Violence against women highlighted

AMNESTY: At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to a global campaign led by the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

The It's In Our Hands campaign, launched across the world yesterday, says violence against women is a worldwide human rights catastrophe.

"It is not natural or inevitable. It is an expression of historically and culturally specific values and standards," it says. "It is not confined to any particular political, or economic system."

Violence against women is increasing internationally, Amnesty says.

Citing international statistics, it points out that women were 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence in the United States in 1999; that 14,000 women were killed by their partners or relatives in Russia in 1999, yet that country still has no law specifically addressing domestic violence; and that the World Health Organisation has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their partners.

Growing international pressure for ever-cheaper produced goods and the prioritisation of international security over human rights, especially since September 11th, 2001, disproportionately affect women.

"While the negative effects of globalisation are leaving more and more women trapped on the margins of society it is extremely difficult for such women to escape abusive situation and to obtain protection and redress" the document says.

Speaking at the Irish launch in Dublin yesterday, the human-rights activist Ms Bianca Jagger said every government in the world was failing to adequately protect women's rights.

"None has in place all the legal mechanisms to protect women from their husbands, partners and relatives. Marital rape is not recognised as a crime in 140 countries, there is no legislation on domestic violence in 79 countries and at least 54 counties have laws that discriminate against women," she said.

"I know the suffering caused by domestic violence in my own family. Too often victims are imprisoned by a wall of silence, unable to speak out about what is happening to them. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to confront it."

She said she hoped the Irish Government, as president of the EU, would make the fight to end violence against women a key issue of the presidency.

Ms Inez McCormack, a former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said it was not a women's issue.

"This is a human issue," she said. "This is not a singular issue. It is a structural issue. Women who suffer it do not want to be heroines.

"They just want it to stop and they want to know that when they come forward there's a world out there that will support them and put the resources around them."

The perpetual funding crisis faced by such agencies as refuges, the Rape Crisis Centre and Women's Aid indicated that "all these years on violence against women still has not been mainstreamed as a human rights issue" by the Irish Government.

Among the calls Amnesty International is making on all governments is to adopt laws that ensure domestic violence against women is treated as seriously as any assault.