18 November 2009

Ambassador Verveer Answers Questions on Violence Against Women

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer responds to questions about violence against women and girls submitted by America.gov’s Facebook fans.

Q [Willie Viljoen]: We need to … point out the governments, religions and people who abuse women and children.

Ambassador Verveer: Violence against women and girls is a very serious global pandemic. In fact, here in the United States, both our Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee have recently held ground-breaking hearings on this topic. There is a growing recognition that this is a problem that is a fundamental violation of human rights and impedes the potential of women and girls to be able to participate fully as individuals, not constricted in any way, in the life that they want to lead.

It also has very serious consequences for de-stabilization of societies because communities are decimated; the family is decimated. The glue that holds these communities together is erased because of the attacks on women.

We see that the most dangerous places in the world for women are among the most dangerous places, period. Where we have failed states, that’s where extremists and terrorists begin to take hold.

It’s also a very serious issue for productivity in a country. If a woman is abused and cannot participate economically, that not only keeps her from providing for her family and from thriving economically. It has very serious implications for the economic well-being of a country.

We are recognizing — more and more, thankfully — that this is a very, very serious global problem and that we all have a responsibility to work to address it. That means governments have to pass laws, and they have to protect victims. Violence is a criminal offense. They’ve got to prosecute those who perpetrate these crimes.

In many cultures, there are elements that hijack the religion and use it to oppress women. In those societies, it is critical for religious leaders to say: "There is no place in our religion for the justification of abuse of women, for oppression of women."

We need governments and religions and people everywhere to do what they can to put an end to abuse of women and children.

Q [Yara Ibrahim]: What are the objectives concerning domestic violence towards women, especially in countries like Egypt?

A: To the extent that countries have laws and don’t enforce them and implement them and fund them, it is a very big problem.

We’re about to go into marking the 15th anniversary of the U.N. conference in Beijing on women. At that conference, violence against women was absolutely chiseled into international human rights law. Not as something separate, or of secondary importance.

We need laws to ensure that those who perpetrate these crimes are punished. And countries that have laws protecting women need to make sure they are enforced.

For countries that don’t have them, they need to pass them. We need laws that specifically address this kind of abuse against women and with penalties that are appropriate to this kind of abuse.

This needs to be a priority in all countries.

In the United States, we have the Violence Against Women Act, which, in many ways, is a good model. It’s based on the three P’s.

We have to protect the victim.

We have to prevent further cases of this kind of violence. That means, making people aware of the dangers, aware of their rights and aware of violence in the workplace. It means enabling women to gain a foothold economically and enabling them to have access to education. Often, abuse is based on the low status of women.

And it means prosecution.

Q [Kadek Yoga]: We must care about them. They are life and a lot more because they are also human beings.

A: He is right. It goes back to violence. To education.

Fundamentally it’s about respect. It’s appreciating that women’s rights and girls’ rights are human rights.

A group of girls in Africa told me how every minute of their lives, they worry about the violence that they could experience – in their homes, in their schools, walking around – and what they had to do to understand how to protect themselves.

We need to give girls mentors in their lives to be there for them.

Mr. Yoga is exactly right – every girl has the same rights as boys. But a lot of people don’t share his view. And we have to work to turn that around.

Q [Steinereunice Opara]: What are they [U.S. government] doing currently on the issues of girl child trafficking?

A: The trafficking of girls, children, women – even some men – is one of the terrible problems that afflict our world. They are bought and sold like they were products and used for exploitation.

Sometimes a child is exploited sexually. Sometimes it’s for labor — to work in horrific conditions, in sweatshops, restaurants and other places.

Sometimes, it’s to be an indentured servant. A child is bought, sent into somebody’s home, the door is closed, and you never know what horrific abuses are perpetrated on that child.

It is a very big problem in many places of the world. It is a modern day version of slavery.

The United States has an Anti-Trafficking Law that is based on ways in which the victim can be protected. There are resources that we provide to countries around the world and to NGOs working with children who are at risk.

We help countries train their police and judges so that the people who perpetrate these crimes — and they are crimes — are punished. If there is no punishment, these things go on and on and on.

First and foremost, we have to deal with the problem of prevention. We have to make children aware — through school, if they are lucky enough to go to school — of what efforts there are to entrap them, to entice them, to falsely tell them good things are going to happen to them.

I was with Secretary Clinton when she was First Lady. We were in Northern Thailand and saw how traffickers came into these villages and basically said to the parents: “We’re going to take care of your child. We’ll give her a better life.” In turn, they gave some money or other financial resources to the parents, and those girls were trafficked into a nightmare. Their lives were horrific. We then saw several in those circumstances who were dying of HIV/AIDS.

We have an office at the State Department that deals solely with combating the trafficking of persons. We do an annual report on what countries are doing or not doing that can be used by the citizens of those countries and governments to improve the situation.  [See Trafficking in Persons Report 2009.]