General directions of activity of international organizations in combating violence against women

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General directions of activity of international organizations in combating violence against women

Namazova Lala - PhD Student/Faculty of Law “Human rights and information law” UNESCO chair Baku State University

A number of international political and humanitarian organizations of the world, especially the United Nations, carry out their work on the elimination of gender violence, both at the global and regional levels. For example, the issue of violence against women was included in the agenda of the Council of Europe in 1996, when the Social Charter was adopted. Here, special attention is paid to the countries of the former socialist camp. A strategy and action plan for the realization of gender equality was developed by the Council of Europe's Committee on Gender Equality and the UN Human Rights Committee. That plan was adopted in 1997. In addition, at the initiative of the Council of Europe, measures aimed at the struggle for free choice in the field of reproductive rights and sexual relations and the struggle against human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation were held.

The article provides information on the measures taken by international organizations related to the restoration and protection of women's rights since the last century, as well as the general directions of activities of organizations fighting violence against women.

Keywords: violence against women, international organizations, international law, gender equality, women's rights.

Намазова Лала - диссертант/ Юридический факультет - Кафедра ЮНЕСКО «Права человека и информационное право»

Бакинского Государственного Университета

ОСНОВНЫЕ НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ ПО БОРЬБЕ С НАСИЛИЕМ В ОТНОШЕНИИ ЖЕНЩИН

Ряд международных политических и гуманитарных организаций мира, прежде всего ООН, проводят свою работу по искоренению гендерного насилия как на глобальном, так и на региональном уровне.

Например, вопрос о насилии в отношении женщин был включен в повестку дня Совета Европы в 1996 году, когда была принята Социальная хартия. Здесь особое внимание уделяется странам бывшего социалистического лагеря. Стратегия и план действий по реализации гендерного равенства были разработаны Комитетом Совета Европы по гендерному равенству и Комитетом ООН по правам человека. Этот план был принят в 1997 году. Кроме того, по инициативе Совета Европы были проведены мероприятия, направленные на борьбу за свободный выбор в сфере репродуктивных прав и сексуальных отношений и борьбу с торговлей людьми в целях сексуальной эксплуатации.

В статье представлена информация о мерах, предпринятых международными организациями, связанных с восстановлением и защитой прав женщин, начиная с прошлого века, а также общие направления деятельности организаций, борющихся с насилием в отношении женщин.

Ключевые слова: насилие в отношении женщин, международные организации, международное право, гендерное равенство, права женщин.

According to the UN statement, human rights are the basis of all rights. In this context, women's rights have a special place in terms of their specificity. At the end of the 20th century, the attention of the UN was focused on the issues of women's rights. The result of the UN's activities in this direction has been to request the governments of all countries to recognize violence against women as a crime, not a problem in interpersonal relationships.

Women's organizations have managed to include gender issues in all UN declarations, including human rights endorsements, the most important of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948.

The next step of the UN was the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, also known as the “Women's Convention” in 1979. That Convention defines legal norms for women for all countries that have ratified it. Over the next ten years, this document was signed and ratified by many countries. Currently, the number of countries that have adopted the Convention is more than 160.

Article 1 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women defines discrimination as any separa-tion, deprivation or limitation based on sexual characteristics. The following articles of the document list the duties of governments to ensure that women realize their rights.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is the body that oversees the fulfillment of the duties set by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In 1989, the Committee adopted general recommendation No. 12 for the resolution on the elimination of discrimination against women. According to that recommendation, governments should report to the Committee twice a year on what laws and initiatives have been adopted at the local and national level to protect women's rights. It includes initiatives aimed at addressing all forms of domestic violence and providing assistance through the provision of special services.

