While attending a panel conducted by the Women Consortium of Nigeria, I had the pleasure to hear from Pearl Osamudiame who works as a facilitator for the non-government organization called Girl’s Power Initiative (GPI).  She explains that GPI’s mission is to empower girls for the realization of a gender equal society where women are visible and valued actors.  With this in mind, they work with young women ages 10-18 through educational programs, counseling, referral services, and social action.

In particular, Ms. Osamudiame explains why girls are so susceptible to trafficking and abuse.  With pervasive poverty and unemployment, many families face economic hardships and lack sufficient support from government policies.  Since women are generally more committed than men to repaying off debt, they will face more parental pressure to improve the family’s economic condition.  Combined with the higher marketability of women and their lower social status, girls are more likely to be targeted for trafficking.  Agents in trafficking will even try to convince the girl’s parents, boyfriends, and other family relationships of the economic benefit, and they will in turn sell the idea to the girl.

To help combat these problems, GPI helps girls in the years when they are most vulnerable to deception and pressure.  They empower girl through skill training, education, and economic support such as providing micro loans and grants.  Along with direct involvement, GPI also documents cases of trafficking and works to improve curriculum to provide a larger awareness of these issues.  As girls become aware of dangers, learn self-sufficiency skills, and cooperate with other women from similar backgrounds, they are more likely to resist the pressure of trafficking and abuse.

Many challenges still remain for girls as trafficking moves from urban to rural areas and total gender equality yet remains unrealized.  However, each young woman that GPI touches is one step closer to ending trafficking and gender abuse.  As more people, groups, and government departments work together with the same goals of empowering women, then everyone may yet see the end to such violence and crime.

关于《中国性别暴力盘点（2012）》的三点解读

里海大学 唐梦悠

    

       在这本《中国性别暴力盘点（2012）》（以下称盘点）中，编者从性别暴力现状、性别暴力治理、存在问题和影响因素、对策和建议四个方面系统分析总结了中国性别暴力问题现状与出路。《盘点》不仅对几个关键概念，如“性别暴力”和“对妇女的暴力”做了区分，还结合热点新闻，如“李阳家暴事件”和“湖南凤凰公职人员强奸案”，分析了现行法律法规存在的漏洞，并在最后一章提出相应的解决办法。可以说，《盘点》对于了解2012年中国性别暴力防治现状具有实际意义。本文将挑选并分析几个在防止性别暴力行动中容易被忽视的观点，或是应该得到特别重视的现象，以让读者更加深入地了解到性别暴力干预工作在中国依然是任重而道远。

       首先，《盘点》中强调将“嫖宿幼女罪”与“强奸罪”合并， 对嫖宿幼女的行为按强奸罪处理。根据2003年最高人民法院公布的法律规定：“行为人确实不知对方是不满十四周岁的幼女，双方自愿发生性关系，未造成严重后果，情节显著轻微的，不认为是犯罪”，该法律一经公布，在法学界和妇女保护组织中产生了强烈反响，学者专家要求撤销“嫖宿幼女罪”，并于2010年全国两会期间通过人大代表孙晓梅教授递交了相关建议。我认为对“嫖宿幼女罪”的法律界定非常模糊，且惩罚力度不足以震慑犯罪人员。近期发生的一系列嫖宿幼女事件的当事人多为公职人员，包括县移民办主任、国土所所长、县人大代表，这些政府官员手握重权，有能力干涉到司法部门的裁决，而受害者多为幼女，她们的思想尚不成熟，更谈不上运用法律武器捍卫自身权利，这使得公职人员有机可趁，从而逃过法律的制裁。

       其次，“同妻”群体在《盘点》中受到重视。随着社会的进步与人们对同性恋群里认‘识的加深，“同妻”这一群体浮出水面，她们遭受精神暴力与肢体暴力的双；重折磨，却由于社会封建思想的束缚，她们无从表达内心的苦痛。《盘点》指出：“中国男同性恋人口平均值为2000万，结婚者近90%，同妻（含前妻、准同妻）人口约1600万。”这一惊人的数据表明，迫于社会风俗压力，男同性恋者在明知无法给与配偶正常婚姻的情况下，欺骗配偶或者选择忽略配偶感受，步入婚姻殿堂，并在婚后实施各种形式的家暴行为如无性婚姻、精神折磨、冷漠及经济控制。很长一段时间以来，在中国，作为最终受害者，“同妻”经历着长期甚至一生的忍受与压抑，无法享受婚姻的幸福，没有倾诉渠道，无法寻求法律援助。但最近几年，媒体开始报道关于“同妻”的新闻，如四川大学女教师罗洪玲因同性恋丈夫骗婚及婚后冷落跳楼自杀身亡，社会开始正视并关注“同妻”这一特殊群体。

       最后，《盘点》中有关对边缘妇女群体的暴力侵害的分析引起了我的注意，其中包括对女同性恋的“矫正性强奸”和对性工作者的各种形式的暴力。中国政府关注“女童、女大学生、老年妇女、流动妇女、高层女性人才五个典型群体”，缺乏对各类边缘妇女群体的关注。 由于中国传统社会对职业的高低，性别的分工具有严格规定，同性恋和性工作者是出于社会底端，被社会边缘化的群体，而她们往往又是最容易受到权益侵害的一部分人，这种落差导致了边缘妇女群体身心遭到最严重损害的事实。作为保护者的公安机关，在面对同性恋和性工作者的诉求时，往往将她们的遭遇认定为咎由自取，不采取相关法律措施对她们进行保护。她们中的大部分人受教育程度低，不懂得向妇女权益保护部分寻求帮助，因而，她们是最容易收到侵害的妇女群体之一。

       《盘点》中还对性骚扰、拐卖妇女儿童和农村留守老弱妇孺等现象或群体进行了详尽阐述，可供性别暴力研究机构或组织参考。

The Positive Impact of Personalization

     During the 57th annual CSW, I was able to attend two presentations that helped me to open my mind about personalizing sexual violence. "Documentary Screening: Women Survivors of Sexual Violence" and "Victory over Violence: Women Leading through Education" were both parallel sessions of the CSW that did not focus on personalizing sexual violence exactly; but, they both shared the personal stories of women survivors of sexual violence. These powerful stories from women from organizations like Girl Be Heard, Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), and a divorced women's group from Turkey brought sexual violence down from an untouchable act practiced by villains into the real-world where sexual violence is done to humans by other humans.

