[women-rights] "Violence against women-what next?" -- meeting of NGO Committee on Status of Women

8 April 2003
[unofficial transcript]

Opening Statement by Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello
High Commissioner for Human Rights
"Violence against women-what next?"
an event co-organized by OHCHR and
the NGO Committee on the Status of Women.
Palais des Nations, Salle XXI, 8 April 2003
(13:00-15:00)

Let me first express my appreciation to the NGO Committee on the
Status of Women for co-organizing the event, and to my colleagues for
their hard work in bringing you all here today. I would like to thank
Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji for kindly agreeing to chair the session. I
should point out that at our first meeting when she was elected
chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, the first thing we
discussed was the priority we both give to women's rights issues. Of
course I would also like to thank Ms. Conchita Poncini, Chairperson
of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women.

I will not try to introduce the panelists, as that is being done by
Ms. Al-Hajjaji. Let me only mention the importance of having here
Radhika Coomaraswamy, at the end of her nine-year term as Special
Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against
women. We look forward to hearing from her, today and tomorrow, as
hers has been a voice of conscience for us all and I hope she will
continue to be one in her new function in Sri Lanka. I would like to
point out that I believe our Office should be more involved in
supporting peace negotiations, particularly with regard to the need
to pay due attention to women's rights in the context of such
negotiations.

Allow me also to welcome Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, the newly appointed
Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women. I had the
opportunity to participate in the 47th session of the Commission as
they worked to advance our common agenda. We are also honored to have
among of us for this occasion the chairperson of CEDAW, Ms. Feride
Acar, and an impressive line-up of human rights experts. I thank you
all for your participation in this event.

We celebrate this year, as you all know, the tenth anniversary of the
1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. Vienna was a watershed
for women's rights. States recognized explicitly that violence
against women in all its forms is a fundamental human rights concern.
That includes domestic abuse as much as rape, burning, mutilation,
stoning, or the violence that women experience during conflicts.
Women suffer from violence that is too often perpetrated in private.
But Governments have a clear obligation, under human rights
standards, to take all necessary measures to prevent such violence,
to condemn it in unequivocal terms, to prosecute perpetrators and to
provide protection and redress to the victims.

A few months after the Vienna Conference, the General Assembly
adopted by consensus the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
Against Women. The General Assembly was united in declaring that
"States should not invoke [as the Chairperson of the Commission on
Human Rights just pointed out] any custom, tradition or religious
consideration, to avoid their obligations with respect to [the]
elimination" of violence against women. In Vienna, we had stressed
the importance of working towards the eradication of conflicts
between the rights of women and the harmful effects of certain
traditional or customary practices, cultural prejudices and religious
interpretations, including extreme ones. In Durban, States reiterated
their commitment to combating racial and religious prejudice and
intolerance while promoting the universal rights of women.

So I think we have an appropriate framework. Clear human rights
standards exist. Yet, despite all the progress we have achieved in
standard-setting, women continue to face gender-based violence. In
many cases, legal and judicial systems still do not provide
appropriate protection and remedies for women. I have said this in
Islamabad and I have said it in Madrid, during my recent visits. For
this is not a phenomenon of the North or the South, the East or the
West. Violence against women takes place everywhere, and as much in
Christian as in Muslim countries. I had personal experience of the
work we did in Timor-Leste to address that issue, and women's groups
there could tell you how much we worked on it.

Our priority for the future should be to improve the implementation
of the many legal reforms that have already taken place. All acts of
violence against women - whether committed by the military, State
officials, or relatives - and wherever they occur, must be strongly
condemned and effectively prosecuted. Often the legal framework is
available, but prosecutors or judges interpret it in lenient manners,
or avoid taking the issue as seriously as it must. And this happens
also in highly-developed countries, not only in poor ones.

There must be no impunity for gender-based violence. Let me be clear.
What we are talking about is not a side-issue. It is not a special
interest group of concern to only a few. What we are talking about
are not only women's rights but also the human rights of over
one-half of this globe's population. Their denial – for
whatever reason – is wrong. It is a wrong, and one that we men
must assume. Violence against women concerns not only women, but
above all the rest of us. I told villagers in Angola during a recent
visit that all men should be ashamed. Ashamed that women must
denounce the violations they suffer and that they face such hurdles
in doing so. This is not a message men always appreciate hearing. I
remember one occasion in which my remarks in that sense drew and
angry reception from men in the audience in a province of
Timor-Leste. And yet, after years of efforts on awareness-raising,
the situation changed and men acknowledged the problem. Denial of
this human rights issue by men is wrong – there are some
complicated dynamics at play there that we must be capable of
addressing.

Greater efforts, resources and commitment are required to create
fundamental changes in societal attitude if we are to truly eliminate
violence against women. We must continue to work together to change
our societies and eradicate this plague.

My office and I are prepared to do whatever we can to reach these
goals. In the coming weeks I hope that I will have the privilege to
welcome a senior advisor for gender issues to my office, and let me
clarify that this will be in my immediate office, to strengthen our
existing expertise. In various postings over the course of my career,
I have seen, all too often, that the terrible violence that women
face is part and parcel of many conflicts, and must be part of the
solution. I have also seen that it can be stopped – that
societies can enlarge their understanding of dignity and shrink the
scope of fear. Gender-based violence breeds fear; protection of the
human rights of women must eliminate it.

Najat, dear panelists, please accept my warmest wishes and my high
hopes for your work on this critical issue. You know that you have my
total support. Thank you.

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