反对性别暴力：中国妇女代表联合国发声赢认同

里海大学 唐梦悠 发自纽约

          美国东部时间3月7日上午，来自中国的妇女代表就中国反对性别暴力所采取的策略与所取得的成效，从政府立法、公民教育、个人交流、组织参与等五个方面做了相关的专题讲座。

反家庭暴力研究中心主任冯媛指出，中国政府在立法时应注意相关法律对家暴的预防和干涉，并提出两大策略：一是起草国家级法规，协助各省市制定反家暴政策。二是动员社会各方面力量，推动反家暴法律法规的实施。来自陕西省妇女研究会的王国红女士在讲座中提到，要综合政策实施、社区支持、服务授权、资源利用等几个方面防止家暴。她强调，要特别以妇女为中心开展工作。在运用媒体技术解决性别暴力方面，来自妇女传媒监测网络的吕频向在场听众展示了如何运用大众传媒和社交媒介宣传女权主义，招募包括年轻女性、大学生和女同性恋者在内的更多的志愿者参与其中。与媒体相关的一系列活动，例如刊登裸照、削发抗议教育部歧视性政策、在地铁上表演反对性侵害话剧等等，在社会上引发了激烈的争论， 但也在另一方面促进了反性别暴力的宣传。本届联合国妇女地位委员会会议的主题是“消除和防止针对妇女和女童的一切形式的暴行”，全国妇联代表赵红菊处长就中国妇联针对这一主题所采取的实际行动做了报告。

李慧英教授来自中央党校妇女研究中心，她在讲座中对农村重男轻女现象进行了深入详细的剖析。重男轻女现象的主要原因是男性可以继承家族姓氏，因此男性被视为家族的永久成员，而女性是暂时成员，尤其是在有兄长的家庭中，女性婚后必须离开家庭，并且女性不享受资源分配权利，男性是家族财产的继承人。基于以上原因，李慧英教授认为修改村规民约，在村民中树立男女平等婚嫁的典范有助于改变重男轻女现象。

此次讲座吸引了来自北美各地的非政府组织代表参与，就中国目前反对性别暴力取得的成就与存在的问题进行讨论并交换意见。

Lesson #1: Keep your eyes open to the realities around you.

On Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to attend "Global, National, Regional, and Local Perspectives on Modern Day Slavery," a parallel session of the 57th CSW held at Lehigh University on the efforts to end human trafficking. This event was moderated by Dr. Rita Jones, the director of the Lehigh Women's Center and had panelists from Free The Slaves, The Department of Justice, the Valley Against Sex Trafficking, and the Center for Public Health of Nigeria. 

Each panelist presented their individual mission against forced labor, modern day slavery, and sex and human trafficking. Most interesting was the Regional Assistant District Attorney's (PA) discussion about the federal laws that protect victims of trafficking. In the United States, a person cannot consent to being trafficked, even if they agree to be brought or smuggled into this country. This protects the trafficked person and maintains them as a victim in the court's eyes. However, this is a recent change to the law.

Also very relevant to the Lehigh University community was the presentation by VAST (The Valley Against Sex Trafficking). VAST is a local NGO that works to helps victims of trafficking here in the Lehigh Valley and to raise awareness about trafficking locally. VAST devotes a lot of their time to raise awareness about local trafficking because many Lehigh Valleyians either haven't heard about this problem or they don't know or believe that is actually happening in their own backyard. 

For me, this was the most important message I took away from the presentation. Many Lehigh students and community members know about modern day slavery and sex trafficking, but tend to either think "it can't happen in my community" or just don't want to acknowledge that the horrors are so close to them. However, if we want to end this illicit, illegal industry, we must make the effort to see it in our own communities, to learn to recognize the signs of human trafficking, forced labor or modern day slavery, and to know who to contact when we see the signs. If we can learn what human trafficking looks like in our own communities and know who to contact when we see it, I think we can do a lot to 'traffic-proof' our communities and signal to traffickers that our communities know what evil they're practicing and it's not welcome here.

Hidden War Crimes Panel

While at the consultation day on Sunday, I heard a woman say that the parallel events were really great.  Well she couldn’t have been more right.  My very first parallel event was fantastic.  Challenging and Preventing Hidden War Crimes: Screening and Panel Discussion hosted by Agency for Cooperation and Research and Development was held at Church Center at the UN, which was across the street from the UN on Wednesday, March 6 at 10:30am. 

The panelists were Salina Sanou (Head of Policy and Advocacy for ACORD), Irma van Deuren (Head of Divison for Gender Equality at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands), and Ngoné Diop (Chief Gender Equality and Women in Development for Economv Commission for Africa).  We started the session by watching a 20 minute documentary (http://www.acordinternational.org/acord/en/our-work/a/gender/hidden-war-crimes/) and then the panelists spoke about their reactions to the film. 

From left to right: Ms. Diop, Ms. van Dueren, Ms. Sanou, and the facilitator from ACORD

While the film’s content was difficult to watch, it was certainly educational. Something that struck me about the film and something with which Salina also briefly spoke about, was the importance of giving a face to the issue.  I was surprised to see survivors of sexual violence speaking about their experiences.  I thought that speaking out about rape would be too stigmatized (thought there names were not given to maintain privacy).  This theme of giving a personal story had resurfaced from consultation day on Sunday.  This was something that was talked by Sean Southy from PCI Media Impact during the session on social media.  By doing this, the quantitative statistics come alive and empathy is possible.   

