New global approach needed to
eliminate violence against women and girls, says UN expert
GENEVA (27 June 2019) – “A new
system-wide global approach is necessary to eliminate violence against women
and girls,” said Dubravka Šimonović, the
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, in a report today to the Human
Rights Council in Geneva.
“I believe that the establishment
of a platform for cooperation between international and regional independent women’s human rights
mechanisms will do much to address the mounting
push back movements against women’s rights, and will demonstrate its
support for popular movements, such as #MeToo and #Ni Una Menos, and their
various manifestations across the world,” said the expert.
“Endemic, persistent and systematic
violence continues to blight the lives of women and girls all over the world. A
new global system-wide response would strengthen the implementation of States
human rights obligations under the UN and regional women’s human rights
instruments to prevent and combat
violence against women and impose zero tolerance on any such violence, a
scourge that has been accepted as part of daily life,” Ms Šimonović said.
“As we approach the 25-year review
of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2020, we must ensure that that the
progress that has been made in placing violence against women firmly on the
international agenda as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of
gender-based discrimination is not lost but upgraded. Women human rights
mechanisms must also be included in this process.”
She said there is now an urgent
need to address the significant implementation gap, and to accelerate the full
incorporation and implementation of international, regional and national
instruments on gender equality and violence against women.
“At present, there is no
system-wide approach to the elimination of violence against women and I believe
that the institutional establishment of international and regional independent
women human rights mechanisms, that could speak with one voice on specific
topics of joint concern, would contribute to this much-needed system-wide
approach and would strengthen implementation efforts on the elimination of
gender based violence against women and girls.
“A system-wide approach is
necessary to accelerate equality between women and men and to eradicate
gender-based violence,” Ms. Šimonović said.
“The existing human rights
normative framework has been strengthened by the new CEDAW general
recommendation 35 on gender-based violence against women, which should be
promoted and implemented and in time could lead to the adoption of an Optional
Protocol to CEDAW on violence against women. This would contribute to closing
gaps in combating and preventing violence against women worldwide,” the expert
said.
“As we look to the future, and in
order to address the chilling impact that violence has on women, I believe that
urgent action must be taken, not only by States, but also by non-State actors,
as well as international organisations and independent monitoring mechanisms to
collect data on violence and femicide against women and to focus on their
prevention.
“All women, whether at the national
or international levels, must be empowered to speak up and to report violence
and receive support needed by States.
Such support should be in line with the CEDAW General Recommendation No.
35 on gender-based violence against women, and through the revision of
discriminatory laws and practices, as well as the adoption of new laws on
violence against women and domestic violence,” Ms Šimonović said.
ENDS
Ms. Dubravka Šimonović (Croatia)
was appointed as Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2015, to recommend
measures, ways and means, at the national, regional and international levels,
to eliminate violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its
consequences.
Ms. Šimonović has been member of the CEDAW Committee from 2002 to
2014. She headed the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Republic of Croatia and was the Minister Plenipotentiary at the
Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN in New York.
She was also Ambassador to
the OSCE and UN in Vienna. She co-chaired the Ad hoc Committee (CAHVIO) of the
Council of Europe that elaborated the Convention on Preventing and Combatting
Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
She has a
PhD in Family Law and published books and articles on human rights and women’s
rights.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of
what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special
Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights
system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and
monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world.
Special Procedures’ experts work on
a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their
work.
They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their
individual capacity.
For more information and media
requests, please contact Orlagh McCann in Geneva (+41 22 917 9902 /
omccann@ohchr.org)
For media inquiries related to
other UN independent experts:
Jeremy Laurence – Media Unit (+41
22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)
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