Women’s ongoing struggles for safety in ‘new’ Bangladesh: human rights under siege

the global fight against gender inequality and social injustice has grown steadily, and after many years of dedication, it has become indisputably a priority for global and national development that is reshaping policies and decision-making. The integration of the agenda for gender equality and women's and girls’ empowerment with Ghana's national development efforts has yielded some modest progress.1 For example, the enactment of various laws and policies has increased girls’ access to education. As a result, there are now more girls than boys in primary schools (Florence Muhanguzi 6), and there is growth in the number of women engaged in the workforce as entrepreneurs (Entsie). Regardless of these gains, new and complex forms of gender-based violence are emerging in the current technology-mediated digital environment. Examples of these are various forms of cyberviolence and cyberbullying. Besides, some age-old forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), such as sexual assault, sexual exploitation, rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation (FGM),2 witchcraft accusations against women, ritual servitude known as Trokosi,3 and child marriages, have persisted for centuries.Ghana's government enshrined its commitment to women's rights in its 1992 constitution—specifically covering protection of fundamental human rights and freedom, right to life, personal liberty, respect for human dignity, protection from slavery and forced labor, protection from discrimination, and protection of the rights of women and children. Ghana also ratified several international human rights instruments, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, the 2003 Maputo Protocol, the 2004 African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, and the 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, to defend the principles of gender equality and social justice for women and girls. These international and regional agreements have informed the formulation of national policies such as the National Gender Policy and Justice for Children Policy to provide comprehensive frameworks to respond to entrenched social injustices that undermine equity for women and girls. They also led to the institutionalization of, for example, the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in 2001, now called the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, tasked to drive policy change and contribute to national growth by achieving equality and equity for all.Certainly, commitments to addressing gender inequality and various forms of gender-based violence are evident, even though more needs to be done. While the efforts by governments, institutions, women's movements, and civil society organizations have been well documented (Adomako-Ampofo 395–421; Amoakohene 2373–85; Anyidoho et al. 1–27; Manuh and Dwamena-Aboagye 203–34), existing knowledge on the contributions of Ghanaian and Ghanaian-diaspora female filmmakers toward the fight against gender-based violence is limited. With strategic commitments in mind, female filmmakers in Ghana and its diaspora have made fiction and nonfiction films about women's rights issues and VAWG to increase public awareness and enhance mainstream conversations in efforts to improve lives.This article draws on African feminist framework to thematically analyze the documentary The Witches of Gambaga (2010) by Yaba Badoe and the feature film Like Cotton Twines (2016) by Leila Djansi, to understand the ways these female filmmakers accentuate the effects of witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude on women and girls, respectively. Amoakohene notes that witchcraft accusations and ritual enslavement are pseudo-religious practices that cause inhumane treatment of women and girls and account for violations of their rights (2375). Women in both traditional and modern societies are often accused of witchcraft for various reasons and are “frequently subjected to ridicule, ostracism, assault and torture, exile and murder” (Roxburgh 896). With “Trokosi” (ritual bondage), females, often girls, are enslaved to atone for crimes committed by their family members. As the thematic feminist analysis of the films will demonstrate, the filmmakers create awareness around the causes of witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude, their effects on women and girls, and strategies to help address the menace. The article furthers our understanding of African feminist filmmaking and the visual discourse on gender-based violence in Ghanaian-diaspora women's films.Choosing to analyze the works of female filmmakers who use film to critique patriarchy and religio-cultural practices that cause women and girls to live in perpetual discrimination and violence means considering the wider contexts of Ghanaian and diaspora female filmmaking practices and thematic preoccupations. In view of this, the remainder of this article is structured as follows: the immediate section opens with a brief discussion of Ghanaian film culture and women's place within that practice; the theoretical framework is then examined; and the subsequent section analyzes the ways the selected films tackle the issue of VAWG. I conclude with a summary of the key arguments and their implications.Ghanaian female filmmaking dates to 1967, when the renowned pan-African cultural activist Efua T. Sutherland collaborated with the American Broadcasting Corporation to make the documentary Araba: The Village Story. After Sutherland's pioneering work, female directors followed as independents and operated in the highly commercial video and subsequently digital film industries, catering to audiences’ tastes. Like their male counterparts, they have tackled diverse issues relevant to Ghanaian experiences that do or do not speak to the numerous women's rights violations or promote female subjectivity and empowerment. Indeed, over the years, Ghanaian video films have been said to offer “crass commercialism, ideological conservatism, sexism, superstition, and negative