Now that one knows the differences between sexual and gender violence , one needs to look at who this violence is directed towards. A women’s body may be targeted because she has the role as guardian, whether it be over her children or her traditions.
‘violence against women’ [includes] 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.
--Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 23 February 1994 and Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women,15 September 1995
But this violence is not always directed at women males may also be targeted because they are identified as powerful or dominant. Men may also be raped, this being used to humiliate them and force them down to the position of women, thus causing them to be thought of as weak and inferior. “In one incident described in the Tadic case, a man was tortured when another prisoner was forced to bite off his testicle. The sexual organs of the man were targeted in order to take away his male identity and make him like a woman.” (http://www.iccwomen.org/resources/gender.htm)
So as one can see this violence is not just based on women but also on men.
A Few Facts about Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
-- World-wide, an estimated 40 to 70 per cent of homicides of women are
committed by intimate partners, often in the context of an abusive
relationship.
-- Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten,
coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
--Trafficking of human’s world-wide grew almost 50 percent from 1995 to
2000 and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates
that as many as 2 million women are trafficked across borders annually.
-- More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female
genital mutilation.
-- At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are
missing from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of
sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect.
-- In recent years, mass rape in war has been documented in Bosnia,
Cambodia, Liberia, Peru, Somalia and Uganda. A European Community
fact-finding team estimates that more than 20,000 Muslim women were
raped during the war in Bosnia.
-- Ninety-four percent of displaced households surveyed in Sierra Leone
have reported incidents of sexual assault, including rape, torture and
sexual slavery. At least 250,000, perhaps as many as 500,000, women
were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
From Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden (World Bank 1994)
Fact Sheet on Gender Violence: A Statistics for Action Fact Sheet (L. Heise, IWTC, 1992)
and
the World’s Women (UNIFEM, 2000)
Here are a couple more statistics on Sexual Violence and Rape:
Statistics are from the CALCASA 2001 Research on Rape and Violence Report
(http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jrw/cs120project.html)
Now that one has seen statistics and definitions as to what and who sexual and gender violence is related to. Let us now look at the sexual and gender violence that is in schools all over the world. Through research done by Nan D. Stein, Ed.D.
Senior Research Scientist at Wellesley College Centre for Research on Women, and
Co-Director, National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center. He has come to the conclusion that schools may well be the training grounds for sexual and gender violence. He goes on to say that sexual harassment in schools has grown out of proportion, and yet when the educators try to come up with ideas to curb violence they often overlook such things as sexual and gender violence. And the horrifying thing is that this still occurs even with the recognition of the problems of teen dating violence, date rape, battering and domestic violence. And when these are recognised staff member are asked to give presentations to the class to make them aware that such things are happening.
Another question that must be answered is, “what makes people rape, what causes them to violate someone else?” In other words what are the risk factors for sexual violence. The answer is that there are many factors increasing the risk of someone being sexually assaulted or harassed. Some of these factors are related to the individual, their beliefs, behaviour and so on, while other factors are contained within the social environment, these including peer, family, community and societal environments. These factors do not only influence the possibility of sexual violence, but also the society’s reaction to it. The presents the following sets of risk factors for sexual violence:
“But how to prevent sexual harassment in schools and in public?”, this is the question that Nan D. Stein asked himself. And he came up with a start to a solution, which goes as follows: he said that the schools put emphasis on metal detectors, identification mechanisms, crowd control and dress codes, while it excludes the factor of gender. Girls are therefore put in danger, as is the case in the outside world, and that danger is more likely to come from boys and young men they know, than from strangers. As a start, school personnel should make the schools safe for girls and
young women. And to do this they must begin a process, and that process is to bring the subjects of gender violence, sexual harassment into the classrooms. Coupled
with other school-wide efforts, such as teacher training, discipline codes and counselling groups, as well as sessions for parents, educators. This could go a long way to reducing gender violence in schools.
South Africa also has its fare share of sexual and gender related issues. It has been said by The Human Rights Watch, that some girls are too afraid to go to school because they know that they will experience sexual harassment etc. And that those that have experienced it are now too afraid to go back to school. Erika George of the Counsel to academic Freedom Program at Human Rights Watch says that school girls are learning that sexual violence is a part of every day school now. And while the Human Rights Watch has called on the government to do something about the issue, to date they have done next to nothing to solve the problem. (Extract A)
There are also other responses to prevent or sexual violence, but they are rather limited and most have not been evaluated. Moreover, since most solutions have been developed and implemented in industrialised countries, their relevance to other settings is not well known, i.e. South Africa. Preventive strategies need to be replicated and then put forward to determine if they are effective.
Prevention must occur at the numerous levels where risk factors are situated, from the individual, to the relationship, community, and societal levels. And according to the , promising strategies at the individual and relationship levels have been formulated, these include skills-building programmes on sexual and reproductive health promotions that include aspects of gender and prevention of violence against women. And there are programmes that work with families throughout the developmental stages of the child to promote a rich, nourishing and healthy childhood. Work at the community level with men to change concepts of masculinity, and in the school environment to transform gender relations into non-violent interactions, also seem to show promising results. Legal and policy reform that ensure gender equality and legal protection for victims of sexual violence are also important measures to promote equitable gender norms. School and university prevention is another area where work is being done, and most of the work on sexual violence to date has been concentrated on educational prevention, aimed at reducing the physical and psychosocial harm to victims of sexual violence. There appears to be very little work being done on the prevention strategies for the perpetrators. Persons who have been assaulted often seek medical assistance, even when they fail to disclose the violent event. Health staff can provide comprehensive, gender-sensitive health services to victims of sexual assault to manage the physical and mental health consequences of the assault, including pregnancy testing, STD testing and prophylaxis, treatment of injuries, and psychosocial counselling. A gap exists however, between the service needs experienced by victims of sexual violence, and the existing level of health services provided in most countries in such cases. There is a need however to strengthen the capacity of the health sector to respond to persons who experienced sexual violence and need help dealing with it.
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In closing, what can be done to help victims of sexual harassment, assault, abuse etc, is the important question on everyone’s mind. But as one can clearly see there are many measures being taken to try and make this, and other countries a safer place for men and especially women to live in. There is hope, and one day soon, maybe we will reach it.
References
- based on Articles 1 and 2 of the UN General Assembly
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
(1993) and Recommendation 19, paragraph 6 of the 11th
Session of the CEDAW Committee
- From Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden (World Bank 1994)
Fact Sheet on Gender Violence: A Statistics for Action Fact Sheet (L. )
and
the World’s Women (UNIFEM, 2000)
- http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jrw/cs120project.html
- Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 23 February 1994 and Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women,15 September 1995
