Demanding an End to Lethal Violence and Femicide: A Feminist Issue that Knows No Borders

November 29, 2005

Women's movement and violence against women

One of NOW’s priority issues is stopping violence against women. NOW believes that the many aspects of violence against women — domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, war crime, feminization of poverty, and many other conditions — result from society's attitudes toward women and efforts to "keep women in their place." Violence against women is a form of discrimination, and includes violation of the rights to life, physical integrity, freedom, safety and legal protection — rights that are enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the United Nation's Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment; and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). These international norms reaffirm the United States' obligation to classify the crimes of violence against women as human rights violations, as well as criminal brutality. To this effect, the U.S. must work not only to prevent and punish violence against women, but to clarify the truth, ensure justice and provide reparation to the victims.

As a result of the efforts of the North American women's movement, the continent is unique in having a binding treaty to combat violence against women: the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women. Pioneering in its reaffirmation, the Inter-American system established more than 20 years ago the States' international responsibility to investigate or punish human rights violations committed by individuals, thus establishing a doctrine of particular relevance to women facing systematic violence within the family and the community.

A horrific example of how violence can affect a community and terrorize all women is taking place today in Mexico. For over a decade nearly 400 women have been abducted and murdered in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. Many of the murders share a similar modus operandi — the women are brutally beaten, raped and killed, their bodies left in the desert or on a secluded street. Most of the victims are young women on their way to or from work at maquiladoras, or assembly factories.

In the context of the recent hearings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, the Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights, criticized the slow action in investigating and preventing the crimes in Ciudad Juarez and urged the Mexican authorities to act immediately.

At the same time, Amnesty International called upon the continent's governments to ensure that the legal protection enshrined in the Inter-American system is made a reality and that it results in greater security for the women and children of the continent.