stereotypes about African culture and peoples” (Dogbe 99). Within this context, representations of both men and women have been replete with stereotypical constructions. A cursory look at female representations in many Ghanaian video/digital films reveal that women play crucial roles in terms of plot development, but their representations, to borrow from Lindiwe Dovey, “are highly problematic” (23). Most commercial and entertainment films in recent years have been dedicated to exploring domestic issues, consumerism, and gender issues (Garritano 92–100).Since the early 1990s, themes explored by Ghanaian female directors have varied greatly in accordance with filmmakers’ interests and political and economic circumstances. According to Lizelle Bisschoff and Stefanie Van de Peer, not all works by African female filmmakers are feminist-oriented, even though they share in “a politically female sensibility” (53). Despite divergent approaches, some filmmakers have found it necessary to alter the normative discourse and present alternative representations of female subjectivities from perspectives that refashion Ghanaian womanhood and experiences.4 Veronica Quarshie,5 for instance, “purposely responded to the representations of women dominant in video films of the period” from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s (Garritano 117). Moreover, Shirley Frimpong-Manso6 and others made the choice to use their films to reverse the stereotypical images of women.Ghanaian-diaspora female filmmakers, like other African-diaspora women through their films, speak to a plurality of themes, including issues of race and the tension it generates and the overall realities of their diasporic experiences. Although multiple experiences tend to inspire diaspora filmmakers’ work, their films sometimes maintain ethnic consciousness and consciousness of issues in the homeland (Naficy 14). As first-generation Ghanaian-diaspora women filmmakers, Badoe and Djansi, in their desire to advocate against VAWG, “return to the source” that is the homeland in The Witches of Gambaga and Like Cotton Twines, to highlight and stimulate discussions toward action and transformation to improve the lives of women and girls held as witches and slaves (Ellerson, “Traveling Gazes” 275).In fact, Badoe and Djansi's works could be regarded as part of what Amanda Coffie views as African diaspora engagement with women's struggles on the continent (2). A Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker,7 writer, researcher, and feminist advocate, Badoe has within the last two decades not only pursued a transnational filmmaking practice but also chased interests in educational documentaries,8 telling stories about the experiences of Ghanaian women in the public, private, and academic spheres in such films as Honorable Women (2010), The Witches of Gambaga, and The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (2014). Her understanding of structural imbalances in policies and power that affect women's autonomy and her fascination with stories that link ordinary middle-aged women like herself to witchcraft culminated in her first independent feminist documentary project, The Witches of Gambaga, which she directed and coproduced with the renowned African feminist scholar Amina Mama. The film has been distributed on DVD for educational purposes in Ghana and beyond and screened at various film festivals,9 exposing the plight of Ghanaian women condemned as witches, particularly to policy makers and international audiences.Unlike Badoe, Djansi has made short films and web series, and she is widely known to be one of the few Ghanaian-diaspora commercial feature filmmakers. After her initial engagements with the Ghanaian video film industry as a writer, she moved to the United States in 2003, when she won an Artistic Honors Scholarship to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, USA. She received formal training in scriptwriting and film production. She later moved to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, to build on her scriptwriting and film directing skills. It was during this period that she wrote and directed her debut feature film, I Sing of a Well (2009), shot in Ghana. Given her liminal position as an independent Ghanaian-diaspora film director, scriptwriter, producer, and founder of the Los Angeles motion picture production company Turning Point Pictures, Djansi's films take on what Naficy describes as an interstitial character operating at the intersection of the local and global cinematic cultures (46).Besides the transnational production approach she employs, Djansi's films tell African, African diaspora, and African/African diaspora stories. They deal with pressing social issues and lean toward a more “‘artsy,’ francophone aesthetic” (Badoe, “Representing Witches” 82). Women-centered narratives are her preoccupations, and puberty rites and FGM (Ebbe [2012]), domestic violence (Sinking Sands [2010]), gender inequality and women's empowerment (Ties that Bind [2011]), and gender-based violence (Like Cotton Twines [2016]) are the themes in her short and feature films shot in Ghana, the United States, or both.10 Her feature films are released commercially in theaters and online as well as screened at film festivals. For instance, Like Cotton Twines,11 which I analyze in this article, is distributed by Urban Movie Channel (UMC, now ALLBLK). The film is also available on Prime Video and on Vudu. Even though she operates in the commercial space, through these platforms Djansi, like Badoe, brings to Ghanaian and international audiences the story of girls forced to atone for crimes of which they are innocent. Indeed, this article argues that even though Badoe's The Witches of Gambaga and Djansi's Like Cotton Twines differ in form, they promote the need for rights advocacy against witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude of women and girls, respectively.Drawing on African feminist theory and discourses on gender-based violence, including the works of such scholars as Jane Bennett, Mama, Obioma Nnaemeka, and Sylvia Tamale, is particularly