One of the most significant things that I thought Ms. Diop talked about was the need to make sexual violence a sustainable issue.  Her suggestion as that it needs to be put in the center of development economic planning because sexual violence has a costs- for the individual, for the family, and even for the country (in terms of GDP).  At this time, there are laws against sexual violence, it is just that they are not enforced.  I think her point was well-taken.  Later she talked about how the UN and NGOs were doing a great job of coming up with resolutions but that they were abstract unless you translated them into the cultural contexts in each place you are examining.  She talked about traditions and how we can use them to our advantage.  Instead of highlighting the negative traditions, we can try to make use of the ones that are productive for society. 

I look forward to seeing what these amazing women are able to accomplish.  They were all very knowledgeable and had some great suggestions as to what we can work on in the future.  I left feeling inspired to make change.  

Birlesmis Milletler Kadinin Statusu Komisyonun (KSK) 57. toplantilari New York'ta organize edilen cesitli oturumlarla bugun devam etti. Bu baglamda 'Nijerya Kadinlar Birligi' tarafindan Nijerya' da siddete maruz kalan kadinlar ile ilgili belgesel gosterimi yapildi. Belgesel sonrasi 'Afrika' da Kadinlara ve Kizlara Karsi Siddetin Onlenmesi icin Gerekli  Girisimler' konulu oturuma gecildi.

Oturumda soz alan Nijerya' li katilimcilar genel olarak varolan yasalarin kadinlara karsi siddeti onlemede yeterince etkili olmadiklarinin altini cizdiler. Afrika' da ki bircok devletin aile ici siddeti onlemek icin gerekli onlemleri almadiklari, bu durumun ardinda yatan nedenlerden birinin ise kadinlarin kulturel, sosyal ve ekonomik nedenlerden dolayi siddete maruz kalsalar bile bu durum karsinda sessiz kalmalari olarak vurgulandi. Konusmacilar Nijerya ve bircok Afrika ulkesinin bu gibi nedenlerden dolayi kadin ve seks ticareti icin hedef ulkeler olarak goruldugunden bahsettiler. Bunun sonucu olarak ise bircok Afrika ulkesinde HIV/AIDS ve ruhsal hastaliklarin son zamanlarda hizla yayilmakta oldugunun ve bu durum karsinda en kisa zamanda gerekli tedbirlerin alinmasinin onemine dikkat cekildi.

Bir sonraki oturumda Gurcistan Kadin Merkezinden Ia Verulashvili soz aldi. Sayin Verulashvili Gurcistan'da etnik gruplarin topluma entegre olmakta zorluk cektiklerini, bu durumun arkasinda yatan nedenin ise bircok etnik grubun resmi dili etkili olarak konusamamalari oldugunu belirtti. Bu nedenle bircok kadinin var olan haklarinin farkinda olmadiklarini ve bu durumun toplumda siddet olaylarinin artmasinda onemli faktorlerden biri oldugunu belirtti. Bu durumu ortadan kaldirmak icin Gurcistan Kadin Merkezi' nin etnik gruplari bilgilendirmek adina kadina karsi siddetin onlenmesi icin gerekli olan yasalarin resmi dil'den etnik gruplarin dillerine ceviri islerini gonullu olarak ustlendiklerini vurguladi. Kadina karsi siddetin onlenmesindeki en etkili yollarin sivil toplum kuruluslari, medya ve genc katilimcilar arasindaki bagi guclendirmek oldugunu belirten sayin Verulashvili bu misyonu gerceklestirmek icin Gurcistan' da aktif olarak rol oynadiklarini soyledi.

Feedback on CSW Conference

The Commission on the Status of Women conference is an event that not just gathering many NGOs around the world to share their best practices, issues and challenges in their area of works but it also gave a great opportunity for the NGOs to socialize and network that is very important for implementing their activities as well.

After attended a few sessions in CSW I found it is very interesting that the NGOs from different countries shared their frameworks, strategies and approaches that they have used to overcome the gender base violence and promote gender equality in their countries. However I found that among those NGOs that presented their works did not provide training to women or young girls on the First Aid training or self defend to protect themselves from rape, violence and basic treatment after injury. According to the presentations from different NGOs, there are many cases that women were injure, raped, attempted to rape, and so on therefore I think it is very important to provide the young girls and women where there is  a high risk of sexual abuses, domestic violence and rape so that they can have an immediate protection skill for example using first aid kits and self defense.

I think that having CSW conference is a great idea however it could have done better to improve the event to be more organized and meaningful. For example it would be better if the organizer could find the way to bring more attention of the participants during the session and keep them in their seat until the session finish. I also think that it would be better if the organizer of the event could find the way to make the event more interesting and set up the rule to make the event be more organized and respectful by the participants.

Женщина отличия

Привет всем,

Вчера я имелa возможность присутствовать на церемонии награды Женщина отличия, которая состоялась в Постоянном представительстве Республики Казахстан при Организации Объединенных Наций. Это было особенно интересно для меня, так как я международная студенткa из Казахстанa в университете Лихай.

Я приexaлa в Постоянное представительство Республики Казахстан в 6 часов вечера и я былa очень радa встретиться с представителями НПО, которые увлечены темой предотвращения всех форм насилия в отношении женщин. Присутствовали более 350 участников!

Я хотелa сказать, что, присутствуя на церемонии я также узналa, что приемы и параллельныe мероприятия дают возможности  для представителей различных международных неправительственных организаций встретиться друг с другом и обсудить некоторые идеи неофициально. Таким образом, я имелa возможность встретиться с представителями американских НПО из Калифорнии, Флориды и международные делегации из Нигерии и Великобритании. Из наших разговоров я понялa, что вопросы гендерного неравенства являются глобальными. Они касаются Соединенных Штатов и Великобритании.

Вы можете найти более подробную информацию о премии Женщинa отличия  по этой ссылке: http://www.ngocsw.org/woman-of-distinction