The status of women

Status of Women

Topic A: Domestic Violence against Women in Developing Countries.

Women are considered a weak group in many societies of our days that is because they are victims of discrimination and violence, among other abuses.

There are many types of violence, between them, the domestic violence occupies one important place, most of the times, comes from men to women. It not onlyaffects women, but children, families and communities all around the world.

The domestic violence is a violation of human rights which prevents women from having equality, security, dignity, self worth, and freedom. It appears at every country, no matter culture, education, class, income, ethnicity or age.

Although most societies forbid it, sometimes it is disguised as traditional, cultural orreligious practices, also, when the abuses takes place at home are hidden by the silence of the victim and the ignorance of the authorities. In 2000 only around 44 countries had specific legislation against domestic violence.

The domestic violence is a universal problem and the statistics are alarming as they say that 1 from every 3 women in all the world have suffered of punches, forced tohave sex or was victim of other kind of abuses, the person who commits the abuse is normally someone who knows the victim, and the human costs seem to be invisible.

Another obstacle to fight back domestic violence is that the countries that are doing everything to counteract it are the ones where it is presenting.

The obtaining of trustworthy data on gender-based violence is few, but there isknowledge of it, and we know that is increasing alarmingly, everyday is more widespread and common. The violence occurs in a large context that is gender – based, being a limitation for the access to education, resources, and the power to have manage from women in both public and private life.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) some studies achieved in 2002 in Australia, Canada,Israel, South Africa and United States of America, between the 40% and the 70% of the murdered
women were assassinated by an intimate partner who commits abuses on them. In the United Kingdom, 40% of the murdered women were killed by their boyfriends or husbands. In Sweden, a study showed that 70% of women had suffered any sort of domestic violence, in Netherlands 200.00 women are abused every yearby their intimate partner. In Botswana 6 of every 10 women suffered domestic violence.

In 1997, the UNICEF published a document which says that between a quarter and a half of women around the world had suffered violence by an intimate partner.

In 1993, the World Development Report of the World Bank estimated that women between 15 and 44 years old, loses more Discounted Health Years of Life(DHYLs) to rape and domestic violence than to other diseases like breast and cervical cancer, obstructed labor, heart disease, AIDS, respiratory infections, motor vehicle accidents or war.

Domestic is a term that involves people who are very close to the person, this means, family members, partners, and other kind of relatives who are suppose to be trustable, like boyfriends, husbands, fathersor other male relatives. And the violence received from these people has very varied forms.

There is no universally accepted definition of “domestic violence against women,” some people’s definition includes structural violence, such as poverty and unequal access to health and education.

Others want a more specific definition. The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violenceagainst Women of 1993 defined it as:
“Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

As the most accepted definition of gender-based violence is the one that the UNFPA Gender...