NCJ Number
201453
Date Published
2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses the emergence of the recognition of women's human rights within the United Nations and the international institutional recognition of violence against women as a human rights abuse.
Abstract
Violence against women is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world. Such violence includes domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, forced prostitution, female genital mutilation, female infanticide, and sexual harassment. Other lesser known forms of violence against women are honor killing, which is the murder of a woman by family members because they believe her behavior has brought shame to the family; dowry violence, which is the murder or maiming of a woman by her husband or his family because her family has not provided the expected or desired dowry for her; and sex trafficking in women. In an effort to counter such widespread violence against women, activists organized networks and targeted lobbying efforts to influence international human rights law and the policy agenda of the United Nations. The tribunals in which women from across the world gathered to share their stories of human rights violations awakened the international human rights community. The international women's human rights movement has moved violence against women to the top of the international community's policy agenda. This chapter describes the various organizations that have been established to monitor and respond to violence against women internationally and in specific countries or regions of the world. 26 references