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Article 6
Nothing in the present Declaration shall affect any provision that is more conducive to the elimination of violence against women that may be contained in the legislation of a State or in any international convention, treaty or other instrument in force in a State.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993)
The Declaration or the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in Article 6 concludes on the important note of balancing between stronger and weaker forms of the rights of women strategies.
Some tackling Violence Against Women or VAW become more effective than others. Within this work, as with many things in life, there are better and worse solutions to problems. Some are more efficacious in other contexts than others. Others have the rare capacity to work in many, many nations around the world in spite of the history, religion, and peoples of the region.
With the work for a fairer and more just world with less violence, one of the first places would be in unjust international criminal acts; another, closer to home turf for everyone, is the singular acts of VAW coming in numerous forms but identifiable and accepted as within three categories: psychological, physical, and sexual.
The psychological violence committed through verbal and emotional abuse – scars less seen except maybe in someone self-harming over the obliterated self-esteem; the sexual violence known more to the public in the moment of calling out powerful men who commit atrocious acts, but also the lesser known and poor men who commit similar or the same acts in coerced sex, marital rape, and forced sexual activity, and so on; the other with physical violence seen in battering cases.
Each of these gets perpetuated within the media systems coming from liberal-progressive establishments such as Hollywood and also from traditional-conservative sources including the Roman Catholic priests and the other religious leaders from less noteworthy religions, i.e., with smaller bank accounts and follower numbers.
The basic framework for the fairer and more just world exists right here, in the Declaration, and in other documents with signatories accounting for sometimes large swathes of regions of the world, which implies the potential for a great deal of our power in only a small document for the legal and international rights mechanisms to enforce the equality desired by so many yet seen by so few.
One of the most remarkable cases over the last few years has been Iceland with the great deal of development in the equality of the sexes movements. Not only a boon and a positive for the women but also for the men and the society as the well-being and economic metrics indicate greater prosperity for the nations that contribute to the flourishing of women; indeed, even on the minutiae of the happiness of a marriage, a happy marriage comes with a happy wife, so if one wants this then we can work towards it.
It is a case in point as to the transformative power of empowering the least among us – and who have been for a long time – women and women and color in particular. If we can get our acts together more and more, we can set an example for others to follow in our footsteps.
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- 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 (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- 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.
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