The United Nations is in the process of developing a comprehensive political and legal framework to address the decades-old problem of gender-based violence. The first step in this direction was the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which includes recommendations on gender-based violence. In those rec-ommendations, it was confirmed by the Committee that the state can be held responsible for the actions of private individuals based on the provisions of the general international law norms and specific human rights covenants - CEDAW. This applies to cases where the state does not take necessary steps to prevent viola-tions of law or investigate acts of violence, bring the guilty persons to justice, and pay compen- sation.Today, CEDAW continues to be the most widely ratified fundamental human rights treaty that addresses women's rights and the obligations of states to ensure them, including their right to be free from violence [1].The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women defines violence against women as a form of discrimination and a manifestation of the historically unequal status of men and women, and in this regard, the effectiveness of national action plans depends on recognizing and responding to the deeply gendered dynamics of violence. Thus, national plans of action to combat violence against women should not be part of more general plans to combat violence in general, since both the prevention and response to violence against women will necessarily differ from those in case of other forms of violence. National action plans need to address interdependent forms of inequality and discrimination against these different groups of women through the development of specialized or targeted strategies. For example, when designing preventive interventions, it is essential that the planned actions not only encourage respectful relationships and achieve gender equality, but also challenge discrimination and stereotyping based on identity. In terms of response, the provision of assistance and services, the administration of criminal justice, needs to take into account the special needs of different groups of women and develop appropriate actions.

There are many organizations and institutions in the world that deal with the protection of women's rights, one of which is UNIFEM, which was established as a UN women's fund [2]. UNIFEM was established in December 1976 as a voluntary fund to celebrate the Decade of the United Nations Women's Fund on the International Year of Women. The Foundation offers financial support for innovative programs and strategies focused on women's empowerment, inclusion, and economic security. Since 1976, UNIFEM has supported the empowerment of women to provide sexual inquiries through its program to open offices and branches of women's organizations in major regions of the world. The fund's deficit work began in 1996 in South Africa, gradually including East Africa, Southeast and South Asia, Central America and the Andean region. The Fund has worked to raise awareness throughout the UN system in view of the release of budgetary funds as a tool for the expected economic management in all countries.UNIFEM, along with other smaller UN organizations with the same profile, merged in 2010 to form the United Nations Organization for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, as well as UN Women, which organizes the activities of the United Nations gender specific and women's problems [3]. international organizations combating violence women

International law imposes clear obligations on states to address the issue of violence against women. States have an obligation to give due attention to the prevention of acts of violence against women; investigation of such acts; prosecution and punishment of those who committed them; reparation for damages and provision of assistance to victims. The requirement to adopt and implement national action plans to combat violence against women is contained in international and regional human rights instruments and policy documents. The adoption and implementation of multisectoral national plans of action to combat violence against women is one of the five key goals targeted by the Secretary-General's United Nations Campaign to End Violence against Women by 2015 in all countries [4]. Many States have recognized that A coordinated and coherent approach is needed to address a problem as serious, widespread and deeply rooted as violence against women. Strategic long-term programs of action aimed at addressing the root causes of violence against women and strengthening sys-tems to respond to such violence are a feature of recent policies in this area, in contrast to the more passive approach that has characterized work in this area in the past. An important part of these efforts are national action plans that provide for comprehensive, multisectoral and coherent “programs for the elimination of violence against women”. Such plans allow all sec-tors involved coordinating and systematizing their activities, while evaluating and activating various initiatives so that the approaches used could be adapted and used over time. Over the past decade, research and data on the causes and consequences of violence against women have developed significantly. It is now clear that most forms of violence against women. The term “violence against women” is used in this model framework to recognize the specific nature and disproportionate impact of gender- based violence on women. The term also covers gender-based violence against girls. The alternative term “gender based violence” is sometimes used in national action plans and that this woman is committed by a person known to the woman and that many incidents of violence remain unknown due to family/private life customs or culture. Violence against women includes intimate partner violence, the most common form of violence in the world, which includes coercive acts of a sexual, psychological and physical nature by current or former husbands or boyfriends, as well as murder of women, sexual violence by persons who do not partners, sexual harassment, trafficking in women, sexual exploitation and harmful traditional practices such as dowry violence, early marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting, “hon-or” crimes, female infanticide and antenatal sex selection and mistreatment of women. Many of these forms of violence also (or especially) affect girls, and intimate partner violence affects children of both sexes. The forms of violence against women vary according to the social, historical, economic, cultural and political contexts of different countries, and it is essential to take these characteristics into account when formulating policy directions. Violence against women often has multiple interrelated and/or recurring manifestations. Women may experience domestic, community or state violence, and some forms of violence (such as trafficking in women and violence in armed conflict) spill over into other areas. The nature of violence against women is determined by cultural norms and the social, economic and political conditions in which they live. Factors such as race, ethnicity, caste, class, migrant or refugee status, age, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, disability or HIV status can also influence the forms and nature of violence women experience.

