By Elizabeth Naumczyk .
The 3rd World Conference of Women’s Shelters was held 3rd-6th November 2015 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
The Conference Centre World Forum was the venue where 1,000 participants form 115 countries converged to unite, “connect and act” with the ultimate goal to address how to work towards eliminating violence against women and girls, which is a human rights violation.
This is a top priority of the United Nations work endorsed by the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 adopted by the 193 member states of the UN during the annual General Assembly (25 September 2015). Goal 5 is about Achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls and includes 5.2 eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
The programme covered 5 plenary sessions:
Economic independence of women survivors
Sustainable financing and advocacy
Transboundary violence against women, international exchange and cooperation
Continents: What is going on? Strengthening global and regional networks
Innovative approaches to eliminating violence against women and to supporting survivors
For a photo album on the 3rd World Conference on Women Shelters, please click here:
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Moderated by Jacobine Geel and Audith Hunkar the attendees heard inspiring keynote speakers as Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Hina Jilani (Pakistani women’s rights activist & lawyer) and Dr Mugweke (The man who mends women). Queen Maxima spoke at the first plenary session emphasizing the value of economic independence in rebuilding independent lives for survivors of violence. Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark spoke at the 4th plenary session. Through The Mary Foundation she works to help women and children who are victims of violence.
Interspersed throughout the programme were the voices, not of victims, but survivors of domestic violence and child abuse who courageously reiterated their personal stories to send a message that women need to speak out if change is to occur.
It highlighted that it is a global issue affecting not only victims, but families and communities and results in social, economic and productivity costs. It is also a crime against humanity during armed conflict when rape is used as a weapon of war or for human trafficking. Judge Joyce Aluoch, First Vice-President of the International Criminal Court spoke on video about the availability of redress in The Rome Statute.
We heard the moving stories of Iffat Gill (Founder & CEO ChunriChoupall), Linor Abargil (Brave Miss World), Rosie Batty’s story on film from Australia, Therese Evers (author and Teacher policing sexual violence at Police Academy. Nijmegen Area, Netherlands), Emma Murphy from Dublin, Ireland, attended who drew attention to her plight by posting a video on Facebook, Ashley Judd (actor, author, activist and humanitarian)
All these women overcame their circumstances and built on their negative experience to become role models working for a positive outcome in assisting other women to gain strength and overcome their situation. Women together is power.
The Veiled Monologues directed by Adelheid Roosen provided a powerful theatrical performance as did the films Hidden Violence and Then What which also included the story of Hameeda Lukke’s abuse as a child and the shocking film Singing in the Dark by Matthieu Goedhart illustrating the cycle of abuse within a family of several generations.
Women need opportunities to rebuild their lives. Education and paid work is vital to make women independent and stronger. The Rabobank Foundation and Uber talked about their impact on economic empowerment of women.
In Nepal widows are ostracized and 80% have no education and have to depend on their family. This issue is not expressed in any human rights declaration. Youth need to be taught about the importance of healthy equal relationships and all throughout the Conference it was reiterated that men need to be involved in the solution with stronger representation.
Australia is also leading in this field as explained by Michaelia Cash, Minister for Women, Minister for Employment, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service. A national understanding arose after the death of Luke Batty mobilizing the Australian Government to introduce a national plan to reduce violence against women.
This resulted in a national phone line, a mobile app DAISY which includes a quick exit button, recognition in all States of domestic violence orders and the White Ribbon campaign to engage community, including men. Australia also leads with creating a safe workplace. Trade unions were on board to pave the way for industrial legislation to include paid domestic violence leave and the protection of women’s jobs.
The Netherlands Police are working in innovative ways with women shelters to assist survivors in their protection, recovery and investigations and organisations such as CoMensha works with the government to make improvements.
The increasing use of the internet as a tool to perpetrate violence against women and girls is a growing concern. Social media can be used as a tool for good to campaign against violence. By learning how to control the setting of apps it can work against perpetrators who use this medium to harass women. Apps can be used in creative ways, such as to document evidence. Resources can be found on the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence www.nnedv.org Safety in mind has been behind the UBER app for riders and driver-partners.
A Data Count was presented to Crown Princess Mary of Denmark which highlighted the work of shelters visible. In the Call to Action handed by the Chair Bandana Rana to Martin van Rijn, State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sports, the Global Network of Women’s Shelters calls upon all of us to increase our efforts. While many countries have made considerable progress in introducing legislation and institutionalizing policy frameworks implementation, monitoring and accountability are weak, slow or lacking according to the former former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo. We need an internationally standalone binding Convention and much needed funding could be redirected from military spending. “Hold perpetrators to account and to provide services to assist perpetrators to transform their behaviour and become peer educators” are some of the key recommendations.
The Dutch Government and five different ministries as well as The Municipality of The Hague, helped to make this Conference possible supported by public and corporate sponsors. The location of the headquarters of the Global Network for Women’s Shelters has recently been established in The Hague.
You can watch the highlights of the 3rd world conference of women’s shelters here:
Violence against women is still widespread and is perhaps the greatest crime against humanity of all time. During the conference we contribute to the elimination of this violence by learning from each other, sharing new insights and field-testing them, and reinforcing the position of women’s shelters and the national and international networks around them.
Let’s Act and Unite is the message of 3rd World Conference of Women’s Shelters The Hague, 6 November 2015 – The 3rd World Conference of Women’s Shelters was held 3rd-6th November 2015 in The Hague, The Netherlands. With 1,000 participants from 115 countries and inspiring keynote speakers as Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Hina Jilani, Dr. Mugweke and Ashley Judd it was a fruitful meeting with an ambitious outcome. All attendees from advocates and activists to care workers in the field are ready to put an end to violence against women and children. “Let’s do this together! Let’s Unite, Connect and Act to reach the all-important goal and end violence against women!” This was the outcome of four days of intensive working and talking together, while building bridges and strengthening bonds. At the conference, over 1,000 visitors from over 100 countries shared knowledge and translated agreements into targeted actions.
The conference sent out a pledge to all people to think about how we can contribute – as individuals, as communities, as governments, as businesses, as religious institutions. Violence against women has a profound effect on the victims themselves, but it affects families and communities also, resulting in enormous social, economic and productivity costs. It really is a matter that touches us all. Special attention was paid to the vulnerable position of women and girls in armed conflict. It is of the utmost importance to protect women and girls from rape as weapon of war. The post trauma effects of strangulation are wide ranging and not understood by society.
In the Call to Action handed by the chair Bandana Rana to Martin van Rijn, State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sports, the Global Network of Women’s Shelters calls upon all sectors of society to act to prevent impunity from accountability. Conventions and legislation needs to be ratified, implemented and their effectiveness monitored. Paper victories are not enough we all need to be advocates for change to happen.
This could range from actively penalizing child marriages by governments to taking a stand against sexual harassment at the workplace by businesses.
Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation and has been proclaimed a top priority of the United Nation’s, which is endorsed at the highest level by Secretary–General Ban Ki-moon. The UN aims at gender equality by 2030. An ambitious plan, but as far as all attendees of the 3rd World Conference of Women’s Shelters are concerned, it is as realistic as it is necessary. At the moment still one in every three women faces violence because of their gender at least once in their lives.
You can watch the highlights of the 3rd world conference of women’s shelters here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T14di-qaCIU
Pictures by the WCWS.