useful for thematically analyzing Badoe's The Witches of Gambaga and Djansi's Like Cotton Twines. African feminism commits to the struggle for social justice for African women (Amadiume 65). Hence, it is useful to analyze what the filmmakers represent as the causes of witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude; the physical, socioeconomic, sexual, and psychological violence that arise from these practices perpetuated against women and girls; and the strategies they propose to help raise awareness and address the social injustices.The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women as “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 private life.” African feminist theory engages discourses on gender and violence. In the attempts to understand the connection between gender and violence, there are discourses that privilege the notion that “becoming gendered ritualizes violence, predicting who will violate and who will be violated” (Bennett, “Rethinking Gender” 1). Researchers studying masculinity, conflict, and gender-based violence caution against sharp binaries of men-as-perpetrators and women-as-victims (Godwin Murunga 99), even though the process of gendering in its varying forms, according to Bennett, is violence (“Circles” 35).Bennett suggests that gender-based violence is the kind of violence people who are gendered as “women” suffer because of their gender (“Circles” 27). It is an elemental part of control over women to preserve male hegemony (Ayiera 12). Given their gender identity, women and girls are susceptible to rape, incest, sexual assault, abduction, beating, murder, and more (Bennett, “Circles” 27). Sexual violence, for instance, is “feminized since it happens to women because they are females” (Ayiera 12). Physical and sexual violence also violate women's and girls’ fundamental human rights (Williams 5). Bennett suggests that women and girls experience physical, economic, sexual, and psychological violence (“Circles” 27). While gender identity is a major factor responsible for VAWG, Maryam Quadri maintains that there are numerous factors that account for violence against women, “depending on the setting and context of occurrence” (3). As the analysis of The Witches of Gambaga and Like Cotton Twines will demonstrate, the filmmakers project the idea that despite the varying circumstances in which women are accused of witchcraft and girls forced into ritual enslavement, it seems gender, patriarchy, age, ethnicity, and religion are major intersecting determining factors that make condemnation possible.Mama explains that the harsh conditions within social and cultural environments make it possible for violence and abuse against women to thrive. Meanwhile, political and social structures maintain and overlook perpetrators (Mama 252–65). Moreover, women in many African societies account for most of the poor and are denied rights to land and inheritance, although men's entitlements are established by “legislative, customary, and statutory institutions” (Cornwall 13). While these are critical contributions to our understanding of the reasons witchcraft accusations and ritual servitude persist, through The Witches of Gambaga and Like Cotton Twines it is evident that society does not offer women and girls the support to contest their treatment, but rather forces them to tolerate and accept being ostracized as witches or atoning for crimes they have not committed.Williams shares the view that VAWG, which includes witchcraft accusation and ritual bondage, not only traumatizes and violates women's human rights but also undermines the resilience of individuals and the wider society (3). In view of these obstacles, education, economic independence, and control of resources are believed to be the tools women need to resist marginalization and transform gender inequality (Darkwah 1–13; Muhanguzi 1–16) as well as gender-based violence. African feminism encourages institutions that are of benefit to women and questions those that work to their disadvantage (Davies 9). It promotes the idea that women's emancipation must respond to the concerns and values of the times, particularly in the present era of human rights–based development. In this article's analysis, I will attempt to show not only the filmmakers’ desires to raise awareness but also the strategies they propose to help address witchcraft accusations of women and ritual enslavement of girls.Proposing an “Africanized” notion of equity and social justice for women, Tamale argues that the tradition of Ubuntu can be resourcefully employed to shape social relations that enhance gender justice. The philosophy of Ubuntu, which translates to “I am because you are,” thrives on the principles of gender complementarity, communitarianism, humanness, interconnectedness, and solidarity. Tamale is convinced that through deployment of the moral and ethical values of Ubuntu and its respect for human dignity, gender-based violence and African women's subordination and oppression can be addressed (211–34). By invoking the value of reciprocity, African feminism emphasizes cooperation between women and women and between men and women since through such relations women and men become collective agents for women's liberation (Nnaemeka, “Mapping African Feminisms” 36–37). These perspectives are particularly significant for understanding the importance of communitarianism and complementarity in the fight against gender-based violence, particularly witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude, as presented in the films. In The Witches of Gambaga and Like Cotton Twines, the filmmakers recognize a female sense of community and/or gender complementarity to access support for condemned “witches” and “slaves.”In what follows, I analyze in detail the ways the filmmakers highlight the menace and raise awareness for change. The emerging themes analyzed are the politics of witchcraft accusation and ritual servitude; forms of violence against women and girls that stem from these practices, including physical, socioeconomic, sexual, and psychological violence; and proposed strategies