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Article 4
States should condemn violence against women and should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. States should pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against women and, to this end, should:
( e ) Consider the possibility of developing national plans of action to promote the protection of women against any form of violence, or to include provisions for that purpose in plans already existing, taking into account, as appropriate, such cooperation as can be provided by non-governmental organizations, particularly those concerned with the issue of violence against women;
( f ) Develop, in a comprehensive way, preventive approaches and all those measures of a legal,
political, administrative and cultural nature that promote the protection of women against any form of violence, and ensure that the re-victimization of women does not occur because of laws insensitive to gender considerations, enforcement practices or other interventions;
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993) or the Declaration stipulates the need for nations to work on the development of a national action plan for work to reduce and eliminate discrimination against women.
In particular, the form of discrimination found in the violence against women or VAW. VAW is the form of violence most noticeable in the statistics around gender-based discrimination, where the men may maritally rape their wives or domestically abuse them.
The discrimination makes a lasting mark and can, in some cases, change their lives forever with the possibility of a child resulting, especially possible without contraceptives and abortifacients available – a fundamental human right by the way.
The use of religion for the enshrinement of respect for women as equals comes in the more mainline liberal churches, even those noteworthy Canadian figures such as Rev. Gretta Vosper from the United Church of Canada, typically.
The invocation of religion to restrict the possibilities of women remains a current theme in numerous areas of the world. Also, there exist the cultural traditions used to function in a similar manner for the benefit of the powerful.
Some of this starts with the distinction made by Dr. Cornel West with the Roman Empire becoming the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine who made the religion of the oppressed to the religion of the oppressors. Credit to West for the commentary on the distinction between Non-Constantinian and Constantinian Christianity and to Chomsky for the “religion of the oppressed to the religion of the oppressors.”
In a similar manner, religion remains, in a way, a hammer, akin to science, which means a neutral object with values-based utility in accordance with the human application; the axiological status of an object in this sense comes from its function: Functional Axiology if that field exists. Something like a utilitarian evaluation system based on function.
The functional axiological status relative to human wants, needs, and desires, even murderous ones or expressions of the creativity of the human spirit. A wide number of dimensions for utilitarian and functional axiological analysis there.
The basis for a national plan fo action to eliminate VAW is not trivial, but the process will be difficult as many men, if you look at some informal and formal documentary footage, seem to feel as if they own the women in their lives in some ways.
That is, they consider the ethical duty or honor of the men in the family to be the enforcers of the restrictions on the possibilities for the flourishing of women. The purpose of Article 4(e) is to provide a rights basis in a more recent document than the CEDAW to enforce women’s equality in one of the more difficult subject matters to discuss: VAW – let alone combat.
Article 4(f) continues in a similar tone on the national plan. However, it continues in a more formalized tone. That is, the prevention strategies for combatting VAW – an odd phrasing by the way. The development and implementation of strategies for the protection of women in the legal, political, and administrative, and cultural areas of a country, or in general.
These areas of consideration for the protection of women from psychological, sexual, and physical violence – the three recognized categories of violence given in some of the prior articles or subsections of articles. These amount to the means by which to prevent violence in specific domains with further detail on the types of violence.
That is to say, the methodology of oppression against women through violence by individual men and encouraged by cultures and religions come with some precise terminology and boundaries of definition in two places.
One of the domains of the nation for consideration – legal, and so on. Then the types of violence against women with the physical, sexual, and physical violence often imposed on women. Of course, we have the violence of white school shooters, black gang members, and blue-uniformed cops shooting black unarmed civilians, and so on. We also have the imposition of a draft on men in history.
However, these documents focus on the global phenomenon of women simply having violence meted out to them for being women – gender-based or sex-based violence. It is VAW straightforward and basic, or “pure and simple” as more say.
One other specification not given in some of the others writings is the experience of re-victimization of women. Not me to tell women what they experience, but, the basic statement here seems to imply the insensitive enforcements and interventions which can recreate the traumatic experience for women.
Even with the best of intentions, these can head into a bad direction and harm the women, and girls for that matter, in a nation. Those wishing to align their policies and laws with the Declaration should bear in mind the nuanced position regarding how implementations could be taken by some women. If unsure, then ask the women what they think would best work for them.
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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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