencies to inform women that their immigration status would not be part of that process.

Stressing that the key message was the urgency of making that issue a serious global priority, Ms. Heyzer said that must be done in the context not only of peace, but of war, where the bodies of women had become battlefields.  In order to achieve a secure world, strategies should be invested in that broke the cycle of violence.  There was not a minute more to waste, she said. 

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