toward addressing the menace.Women and girls in Africa confront varying degrees and forms of violence, some of which are justified in the name of culture and religion. Witchcraft accusation of women and ritual enslavement of girls are widespread, criminalized religio-cultural practices predominantly found in the northern regions12 and the Volta Region of Ghana, respectively. Badoe's The Witches of Gambaga and Djansi's Like Cotton Twines expose the various layers of violence the practices unleash on women and girls. The filmmakers, like other African female filmmakers in Africa and in the diaspora who make films about African women, understand that gender inequality and social injustices in African societies emanate from various forms of domination that relate to patriarchy, culture, gender inequality, gender and entrenched that fundamental female Bisschoff Badoe's and Djansi's films these the politics that the practices of witchcraft accusation and ritual bondage, the of violence they and their on to help efforts toward social justice and documentary The Witches of Gambaga the of women condemned and ostracized by their to live as witches in the in the of African which suggests that gender-based violence is an part of male control over women (Ayiera a of Badoe's film witchcraft accusation as a gendered social injustice committed against women and through practices of patriarchy and according to a is on male hegemony through and of other which the subordination of women in Ghana and those in the northern are highly and power with men as in other of Ghana, the are and as a result, many of are to the Witchcraft is one of the forces that since are not Witches are male and who are believed to which they use or to harm others or benefit accusations are by and as well as They are also by the to account for or it is not that such can by or witchcraft be or when must who practices the the The does not the that shape the practice but rather on the it women and the effects it has on them shares the view that the gendered power relations through which witchcraft are are the fundamental causes of gendered violence witchcraft The Witches of Gambaga emphasizes the idea that be a is to be a of African that violence and abuse against women are gendered and that female is in gender are relevant to the (Bennett, “Circles” 27). In one a at the the that led to her condemnation and subsequent In an and through a of and of her and by the a who has been of her because her who was her accused her of because women are to be a is over that of a through the Badoe that accusations made by women only when they by that accusations of witchcraft are to become they must be by the in the to the to their and made by the in their various since Badoe that there over women in in the northern of Ghana, she not only the ways gendering and domination violence against women, but also the ways they and make the practice Badoe argues that witchcraft accusations against women are in a of women's power and this power means reasons to women and them into The Witches of Gambaga that all of women can be middle-aged and women are the most as presented in the female and that women of this often they have their to their and do not by of or to male of the women Badoe or from their they their and the of which them to being with Cotton Twines, Djansi's feature film, the experiences of a who is forced to become a of the The film several forces that to the enslavement of girls. Like Badoe, Djansi to raise awareness of and pseudo-religious are as of VAWG. is a of traditional the of power are with who are often and The privilege male over women, and Djansi to the that male power men to the and that girls atone for crimes committed by family members. It is to that boys are not as Meanwhile, crimes including rape, and murder, predominantly committed by male of are the reasons girls are enslaved For the these that the gender of patriarchy forces girls to become the film, is forced to become a because her a in the during Djansi the that it possible to an to atone for a she not and the forces that and violate her The as a who has and has been not only because she is but also because she is and likely to the sexual of a as the practice The film this on as a she is to Given entrenched practices and VAWG in society as established in African feminist discourse (Bennett, “Circles” toward the of an Djansi of and her not only to but also to the of and While her for not for her against FGM and ritual enslavement, her that you I and I it I am is a of the the For Djansi, it is evident that by of their gender, and are to FGM and because of female subordination and social expose the causes of ritual servitude, Djansi the practice It is evident that and to this practice for of from the In an predominantly in an African American for to The who is also the but rather to from with traditional and the Djansi the of and community toward for girls who have to do with crimes for which they are the of the two by and it evident that for the is not about but about between and traditional religion at the of to maintain in Badoe's The Witches of Gambaga, the only the could offer was to women in to the after they been of witchcraft by the of Gambaga and of the the As an age-old like witchcraft has an of and the community views it as While there is a that is a to control the film suggests that it is a that girls, women, and crimes have not and girls atone for crimes they have committed By of what happens to the the at is that the practice rather promotes since like patriarchy from part of gender-based violence in cinematic discourses is to understand not only the causes but also the effects on women and In The Witches of Gambaga and Like Cotton Twines, the filmmakers, the causes and politics that to witchcraft accusation of women and ritual enslavement of girls, to the of the They present various forms of violence that result from these practices and their effects on their African feminist discourses on gender-based violence understand that African women are to physical, economic, and sexual violence by men in their men in and

