A Report on Violations of Girls’ Rights
Disclaimer: due to the sensitive nature of the issues covered in this story, parental guidance is advised
Human Rights: The basic rights and freedoms that all humans are entitled to include the rights to life, liberty, equality, a fair trial, with freedom from slavery and torture and freedom of thought and expression.
United Nations (UN): Established on 24th October 1945 by states as a successor to the League of Nations, UN is an association of states for international peace, security and cooperation, with headquarters in New York City. The UN charter whose obligations member states agree to accept, sets out four purposes for the UN: to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
In the contemporary world, violence against women and girls is one of the major Health and Human Rights concerns at a local level. Be it at home, on the streets or during war, violence against women continues unabated.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as “any 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 private life”.
“Ask yourself, why is this happening
only to women (half of humanity) and
not with men, at least not at that intensity?”
This also pertains to “physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring with the family, and includes battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional patriarchical practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; physical, sexual and psychological violence. It also refers to such violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere and extends to trafficking of women and forced prostitution; and physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the state, wherever it occurs”.
“Did you know that the violence against women
is as potent a cause of death and incapacity
among women of reproductive age as cancer,
and a greater cause of ill-health
than traffic accidents and malaria combined? 1″
The violence against women begins when men reduce their being to a sexual object, or when they see them as weak and not as equal stakeholders of the world we all live in. This kind of violence manifests itself in physical, sexual, and psychological forms.
Physical violence against women and girls is a harsh reality of the contemporary world. This involves intentional use of physical force or threat against women or girls, which has a high probability of ending up in injury, mal-development, psychological harm, deprivation or, for that matter, death of the person.
One of the forms of this type of violence is abuse. The abuse of women is effectively ignored in almost every society of the world. At least one in five members of the world’s female population has been physically or sexually abused by a man or men at some point in their life (WHO).
What Includes Sexual Violence & Harassment?
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act or unwanted sexual comments and advances against a person’s sexuality using force, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, and in any situation. Sexually violent acts include, for example: unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment, including demanding sex in return for favors, e.g. demanding sex in return for money or a job from a woman or girl.
“45 to 55 percent of women had experienced
sexual harassment since the age of 15 in
the European Union by the end of 2013.2″
Rape: within marriage and relationships, by strangers, and during war by armed forces as a tactic to break the opponent’s strength.
“Ask yourself! If rape is seen as a physical
violence rather than an assault on women’s dignity,
will that make a raped woman strong or weak?”
Sexual Abuse of Children
Sexual abuse of children, especially the girl child, takes place in different forms and is the most unreported phenomenon of sexual violence. The 2014 UNICEF report “Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children lays out that, in some countries, up to one-third of adolescent girls reported their first sexual experience was forced.
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What Do We Call Intimate Partner Violence?
Intimate partner violence is any behavior by a current or former partner or spouse that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. This is the most common form of violence experienced by women globally and is the second most unreported phenomenon of sexual violence after sexual abuse of children.
“Throughout the world, 1 in 3 women have
experienced physical or sexual violence –mostly
by an intimate partner or a close relative.3″
From the report published by UNODC, Global Study on Homicide (2013), throughout the world, one in two women killed were murdered by their partners or family members in 2012 and only one out of 20 men killed were murdered in such circumstances. This disparity speaks for itself and indicates how unjust the world has been and continues to be for women. It also shows that women lack a variety of rights and privileges even in the basic provisions of safety and right to freedom from harm.
What Is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is acquisition and exploitation of people by force, fraud or deception. The practice entangles millions of women and girls into modern-day slavery Many of them are sexually exploited and forced into prostitution and pornography.
What Is Female Genital Mutilation?
It includes procedures that intentionally change or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
“71 percent of all trafficking victims worldwide
are women and girls. Among them, 3 out of 4
trafficked women and girls were sexually exploited.4″
Beyond extreme physical and psychological pain, the practice carries many health risks and can even result in death. FGM involves the cutting away of the female reproductive organ, in particular the clitoris, to desensitize women’s bodies. It is based purely on myths and traditional superstitions and practiced mainly in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of Middle East and Asia and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia.
UNICEF’s 2016 report, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Global Concern, estimated that at least 200 million women and girls alive till the survey was conducted for the report in 2016 had undergone FGM in 30 countries where representative data is available. Among these 200 million girls, the majority of the girls were cut before the age of 5.
What Do We Mean by Child Marriage?
Child marriage usually means marrying a girl before she reaches the maturity age or when she can make her own life choices. In most of the countries, the said age has been set as 18. Child marriage often results in ending girls’ education, vocation and their right to make life choices. Moreover, research confirms that girls who are married during childhood are at greater risk for intimate partner violence than girls of the same age who marry later.
Summing this all up, we are still lagging behind in terms of securing the rights of women to live freely in this world.
“Almost 750 million women and girls alive
today were married before their 18th birthday.
Among the 750 million, 4 in 10 girls in West
and Central Africa were married before age 18
and about 1 in 7 were married or in union before age 15.5″
According to the 2016 World Bank Group report, “Women, Business and the Law,” 37 countries exempt rape perpetrators from prosecution when they are married to or subsequently marry the victim. However, if a rape victim rejects marrying her attacker, she may be imprisoned for committing a “criminal” act. Those women who become pregnant before marriage may be beaten, ostracized or murdered by family members, even if the pregnancy is the result of a rape. It means the victim is held more responsible for getting raped than the perpetrator of the crime who raped her. This legal atrocity could potentially encourage men to rape those whom they want to marry against their will. In these countries, all they have to do is to rape them.
“Eve teasing and passing off unsolicited comments also
qualifies as sexual violence against girls and women.
People, who do so, do not see women or girls as such
but reduce them to being sexual objects and targets of such form of violence.”
Policy formulations and laws from governments worldwide are needed to protect women. However, we must also ensure not to tolerate any violence against women or girls inside our homes or outside on the streets or during war. Although two thirds of the countries have outlawed domestic violence, that is not enough until every single country prohibits violence in any form against women and girls.
Violence Against Women Throughout the Life Cycle
Pre-birth Phase: In the form of sex-selective abortion or rough treatment during pregnancy.
During Infancy: In the form of female infanticide and effects of psychological torture during pregnancy on birth outcomes.
When She Reaches Girlhood: In the form of child marriage, female genital mutilation, physical, sexual and psychological abuse, incest, child prostitution and pornography, and, trafficking in children.
“Ask Yourself! A woman has XX chromosomes only,
a man has XY. So, if a man releases a Y chromosome, it will be a
boy, and if he releases an X chromosome it will be a girl. However, why
is a woman blamed when she gives birth to a girl child?”
When She Reaches Adolescence or After Becoming an Adult: Dating violence (e.g. acid throwing and date rape), economically coerced sex (e.g. university students having sex with “sugar daddies” in return for university fees), incest, sexual abuse in the workplace, rape, sexual harassment, forced prostitution and pornography, trafficking in women, partner violence, marital rape, dowry abuse and murders, partner homicide, psychological abuse, abuse of women with disabilities, forced pregnancy.
When She Grows Old: in the form of forced “suicide” or homicide of widows for economic reasons; sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
- 1) World Bank’s World Development Report 1993: investing in health.
- 2) European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ survey, Violence against women: An EU-wide survey, 2014.
- 3) As per the 2013 World Health Organization report, Global and Regional estimates Violence against women,
- 4) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, UNODC, 2016.
- 5) UNICEF, Is Every Child Counted? Status of Data for Children in the SDGs, 2017.
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