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International Women's Day 2006: Opinion by Amnesty Secretary-General

ACT 77/005/2006 (Public)
8 March 2006

International Women's Day 2006: Opinion piece by Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary-General

“Surviving an abusive relationship is like surviving torture -- the future narrows down to getting through the next few hours, the next day.”
- A family counsellor describes violence against women in the family

In January, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia became the first woman head of state in Africa, and Michele Bachelet the first elected woman President of Chile. Just a few months beore that Angela Merkel was chosen as the first female Federal Chancellor in Germany.

For two years running, in 2003 and 2004, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to women: Shirin Abadi, a lawyer from Iran, and Wangari Matthai, an environmental activist from Kenya. The New York Stock Exchange is now headed by a woman, as is the London Business School – as indeed, is Amnesty International!

Women around the world are breaking social and economic barriers. Yet despite these remarkable achievements, women and girls are still being subjected to violence at shocking levels.

Unlike the so-called “war on terror”, the “war on women and girls” is not on the global political agenda. It takes its toll in battlefields, bedrooms and backstreets -- the greatest hidden human rights scandal of our times, made all the more scandalous by being present in every part of the world and in almost every aspect of life.

It starts before birth with sex-selective abortions, which has reached worrying proportions in countries like India. It is followed after birth by female infanticide and the sexual, emotional and physical abuse of girls -- including through child prostitution, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

In adulthood, violence takes the form of stalking, rape, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse and harassment by colleagues and relatives, “honour” crimes, and dowry and bride-price related abuses. At home or at work, women are not safe.

In some communities, a woman’s “honour” is seen as a commodity to be used to settle family debts or as a means of punishing a family. In Afghanistan, for example, rape and forced marriages are often used as a means of settling disputes between families or tribes.

Traditionally, human rights discourse has focused on how to protect citizens against the unreasonable and unlawful use of violence and coercion by the state, not on what the state can or should do to prevent violence by private actors. The private sphere, especially the family, was excluded -- considered outside the reach of the state.
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posted by Annamarie at 10:45 PM