01 October 2009

Violence Against Women Is an Economic and Human Rights Issue

Senate committee holds first-ever hearing on violence against women

By Jane Morse
Staff Writer

Washington — Violence against women is not only a human rights issue but also an economic issue — for the countries where women are brutalized, as well as for the United States.

In the first-ever hearing on the issue held October 1 by the full committee of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. senators and U.S. government officials agreed violence against women is both a crime against humanity and an economic burden, and greater efforts must be made to enforce laws to protect women.

Women are “the drivers of economic growth,” Melanne Verveer, who holds the Obama administration’s newly created position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, told the committee. It is the women around the world, she said, who tend to reinvest the majority of whatever income they can command into their families and communities.

“Women who are abused or who fear violence are unable to realize their full potential and contribute to their countries’ development,” Verveer said. There are enormous economic costs that come with violence against women, she said, noting that even in the United States, violence against women results in an estimated $1.8 billion in losses each year in productivity and earnings. “These types of losses are repeated around the world,” she said.

Senator John Kerry, chair of the committee, agreed. Societies that protect women, he said, are better positioned for economic development. If every society respected women, he said, America’s aid burden would be smaller.

Verveer noted that violence against women takes many forms and affects millions of women around the world. Acts of violence include denying women and girls adequate health care, nutrition and schooling; child marriage; rape; “honor” killings and dowry-related murder; sex-selected abortion; trafficking; and genital mutilation. “This violence is not ‘cultural,’ Verveer said, “it is criminal.”

ENFORCING LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAWS IS ESSENTIAL

Rape is being used more extensively, U.S. officials agreed, as a tool of war, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an average of 36 women and girls are raped every day.

“In so many of these cases,” Verveer said, “especially when security forces themselves are involved, no serious legal action is taken against these criminals.”

Stephen Rapp, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, told the committee that a top priority must be to ensure that when rape and violence are committed against women, those responsible are held accountable. Rapp, who served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said that ensuring justice reaffirms core moral values, recognizes the suffering of the victims, and holds perpetrators publicly accountable. He emphasized the need to criminalize violence against women and enforce the existing laws in local, national and international courts.

Verveer told the committee that the United States has committed millions of dollars to help women and girls who have been victims of violence. But education, she said, is critical to get to the root causes of violence against women.  More must be done, she said, to give women and girls the worth and respect they deserve.

For more information, see the prepared text of Verveer’s testimony, “Violence against Women: Global Costs and Consequences,” on the State Department Web site.

The text of Rapp’s prepared statement is available on America.gov.