Petition for a Comprehensive Law against Gender-Based Violence in Cuba

Reviewed by: U.S. Foreign Policy and Muslim Women's Human Rights by Kelly J. Shannon Sarah B. Snyder (bio) Kelly J. Shannon, U.S. Foreign Policy and Muslim Women's Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), ISBN 9780812249675, 269 pages. Kelly J. Shannon's well written and concise account explores how and why the American public and later the United States government came to care about the human rights of Muslim women. She shows that concern about Muslim women's rights has intersected with US foreign policy in meaningful ways over the last forty years, yet no historical work has previously examined this aspect. In particular, with U.S. Foreign Policy and Muslim Women's Human Rights, Shannon demonstrates the link between the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the "human rights revolution" of previous years. Her work studies how Americans concerned about the abrogation of women's rights in Iran worked to make women there "less alien" to the US public.1 Shannon shows how activists engaged in a process of "symbolic politics," to use Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink's term, by representing Iranian women in the US.2 Such an effort, through which distant victims are made immediate, has been central to effective human rights advocacy. As the chapters progress, Shannon investigates a second intersection of revolutions—that of the rise of the international women's movement with the human rights movement. There has been limited scholarship on the United Nations Decade for Women (1975 to 1985), and Shannon's book shows why many scholars may benefit from greater examination of the role of the United Nations in shaping attention to human rights internationally. In Shannon's analysis, the decade was essential: "Without the United Nations Decade for Women, it is unlikely that the growing American attention to Muslim women's rights following the Iranian Revolution would have moved beyond the public sphere and into policy."3 Breaking with the traditional methodology of histories of US foreign relations, Shannon uses limited documents from presidential libraries or the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States series. In part this is because, as she highlights with the Carter years, the documentary record is silent on the issue [End Page 967] of Muslim women's human rights. Furthermore, Shannon undoubtedly faced issues of inaccessible records given the recent period in which she was working. But, it also reflects a different appraisal of the sources most significant to her analysis. Shannon frames each chapter with a cultural phenomenon of the time, such as Betty Mahmoody's memoir Not Without My Daughter and Nawal el Saadawi's book The Hidden Face of Eve. Here, like Mark Philip Bradley's recent work The World Reimagined, she seeks to show how cultural production influenced those in the United States to care about violations of women's rights in the Muslim world. Her approach reveals how human rights issues permeated and resonated in US culture and public life. Importantly, in Shannon's evaluation of how films, memoirs, and novels influenced US awareness of and concern about violations of Muslim women's rights, she highlights how many influential cultural works were written or created by Muslim women. They claimed human rights for themselves and rebutted critiques circulating at the time that human rights were merely a foreign ploy to impose a new form of Western imperialism. Their work was significant because, as Shannon shows, Western women too often focused on the veil, which distorted their understanding of Muslim women's concerns. In other methodological innovations, she illustrates how scholarship by historians Judith Tucker and Nikki Keddie as well as anthropologist Lois Beck shaped United States attitudes regarding women's rights.4 In her analysis of US reactions to the "gender apartheid" in Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War, Shannon makes excellent use of Department of Army oral history interviews with women who served there. She has also done considerable analysis of the US media coverage in the years after the Iranian Revolution and found that it characterized Islamic fundamentalism as "a threat both to U.S. interests and to women's human rights."5 Shannon shows that she is well versed in Orientalist...

Gender-based violence in refugee settings

Prelims

This chapter looks at what due diligence means in the context of efforts within the inter-American human rights system to prevent and respond to gender- based violence. It discusses at what this concept has meant in the regional human rights system as a basis to examine what it can contribute to advancing the right of women to be free from violence. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Special Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women have placed special emphasis on the issues of gender-based discrimination and violence. The chapter provides a brief examination of how the concept of due diligence has informed that work. While the concept is important to the Commissions work in general, this chapter focuses primarily on how the system has used the concept to delineate state responsibility for acts of private individuals. Keywords: due diligence; gender- based violence; inter-American human rights system; Rights of Women