     For example, Girl Be Heard is an NGO based in New York City that works with victims of trafficking, sexual violence and assault through theatre and dance troupes. Through working with the troupes and live performances, these women survivors share their deeply personal, disturbing and very real stories. At the CSW session, one of these brave artists shared her story of being sex trafficked by an uncle through a spoken poem. These stories are shocking and get our attention in ways that academic writings or research on sexual violence just don't. However, these two sessions at the CSW showed me that personal stories can also have powerfully positive effects.

   Personalizing sexual violence by having survivors share their experiences can help people who have not suffered sexual violence connect with people who have. Their stories' shock value helps others reach out to the storyteller and can lead to beautiful partnerships like Girl Be Heard that now helps hundreds of other survivors. While sharing disturbing stories of sexual violence may seem counterproductive, if the victim is ready, their story may have a positive impact on others and actually serve to stop sexual violence in its tracks in the future. 

Cooperation of Government and NGOs in Eliminating Violence Against Women in Afghanistan

By Mengyou Tang

In the session of Working with Government to End Violence Against Women and Girls, the representative from Afghanistan gives an impressive talking of a successful case about the cooperation of NGO and government to eliminate sexual violence.

Leeda Yaqoobi is the program director of Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) that represents 103 women organizations. Actually, AWN has three main aims: Women Peace and Security, Women’s Political Participation and Leadership, and Women’s Legal and Social Rights. In order to achieve these objectives, AWN designs its projects as a model in advocacy, awareness and capacity building of government institutions. And it has achieved unexpected successes so far.

Among the items of the project, Leeda highlights EVAW Law (The Elimination of Violence against Women), which was drafted in 2004 in the incorporate efforts of Ministry of Women’s Affairs and women’s organizations. Specifically, AWN initially conducted a survey to identify to what extent the law can be utilized to help victims with the core government institutions, like, Ministry of Justice, Supreme Court, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, etc. Also, this survey was done to find out the needs of the key personnel and the challenges these sectors may face while carrying out the EVAW Law. Surprisingly, due to a lack of understanding the specific articles, the implementation of EVAW Law is extremely weak. Thus, personnel of core official bodies were invited to participate in a technical training workshop to ensure that these people implement the EVAW Law in the best matter.

Further, in order to keep the smooth conduction of EVAW Law, the EVAW Law Implementation Committee is established to prepare monitoring report bio annually. The first report indicates only one institution resolves cases of violence legally however the majority of cases are solved by informal mediation methods. The reason for this phenomenon including a lack of enough education and being not critical towards understanding all the aspects and provisions of the important articles of EVAW Law.

To deal with these problems, the committee holds conferences to discuss the status of EVAW Law implementation, finding out what AWN can support. Several methods have been come up with: asking officials to follow up on the recent cases of violence; inviting Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta to play the role as a direct focal point to AWN for further follow up on the meeting; Organizing a National conference on implementation of EVAW Law; adding the EVAW Law at the curriculum of Law Faculty.

Honestly speaking, there are still some deficiencies in the implementation of EVAW Law. For example, women still feel hesitant to report or fill a case against their male family members because of their financial dependence on their husbands. However, the successes achieved through the cooperation of government and NGOs is worth being learned by other countries.

Current Achievements and Future Challenges of Ending Violence Against Women in Nepal

By Mengyou Tang

Durga Sob, a representative from Feminist Dalit Organization, Nepal, gives a speech in CSW on March 7, 2013. Dalit is a minority group and a low class in Nepal. Durga talks about the violence and socioeconomic status of Dalit women and girls, and what the government has done and need to improve in the future.

Durga brings some significant statistics. 20% Dalit women do not understand what violence means. Only 4.4% reported to police who felt violence. 45.5% have felt violence while working outside their homes. 12.4% of Dalit women are attacked physically in their homes. Only 5% of them sought for help from formal institutions. From the percentages listed above, we may easily find violence’s happening basically dues to the unawareness of women resulting from their illiteracy or tacit acquiescence. In terms of NGO and government’s response to violence, she points out several laws such as Domestic Violence (Crime and Punishment) Act, 2008, Gender Equality Acts 2063 and NAP enacted by government (1325 & 1820). Also, she mentions some institutions like National Women Commission, Gender Unit, Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and District Resource Group.

Though the laws and institutions have shown some positive effects on eliminating discrimination on Dalit women and further prevent sexual violence from occurring, the vulnerable group still face with big challenges. First, since local government shows little interest in Dalit empowerment programs and Dalit programs, other government sectors, police administration for example, do not register the cases regarding the domestic violence, caste-based discrimination and so on. Second, according to Nepali law very few domestic violence-related cases can be settled through mediation. Third, women of remote areas especially Dalit women are not aware about the legal violence. Therefore, not only the Nepal government and legislation department, but also education and propaganda departments need to tack actions to improve the awareness of going against sexual violence among Dalit group, especially women, and the whole society.