Today we observe the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as officially designated by the United Nations. Violence against women and girls persists as a widespread and devastating human rights violation throughout the world. But this year, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened conditions for women facing gender-based violence, particularly in the domestic sphere. Strained health services and lockdowns have contributed to a “Shadow Pandemic” developing amidst the global crisis. On this day, we honor victims and survivors and pledge to take action to eliminate violence against women, in Latin America and beyond.
This 25th of November marks the launch of 16 days of activism that will conclude on International Human Rights Day, December 10th. The theme for this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect.” During this time, the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign will focus on “amplifying the call for global action to bridge funding gaps, ensure essential services for survivors of violence during the COVID-19 crisis, focus on prevention, and collection of data that can improve life-saving services for women and girls.”
Violence against women can manifest itself in physical, sexual, and psychological forms, including but not limited to intimate partner violence, sexual violence and harassment, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. As defined by the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, violence against women is “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
Gender-based violence is a global human rights issue, but the implementation of laws to protect women is particularly weak in Latin America. Among the 25 countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world, 14 are found in Latin America. At least one out of every three women in the region has experienced gender-based violence at some point in her life.
Before the pandemic, the lives of 12 women were claimed by femicide every day in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 98% of killings going unprosecuted. And this data does not include Brazil, the country with the worst records of gender-based violence, nor does it accurately account for areas of high concentration of poverty and conflict zones. In El Salvador and Honduras, for example, rates of femicide surpass 10 per 100,000 women—this exceeds the combined rate of male and female homicides in some countries with the highest homicide rates in the world, like Ecuador and Nicaragua.
Latin America’s high rates of femicide and gender-based violence are due in part to rigid patriarchal systems and a culture of machismo. Another contributor is the weak implementation of laws adopted to protect women. Between 2008 and 2015, the number of countries in Latin America with special legislation on femicide grew from nine to 16. Additionally, all countries in the region have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and fourteen have ratified the Convention’s Optional Protocol recognizing the competence of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Evidently, however, these laws and commitments have not been enough to stop violence against women in practice.
Though these facts sound discouraging, particularly as we learn that gender-based violence is intensifying during the pandemic, we all have a part to play in ending violence against women. Here are 10 actions to take, as recommended by UN Women (click the link for more information). Additionally, a list of country help lines can be found here.
- Listen to and believe survivors
- Teach the next generation and learn from them
- Call for responses and services fit for purpose
- Understand consent
- Learn the signs of abuse and how you can help
- Start a conversation
- Stand up against rape culture
- Fund women’s organizations
- Hold each other accountable
- Know the data and demand more of it