This special ASR forum, “The Case of Gender-Based Violence: Assessing the Impact of International Human Rights Rhetoric on African Lives,” grounds itself in the notion that gender relations (and, indeed, gendered social norms) can undergo significant transformation in zones of conflict or in other contexts of extreme socioeconomic and political instability. Individuals actively reconfigure moral landscapes of power and sexuality amidst the everyday chaos, violence, and deprivation that constitutes the experience of war for most people, thereby formulating new normative frame-works of appropriately gendered norms for social interaction and sexual expression. These norms, of course, are rather dramatically cross-cut, for all actors involved, by an extensive list of factors that include one's ethnolinguistic or religious affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and myriad other allegiances that are all too frequently brought to the fore by conflict or other forms of instability. War and instability, it seems, force individuals to think of themselves, and others, in ways that might not otherwise have seemed imaginable.The case studies in this issue are based upon research in Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, South Africa, and Liberia. One unifying theme is the frequency with which human rights rhetoric divorces conflict-related gender based violence from the peacetime normative framework. The authors illustrate the cultural restrictions and patriarchal oppression that encourage violence within different dimensions of the socioeconomic and political context (home, culture, political authority, economy, and military), and they analyze gender-based violence as a form of structural violence. Nonetheless, as Sharon Abramowitz and Mary Moran caution us, gender-based violence in conflict and postconflict zones is not simply an enhanced version of “traditional” gender oppression. We would be severely remiss, the authors remind us, to read conflict and crisis as culture.

The article analyzes the legislative initiative to limit mediation in domestic violence and domestic violence cases in the context of complex contemporary debates about the nature of gender­based violence, which is rooted in significant power imbalances, and ensuring the «autonomy» of victims. The author examines the arguments of both supporters of the theory of «imbalance of power» and supporters of the view of victims as «autonomous subjects» who oppose protectionist interventions in their lives, and focuses attention on the concept of relational autonomy, which helps to create an acceptable model of response to gender-based violence, taking into account the structural social asymmetries underlying it. Referring to the «gold standard» of the Istanbul Convention, which provides the highest level of protection for victims of gender-based violence, the author supports the draft law on limiting mediation in cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence, based on Art. 48 of the Istanbul Convention and its interpretation in the Explanatory Report, the practice of GREVIO, the monitoring body of the Convention, and the gender-sensitive practice of the European Court of Human Rights, which establishes the standard of «special diligence» in cases of domestic violence. The author proposes clarifications to the draft law in terms of disclosure of the content and scope of the concepts of «cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence», forming a clear list of situations when mediation is impossible. This applies to cases of administrative and criminal offenses related to domestic violence and gender­based violence, as well as situations where special measures against domestic violence provided for by core laws were applied. In addition, the author draws attention to the importance of screening civil proceedings related to family disputes to identify cases of gender-based violence. Analyzing the qualification standards of mediators in Ukraine, the researcher draws attention to the potential risks of re-privatization of violence and secondary victimization of victims and emphasizes the importance of judicial protection in cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence.

BackgroundFemale sex workers, MSM, and transgender women—collectively referred to as key populations (KPs)—are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV, yet little is known about the violence they face, its gender-based origins, and responses to GBV. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature and consequences of GBV experienced, to inform HIV policies and programming and to help protect KPs’ human rights.MethodsUsing a participatory approach, FSWs, MSM, and transgender women in Barbados, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti conducted 278 structured interviews with peers to understand their experiences of and responses to GBV. Responses to open-ended questions were coded in NVivo and analyzed using an applied thematic analysis.ResultsNearly all participants experienced some form of GBV. Emotional and economic GBV were the most commonly reported but approximately three-quarters of participants reported sexual and physical GBV and other human rights violations. The most common settings for GBV were at home, locations where sex work took place such as brothels, bars and on the street; public spaces such as parks, streets and public transport, health care centers, police stations and—for transgender women and MSM—religious settings and schools. The most common perpetrators of violence included: family, friends, peers and neighbors, strangers, intimate partners, sex work clients and other sex workers, health care workers, police, religious leaders and teachers. Consequences included emotional, physical, and sexual trauma; lack of access to legal, health, and other social services; and loss of income, employment, housing, and educational opportunities. Though many participants disclosed experiences of GBV to friends, colleagues and family, they rarely sought services following violence. Furthermore, less than a quarter of participants believed that GBV put them at risk of HIV.ConclusionsOur study found that across the four study countries, FSWs, MSM, and transgender women experienced GBV from state and non-state actors throughout their lives, and much of this violence was directly connected to rigid and harmful gender norms. Through coordinated interventions that address both HIV and GBV, this region has the opportunity to reduce the national burden of HIV while also promoting key populations’ human rights.

