Civil Society campaign against gender violence...

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Civil Society Campaign Against Gender Violence

by Kumi Naidoo - 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

 

It is twelve o'clock in the village, and most people have long since gone to

bed. Then from one house there is the sound of raised voices, then shouting, and

finally screaming. A woman's shrill voice cries out desperately. 'God help me!

Save me! He'll kill me! For God's sake help!'

 

And people do help. Within minutes people are hurrying from their surrounding

houses, gathering outside the house of screams, demanding admission. The

screaming stops, the door opens, and the neighbours take the woman into their

protection. Next day there will be an 'indaba' in the village to investigate the

domestic dispute, counsel the couple, and advise the husband on how to treat his

wife properly.

 

Here, on a small scale, we see a nice example of action by civil society to save

a woman from domestic violence. It is the sort of community action which would

have been common in traditional societies a hundred years ago. But it is the

sort of collective action that is rare today, with urbanization, and families

living as strangers, locked behind high garden walls. Who would dare to risk the

terrors of the night to 'interfere with a domestic dispute'. or even to risk

interrupting the work of burglars?

 

Nowadays the problem of violence against women is much more complex, and women

are more vulnerable to various forms of horrific violence in the present

'civilisation' of our global village. And so it is, in today's world, that civil

society's action to protect women also has to be global. First organized in

1991, this year will see another 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

which run from 25 November through to 10 December. This annual campaign is

co-ordinated for civil society by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership.

 

It might be thought that such a campaign against gender violence concerns only

those sections of civil society which are particularly concerned with feminist

issues. Not true. The campaign instead illustrates the need for all sections of

civil society to unite around fundamental issues of human rights, democracy and

good governance.

 

Let us return the example of the woman screaming in the dead of night. Why is it

a matter for civil society? Why not just telephone the police, who act for us in

such matters? Simply because, in most countries, the police will not be willing

to take action. They will regard this as a domestic matter. In their minds, and

probably also according to tradition and customary law, a man has a right to

'discipline' his wife.

 

In most countries, police are also part of the patriarchal state apparatus which

serves to keep women in their place. The notion that 'the man is the head of

household' is the most sacred principle of the patriarchal state. Only if a man

has exceeded his patriarchal authority, in such a way as to bring male authority

into disrepute, might a husband be arrested. In other words, as I once heard a

judge advise an accused, 'a wife may be beaten with a stick but not an axe'.

 

And the modern state is often more seriously implicated. In addition to allowing

domestic violence and marital rape, it perpetrates its own forms of violence

against women. Violence and rape against women have become institutionalized in

police stations and prisons, and have become strategies of war. Under the law in

some countries, 'honour' killings are tolerated and rape victims are considered

guilty of adultery.

 

Violence against women is not a mere welfare or humanitarian issue. It is an

issue which goes to the heart of democracy and good governance. If all citizens

are to be equal in law, and before the law, then there can be no legal

protection for those perpetrating violence against women. But it is precisely as

women reject their subordination in a male dominated society, and throw off

their age-old belief in submission to men, that they increasingly meet the fist

and the whip.

 

The patriarchal state increasingly has to rely on the fist and the whip because

they have no ideological defence for their subordination and domestication of

women. Almost every state has ratified the important UN conventions and

protocols guaranteeing democracy and good governance, including the equal

treatment of women.

 

And herein lies the strategy for the global campaign. The campaign strategy must

be based on exposing violence against women, and revealing the extent to which

this contradicts governments' international commitments, and even – to a large

extent - their own constitutions and laws. In such a campaign, civil society

fulfills its time-honoured role of demanding accountability from governments. In

other words, civil society demands that governments' actions must measure up to

their commitments.

 

And so it is that the campaign to end violence against women is not a

specialized concern of the women's movement, but is central to civil society's

role in pushing governments to live up to their commitments on democracy and

good governance. These commitments are all premised on the basic principle of

equal human rights for all, without discrimination.

 

http://civicus.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2006/11/23/2523042.html