Question

Violence against women causes

Answer 1

The upcoming Commission on the Status of Women in March 2013 will focus on prevention of violence against women and girls – that is, the transformation of the social environment so that new incidences of violence become less frequent and ultimately no longer occur.

Such a transformative agenda is by no means impossible – history has seen greater shifts – but it does require change at all levels of the socio-political system, along with holistic and sustained approaches from Governments.

Identifying and addressing the underlying causes of violence is central to this endeavour – and at once a simple and complex exercise.

“Simple” because the ultimate cause of violence against women is always clear – a perpetrator who believes he (as they are mostly men) has a right to abuse. He may also believe, or know, that he can get away with it – that no police officer will arrest him, that no justice system will hold him accountable. This is why an effective legislative and justice response is the foundation stone of preventing violence.

But even where good response systems are in place, many perpetrators continue to feel justified or permitted in abusing women. If we are to prevent violence against women, we need to interrogate how this permission or justification is transmitted, across the different “layers” of society. And this is where the complexity comes in.

The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women recognised violence against women as a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, both arising from and reinforcing gender inequality and discrimination. But the development of prevention programmes requires an unpacking of just how this unequal power manifests in different contexts and on different scales – from individual relationships to global negotiations – in order to effectively target interventions.

Volumes have been researched and written about the causes of violence against women since the Declaration, teasing out greater and greater detail on the factors contributing to violence against women in different environments.