Violence against women and girls or gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that constitutes ‘violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately’. Violence against women has carelessly become a significant global public health problem affecting one-third of women in the world in 2013. Killings of women and girls by their male partners or ex-partners are not isolated incidents, but constitute ‘the ultimate act of violence that is experienced in a continuum of violence’. Gender-based domestic violence remains the most prevalent form of violence against women and girls that affects women of all social strata across the world. Violence against women, in the private sphere and in its different manifestations, is tantamount to violations of the rights to life, equality, dignity and non-discrimination, the right not to be subjected to torture and to other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to liberty and security of person, the right to equal protection under the law, and the right to equality in the family, among other human rights. In addition, children who are victims and witnesses of that gender-based domestic violence suffer adverse effects on their health and in other ways also are ‘severely negatively impacted by [that] violence’. However gender-based domestic violence measures to protect child victims and witnesses of gender-related domestic violence remain weak in spite of the undeniable consensus among States on rights applicable to child victims and witnesses of crime. This article provides an overview of the issue of gender-based domestic violence and analyses the consideration given to the woman and child (of that woman) – both victims of intimate-partner domestic violence under international law and regional European law, and, in addition, under Spanish domestic legislation. The article highlights the latest developments in those three legal settings, including the forthcoming entry into force of the challenging and most comprehensive legal instrument on violence against women in the world today, the Istanbul Convention. The Convention provides at last formal (through judicial practice and legal instruments) recognition of children who witness gender-based domestic violence as victims of that gender-based violence. Also reviewed are recent jurisprudence/judicial practice, legal developments and challenges on this important subject in Spain. Final recommendations based on the aforementioned international, regional and domestic analysis are made to the State of Spain, recommendations applicable indeed to the practice in any country seeking international human rights compliance, good practices and redress, in an effective fight against gender-based domestic violence.

This study found the novelty of the fact that cases of gender-based violence does`t only occur in public spaces, but can also occur in cyberspace. Such as gender-based violence through media and internet networks which are referred to as cases of online gender-based violence. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge of online gender-based violence prevention through Instagram social media. The type of research used is virtual ethnographic research or often called a netnographic study, which uses data collection techniques with in-depth interviews and participant observation. The results of the study show that Instagram social media is quite influential in providing education on online gender-based violence against women and Instagram social media users. Movements made in providing education can be through posts and opening discussions on live Instagram and in the comments column

I. INTRODUCTION The woman scorned is Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Rwanda's Former Minister for Women's Affairs, who is currently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for allegedly using her official capacity to incite Hutus to rape thousands of female Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. (1) She is the first woman to be charged with rape as a crime against humanity by an international tribunal. (2) The 1994 Rwanda Genocide had devastating effects on the female population in the country due to the systematic gender-based violence endorsed and carried out by government officials. (3) Almost one million people were killed in one hundred days (4) and, according to some reports, nearly all female survivors--including many young girls (5)--were raped and sexually brutalized. (6) While these crimes are neither historically nor geographically unique to the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, (7) the ICTR's efforts in prosecuting gender-based violence as crimes against humanity and tools of genocide have been unprecedented.8 Rape warfare, although common throughout history, has traditionally been the least condemned war crime. Although not without criticism, (9) the ICTR shattered historical ambivalence toward gender-based violence by indicting and prosecuting Rwandan officials who countenanced rape as a method of warfare during the genocide. (10) The first step in shattering this ambivalence occurred with the prosecution of Jean Paul Akayesu, (11) a mayor in the Taba Commune, (12) who also sanctioned massive sexual violence against Tutsi women. With the Prosecutor v. Akayesu (13) decision, the ICTR became the first international war crimes tribunal to convict an official for genocide and to declare that rape could constitute genocide. (14) Pressure from women's groups, coupled with cooperation and support coming from within the ICTR, led to the watershed decision linking sexual violence to the genocide in Rwanda. (15) However, the ICTR's handling of the Akayesu and Nyiramasuhuko cases also reveal a failure to adequately investigate and indict the gender-based violence sanctioned by the government during the genocide before trial, deficiencies in handling witnesses during the investigation and trial stages, and delays affecting the delivery of justice to survivors. These deficiencies must be addressed and corrected in order to maintain the Tribunal's legitimacy, protect women's human rights, and build upon the jurisprudence condemning rape warfare as genocide. An assessment of the ICTR's deficiencies is especially timely given that the tenth anniversary of the genocide occurred in April 2004. Although the Akayesu conviction and the Nyiramasuhuko prosecution have significant precedential value, the problems encountered by the ICTR in indicting and prosecuting gender-based violence should be lessons for future prosecutions in the international community. (16) Recognition of rape as a serious war crime represents only the first step in creating the deterrent necessary to combat future impunity. Assessing the past in order to improve the effectiveness of future prosecutions for rape warfare is imperative as women of all ages, races, colors, creeds, and ethnicities continue to be raped during armed conflicts. (17) Effective prosecutions will lead to more convictions, which will in turn translate into a legal vindication of women's human rights in the international community. (18) This article argues that while the ICTR has established an important precedent in prosecuting gender-based violence as crimes against humanity and tools of genocide, its deficiencies illustrate the continued straggle to enforce international norms protecting women from violence during armed conflict. (19) Without improvements in three specific areas, the potency of the ICTR's groundbreaking decisions will become diluted and less likely to be applied by other legal bodies, to further the objective of enforcing women's human rights, and to lead to greater deterrence of gender-based violence. …

