Convenor Manisha Gupte Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) India Co-Convenor Edwina Kotoisuva Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Fiji Sarala Emmanuel Sri Lanka Shahnaz Iqbal Shirkat Gah: Women’s Resource Centre Pakistan EunKyung Kim Korea Women's Hotline, Korea Yevgeniya Kozyreva Feminist League Kazakhstan Nang Lao Liang Won (TayTay) Women’s League of Burma (WLB) / Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) Thailand Meera Samanther Women’s Aid Organisation Malaysia VAW Sub-Committee Enkhjargal Davaasuren National Center Against Violence Mongolia Sadaf Saz Siddique Naripokkho Bangladesh Programme Officer Misun Woo

While undoubtedly the last decade has seen some important developments in the struggle to make women’s lives free of violence – including the creation of international standards and mechanisms to address violence against women, the recognition of violence against women as a form of discrimination and the recognition and visibility of the multiple forms of violence against women – violence against women continues with impunity in many parts of the region and continues to be one of the most visible manifestations of the unequal and unjust power relations between men and women in our societies. 

At a national level too measures have been taken to address violence against women. Just this year India and Sri Lanka have both passed legislation addressing domestic violence. In the last report of Radhika Coomaraswamy (2003) as UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, she undertook a survey of countries around the world and found that in nearly all countries at least some efforts had been made by governments to enact laws to address violence against women since the creation of her mandate in 1994 . Yet despite this, violence against women has not decreased, and it is, in fact, emerging in new and dangerous forms and impunity for VAW persists (particularly, in the family and community where VAW is frequently perpetrated and/or condoned by States). Thus, while a legal framework is useful in establishing normative standards, it is of little value if: they are not implemented effectively; mechanisms are not created for enforcing the rights and redressing the violations; and the environment in which they operate is not enabling for women to access these rights. Clearly, to create an environment where women can truly live without gender-based violence, much more needs to be done.

Over the last programme cycle, the VAW Task Force has taken up the challenge explicated by the former UNSRVAW and has focused on gaining greater conceptual clarity on the barriers to women accessing justice at a family, community, national and trans-national level. In a Consultation with the UNSRVAW, Dr Yakin Erturk, held in October 2005, discussions focused on the challenges to accessing justice where ‘culture’ and ‘cultural values’ are employed to legitimise and justify violence against women. Discriminatory values and beliefs are frequently enshrined (or purported to be enshrined) in the cultural beliefs and values of a community. International law is clear that States can not ‘invoke custom, tradition, or religious considerations to avoid their obligations with respect to the elimination of discrimination against women’ (Article 4, DEVAW) and in fact the State is obliged to change the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate the violence. However, culture (as well as tradition and religion) are politicised in many parts of Asia Pacific and used by individuals, communities and governments alike to condone VAW, to justify inaction in bringing perpetrators to justice and inaction in ensuring the provision of appropriate remedies for VAW survivors. Women’s rights are pitted against cultural rights and values and in this battle women’s human rights lose out. Transforming cultural practices and beliefs is an important step in addressing the underlying causes of VAW and we must demand states uphold women’s human rights in the face of competing cultural rights.

The interplay of globalisation, fundamentalisms and militarisms in the region results in the reinforcing of discrimination and inequality, which has particular and power effects on violence against women and women’s ability to access justice. Economic globalisation, premised on the primacy of the market over peoples’ lives, has eroded human rights overall.  In several countries across the region, States have increased their stronghold over their constituents as their control over economic and political affairs has been eroded by the pervasive role of WTO, International Financial Institutions and TNCs and MNCs. In many parts of the region increased militarism has characterised the responses of states to this threat to their sovereignty. Increasing economic insecurity among the majority who are disadvantaged by economic globalisation process has sparked extreme fundamentalist formations. Increasingly these fundamentalist agenda are backed by the States who ride on the populist agenda. The growing fundamentalisms in the region continue to be a trend of critical concern for women’s human rights, and violence against women, in particular, as states are rolling back on gains made at a national and international level by codifying fundamentalist values into the formal legal system which condone and perpetuate violence against women.

In the light of these developments, there is diminishing enforceability of women’s human rights and diminishing opportunity for women to access justice as they are further marginalised at all levels of decision-making.  

The VAW Task Force has also critically examined the concept of ‘justice’ in the context of violence against women, particularly in the context of a revival of informal justice mechanisms operating in the region, often with the endorsement of the State. Accessing ‘justice’ means more than just accessing justice through the courts - justice encompasses a women’s life to live her life free of violence in all aspects of her life. While the law is an important mechanism for providing justice to women, it is also important that we look beyond the law because the law frequently fails to deliver justice to women and to meet women’s diverse needs and concepts of justice. It is important that the women’s movement frames its advocacy for justice for VAW survivors from a point of being responsive to the needs and concept of justice of the survivor. While we need to move away from the victim-perpetrator/crime-punishment model we must assure that we do not move towards another concept of justice which is equally rooted in patriarchy such as some traditional justice mechanisms and religious courts.

To respond toward addressing these issues, the VAW programme set its objectives for 2003 - 2005 as follows:

1. To strengthen effectiveness of human rights mechanisms, specifically the UN Special Rapporteur mechanism, to address violence against women;
2. To build capacity of women’s groups to advocate for elimination of existing and emerging forms of violence against women in the Asia Pacific;
3. To enhance conceptual clarity among NGOs working on violence against women, from a feminist perspective, towards addressing recognised and unrecognised forms of violence against women and their causes and consequences.

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