Ending Violence Against
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
APPENDIX III. The list of speakers and transcripts of individual speeches as acquired online, their online sources and access date. FEMALE CELEBRITIES (marked as FC, standing for Female Celebrity) Bianca Jagger (FC1) - a Nicaraguan-born, former actress, Emma Watson (FC2) - a British actress and model, Princess Diana (FC3) - the late Princess of Wales, Angelina Jolie (FC4) - an American actress, filmmaker, Ellen Page (FC5) - a Canadian actress Lady Gaga (FC6) - an American singer Oprah Winfrey (FC7) - an American talk show host, actress, producer, Teri Hatcher (FC8) - an American actress, Annie Lennox (FC9) - a Scottish singer, songwriter, Melinda Gates (FC10) - an American businesswoman. FC1 Bianca Jagger, “Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, and the Culture of Impunity: achieving the missing Millennium Development Goal target”, Longford Lecture, Church House, Westminster, UK, November 21, 2013. Acquired at http://www.longfordtrust.org/lecture_details.php?id=17 (accessed 3rd July 2015) “Good evening. Thank you, Jon, for your kind words. It means a lot to have you introduce me. Jon is one of my heroes. For years his courageous and insightful reporting has shone a light on issues of human rights, justice - and on every critical issue we are facing in the world. Jon is a voice of reason in the media. I would like to thank the Longford Trust for inviting me to speak today. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be delivering this lecture. The Longford Trust effects real change in people’s lives – it offers opportunities and hope. Lord Longford was a formidable man, a man of principle. I greatly admire his commitment to penal reform. He believed passionately that every individual is capable of reform, rehabilitation or, as he preferred to put it, redemption. "Once we stop believing that,” he said, “we are giving up on our own humanity". And he was a champion of women: the husband of Elizabeth Longford, who was one of the first women to stand for Parliament in 1935, and the father of the talented high-achieving quartet of daughters, Antonia, Rachel, Judith and Catherine. I have thought long and hard about the issue I will address today: "Ending Violence against Women and Girls and the Culture of Impunity". I don’t want to recite an endless litany of shocking statistics at you, or offer glib solutions. I will outline the extent of the vast problem we face: the prevalence of violence against women and girls all over the world. I will also mention some current measures being implemented to address it. I will discuss the situation here in the UK. Lastly, I will share my vision of the future I want, where gender equality prevails, of a world free from gender based violence, and make some recommendations for how we might achieve this vision. My own background But first I would like to tell you a little about myself and the experiences which drove me to commit my life to speaking up for women's rights. I was born in Managua, Nicaragua. My parents divorced when I was ten years old. My mother found herself single, without a profession, and with three small children to care for. I witnessed my mother being discriminated against because of her gender and her status as a divorced, working woman. Divorce was rare in the Nicaragua of the 1960s. There was a stigma attached to it. During those difficult years she exhibited great courage and strength. She believed in women's emancipation at a time when women were regarded as second-class citizens and were expected to devote themselves exclusively to home-making. My mother was my role model. I admired her independence and determination to achieve her goals. She never gave up. Since then conditions have improved for women in Nicaragua and throughout the world. Women are excelling in many fields. We have almost achieved equal pay in some countries. We have different lives to those of our grandmothers and even our mothers. But gender equality is far from achieved. We still face unconscionable levels of discrimination and violence. The stark reality is that women are still a vulnerable group. The Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation For nearly three decades I have campaigned for human rights, social justice and environmental protection throughout the world. I have been speaking up for women’s rights for most of my adult life. I founded the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation (BJHRF) in 2006 to be a force for change, and a voice for the most vulnerable members of society. The BJHRF is dedicated to defending human rights, achieving social justice, speaking up for future generations and addressing the threat of climate change. Pivotal moment We are at a pivotal time for women’s rights and human development. Nicholas D. Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist, has written, “In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.” I couldn’t agree more. How are we doing in tackling the "central moral challenge" of the 21st century? We have been talking about women’s rights, and ending violence against women and girls for a long, long time. The English reformer Caroline Norton, calling for reform of laws governing domestic violence against women in 1854, wrote: "I desire to prove, not my suffering or his injustice, but that the present law of England cannot prevent any such suffering, or control any such injustice..." The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the principal global policy- making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women was established in 1946. The first world conference on the status of women was convened by the UN in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women's Year. In September 1981, the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was ratified. There have been three further conferences: Copenhagen in 1980; Nairobi in 1985; and Beijing in 1995. The Beijing Platform for Action laid out the measures for national and international action for the advancement of women; to enhance the social, economic and political empowerment of women, improve their health and their access to education and promote their reproductive rights. The action plan set targets, committing nations to carry out concrete actions in health, education, decision-making and legal reforms with "the ultimate goal of eliminating all forms of discrimination against women in both public and private life". The conference resolved to address the "deeply entrenched attitudes and practices which perpetuate inequality... in all parts of the world". Today, nearly 20 years later, how many of those targets have been accomplished? Have we rid ourselves of these "deeply entrenched attitudes and practices"? Sadly, I don’t believe we have. I suppose you could argue that we have achieved gender equality on paper in the developed world. We can vote, we can own property, we can own and run businesses, we can be elected to parliament. What more do we want? But there is a difference between non-discrimination and achieving gender equality. In human rights terminology, non-discrimination is defined as "the absence of a discriminatory legal framework, and that policies are not discriminatory in effect". Achieving gender equality, however, is another matter. What The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) calls "substantive equality" goes much further. It is overcoming entrenched gender bias in society. "Substantive equality is concerned with the effects of laws, policies and practices to ensure that they do not maintain or reinforce existing disadvantages." The missing MDG target When the international community convened in 2000 to establish the Millennium Development Goals, they left out one critical target. They failed to address the global pandemic of violence against women and girls. UNIFEM refers to the elimination of violence against women and girls as the "missing MDG target". The BJHRF has launched a global campaign calling on world leaders to achieve that "missing MDG target": ending violence against women and girls and the culture of impunity; to address the systemic problems of discrimination; and to achieve gender equality. I hope that you will support the BJHRF’s efforts. Violence against women is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It happens in every country, at every level of society. The 2005 World Health Organisaton (WHO) report, Addressing Violence against Women and Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, states: "Until recently, most governments have considered violence against women to be a relatively minor social problem. Today... violence against women is recognized as a global concern. One of the most pervasive violations of human rights in all societies, it exists on a continuum from violence perpetrated by an intimate partner to violence as a weapon of war. Violence against women is a major threat to social and economic development". Today, eight years after that WHO report, "violence against women continues to undermine efforts to reach the MDG targets"’ according to the UN. The failure of governments to protect the rights of women continues to hinder the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women all over the world. The WHO also states that eradicating violence against women is particularly critical to achieving MDG number seven - namely to ensure environmental sustainability. "Open[ing] useful avenues for designing interventions which, in addition to preserving the environment, can empower and protect women in both rural and urban settings". The consensus is clear. Our capacity to achieve the eight MDG targets by 2015 is inextricably linked to our ability to tackle the missing target.