Introduction: Gender-based violence, including violence against women and girls, in all their diversity, is a pervasive human rights abuse and a public health crisis of epidemic proportions that has garnered considerable attention in political dialogues and within international institutions. Recently, attention on gender-based violence has extended to sport, physical activity and physical education (PEPAS) contexts. While a broad range of actors across government, intergovernmental, NGO, and sport sectors have begun to take action to address forms of gender-based violence in PEPAS there is a lack of coordinated action between stakeholders and sectors. However, within the sport sector there is the lack of coherent, standardized measurements, indicators, and research methodologies focused on gender-based violence, which are essential for generating accurate data and insights that can benchmark gender-based violence and accurately inform evidence-based policies and programmes, and guide stakeholder investment effectively. Furthermore, there are also major gaps in existing data and knowledge that informs programmes and policies that address gender inequalities such as violence against women in the sports ecosystem (OHCHR, 2020). Therefore, there is an urgent need for action to increase sector coherency, drive coordination and to develop standardised measurements and indicators to measure and guide progress in gender equality and gender-based violence in sport. Methods: The Global Observatory for Gender Equality and Sport (the GO), in collaboration with stakeholders across the PEPAS sectors that include governmental, UN, civil society, private and academic entities, is developing shared indicators, collating data, insights, and expertise from across the globe to facilitate access and shared learning for impactful policy and service delivery. The Global Observatory contributes to gender equality efforts in PEPAS by facilitating coordination across movements and stakeholders (De Soysa & Zipp, 2019) who often work on similar aims but often in disparate sites. Results: To date, the Global Observatory has responded to the urgent need to take action to overcome gender inequalities and drive action to address gender-based violence in sport through a range of outputs and with varying results. Primarily, the GO is tasked with mobilising actors to coordinate the development of shared measurement indicators and methods to track progress on gender equality and gender-based violence in PEPAS. Coordinating global action to achieve this task has been met with challenges. The role of developing effective partnerships is foundational to generate the necessary buy in required to mobilise the resources required. Underpinning the development of global indicators, the GO continues to mobilise expertise on gender-based violence to facilitate shared learning and to advance global research agendas. Conclusion: There is lack of evidence of states comprehensively addressing violence against women and girls in PEPAS. Coherent, standardized measurements, indicators, and research methodologies are essential for generating accurate data and insights that inform state action. References OHCHR. (2020). Report on the intersection of race and gender discrimination in sport (A/HRC/44/26). United Nations Human Rights Council. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc4426-intersection-race-and-gender-discrimination-sportreport-united De Soysa, L., & Zipp, S. (2019). Gender equality, sport and the United Nation’s system: A historical overview of the slow pace of progress. Sport in Society, 22(11), 1783–1800. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1651018

Putting sexual and reproductive health on the agenda

This study aims to analyse the international legal framework for cooperation among states in combating gender-based violence on the current stage of international law development. The article explores approaches to addressing the issues formulated to implement the provisions of key international legal documents on combating gender-based violence adopted at both universal and regional levels. By synthesizing existing scholarly materials, the degree and level of theoretical elaboration of the problem of gender-based violence within international law were determined, thus addressing key international legal issues regulating gender-based violence. The main international treaties, resolutions, decisions of international organizations, and governmental decisions aimed at ensuring women's equal rights were analysed, with special attention given to the analysis of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The correlation and mutual influence of international and national law on the status of women in contemporary society were traced. The institution of women's rights protection within international law was reviewed, identifying its functions, tasks, and methods. The activities of major structures within the UN system (including specialized agencies such as WHO, UNFPA, etc.), regional intergovernmental, and non-governmental organizations in ensuring gender equality were considered. It is recommended, based on the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which has regional application, taking into account its advantages and disadvantages, as well as the implementation practice, the development of a universal convention on combating violence against women is proposed, which will contribute to the standardization of approaches of relevant human rights treaty bodies within the UN system on this issue. Keywords: international law, international treaties, Istanbul Convention, gender-based violence, state positive obligations, discrimination.