The clear recognition and definition of violence against women in accordance with human rights standards in national plans pro-vides a solid and coherent basis for joint efforts of the government and civil society actors. This does not preclude other approaches to violence prevention and elimination, such as action in education, health, development and criminal justice, but rather promotes indivisible, holistic and multisectoral responses. In doing so, national action becomes part of the broader context of regional and international efforts to end violence against women, strengthening the potential for partnerships and collaboration at this level. National action plans adopted in a number of countries clearly state that violence against women is a violation of human rights. Including in plans a clear definition of violence against women based on international or regional instruments provides the plans with an internationally recognized reference point from which to build a common understanding of violence against women in various sectors and determine the nature of their respective actions. Such definitions are usually broad in scope so that they can remain relevant in the face of the growing flow of changing information about the nature, root causes and consequences of such violence.

In 2012, the UN Women's Development Fund created a guide to developing national action plans to combat violence against women. That handbook builds on the results of the Expert Group Meeting on Good Practices in Implementing National Plans of Action to Combat Violence against Women. The meeting was hosted in September 2010 by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Em-powerment of Women, UN-Women, in collaboration with the Caribbean Subregional Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Porto of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago [5].

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted on December 20, 1993, was the fundamental document that separated gender violence as an independent problem and defined strategies for its solution at all levels. The main obligations of the state in the field of combating gender violence are defined in Article 4 of the aforementioned Declaration. This document calls on States to condemn gender-based violence and to take action to eliminate it without delay. At this time, states cannot evade their obligations by referring to some customs, traditions or religious motives. According to the declaration, the first step for all states should be to consider acceding to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. If a state has already acceded to the Convention, it must assume all conditions arising from the Convention [6, p. 278].

The state is required to refrain from violence against women. This means that the state itself does not commit violence based on the gender principle, and that it does not take a negligent approach to the manifestations of such violence in society.

Focusing on rooting out and investigating violence against women should be a primary duty of every state. Those found guilty of gender violence should be punished according to the applicable national legislation. At this time, both state bodies and private individuals should bear the responsibility for committing those actions.

The development of criminal, civil, labor and administrative sanctions that can be applied against the perpetrators of gender violence is one of the main tasks of the internal legislation of the state. Solving the issues of compensating the financial damage caused to women as a result of being subjected to acts of violence and making judicial mechanisms fully accessible to them should also be one of the duties of the state. Effective and fair legal remedies should be provided for women who have been subjected to violence. In addition, they should receive information about what rights they have to compensation for the damage caused to them.

The task of determining the question of which National Action Plan should be developed to ensure the protection of women from any form of violence is also included in the state's responsibilities. If such national plans already exist, they should be amended accordingly. In the development of its strategies, the state should also take into account the pos-sibilities of benefiting from the assistance of non-governmental organizations, in particular, those whose activities are gender violence. The state should develop legal, political, ad-ministrative and cultural measures capable of protecting women from all forms of violence. These measures should be designed to exclude the secondary victimization of women due to the application of gender-neutral law enforcement methods and laws [7, p. 212].

References

1. Using the international and regional legal framework to stop all forms of violence against women and girls, Strasbourg, Geneva (8 March 2022). https://www.ohchr.org/en/ statements/2022/03/using-international-and-

regional-legal-framework-stop-all-forms-vio-lence-against

2. Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women, General Assembly resolution 31/133. 102nd plenary meeting, December 16, 1976. https://web.archive.org/web/20121022103057/http://www.undemocracy.com/A-RES-31-133.pdf

3. UN Women official website. https:// www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/about-un-women 4. Paragraph 8 of resolution 61/143; paragraph 16 of resolution 63/155; and paragraph 16 of United Nations General Assembly resolution 65/187 on intensifying efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women.

5. United Nations Development Fund for Women, Handbook for nation-

al action plans on violence against women, July 1, 2012. https://www.refWorld.org.ru/publisher,UNIFEM,,,522db08d4,0.html

6. Общая теория прав человека/Под ред. Е.А. Лукашевой - Москва: Норма, 1996.- 512 с.

7. Федосеева, Г.Ю. Вопросы защиты некоторых социальных прав женщин в международном праве и национальном законодательстве РФ. / Г.Ю. Федосеева - Москва: Академия, 1994. - 431 с.

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