The 16 Days begin on November 25, the International Day Against Violence Against Women, and end on December 10, International Human Rights Day. Since the campaign's inception, some 1700 organizations in 130 countries have participated, including a Dane County coalition of women's rights, domestic abuse, international solidarity and peace groups.
Many U.S. residents might think that the connection between women's rights and human rights is one that needs to be stressed in other countries, but not here. Our mental images of violence and other forms of repression against women might include burqas, fundamentalist regimes and developing countries.
These images are based on real situations. In Asia's poorest country, East Timor, domestic violence skyrocketed following the end of a brutal, illegal military occupation by neighboring Indonesia in 1999. Currently, at least 40 percent of reported crimes in East Timor are cases of domestic violence. (Their 16 Days slogan this year is "Gender-based violence is not part of East Timorese culture.")
But is this the whole story? Why observe the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence here? Madison Women for Peace and other Dane County coalition members believe there are many good reasons.
More than 25,000 incidents of domestic abuse are reported annually in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Nationwide, 5.3 million partner victimizations occur each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. At the same time, Dane County and other communities have suffered severe cuts in federal grants necessary to fund domestic abuse prevention and prosecution efforts.
Another reason is that there are other, albeit less obvious, forms of violence against women. When former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson recently announced his resignation as Health and Human Services Secretary, his role in pushing so-called welfare "reform" was listed among his accomplishments. Yet a major effect of the Welfare to Work program has been economic violence against women.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Employment and Training Institute reported that the number of working single-parent families in poverty has risen 38 percent since welfare "reform." In Milwaukee, one-third of single-parent, working families live in poverty and another third live near poverty. The majority of these families are headed by women.
Lastly, if a partner who hits a woman is guilty of a human rights violation, what can be said of a country that wages war, creating victims who are overwhelmingly women and children?
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other organizations have decried the effect on women of the U.S. war on Afghanistan. True, the repressive Taliban regime has been removed. But U.S. inaction allowed regional warlords to grow more powerful, despite repeated warnings from UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Brahimi said upon leaving his post, "We were told there were no troops," to challenge warlords and provide for Afghan womenÕs safety, "but then they found 150,000 troops for Iraq."
Which brings us to Iraq. A recent study published in the respected medical journal Lancet estimated that 100,000 Iraqis have died due to the U.S. invasion and occupation. "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths," wrote the authors. Moreover, "most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children."
As the 16 Days come to a close, we would like to challenge our community and our government officials to consider women's right to be free of physical, economic and military violence. If domestic abuse is unacceptable, efforts to stop it should be adequately funded. If economic policies impoverish women, they should be revamped. And if war disproportionately targets women, it should be used as an absolute last resort (if ever), should be waged in such a way to limit the impact on innocent civilians, and should be followed by robust, gender-sensitive reconstruction efforts.
Diane Farsetta and Shelly Grabe are members of Madison Women for Peace: A Code Pink Affiliate (website www.madwomen.org).