By Miranda Jolicoeur (Guest Contributor)
The International Violence Against Women Act, commonly referred to as I-VAWA, is the first attempt of its kind to call attention to violence against women in the public and private spheres around the world. For the most part international law focuses on the state, known as the public sphere, rather than the community, family, or individual, known as the private sphere. I-VAWA is a piece of U.S. legislation which follows United Nations’ policies, guidelines, and protocols which address the rights of women and girls, but it incorporates U.S. foreign policy and an international aid focus on violence against women and civil society and grassroots solutions.
I-VAWA, is an international version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a piece of domestic legislation designed to combat violence against women in the United States. Former Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) drafted and introduced the I-VAWA legislation in 2007. Last year, Congress adjourned before voting on it. On February 4, 2010, Senators John Kerry (D-MA); Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME); and Susan Collins (R-ME); and Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Ted Poe (R-TX) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) re-introduced the legislation to the current Congress.
What is unique about this piece of legislation is that while it focuses on elevating the international status of women and protecting them from violence, it also outlines a comprehensive strategy to combat violence against women. If implemented, I-VAWA would centralize and elevate departments handling women’s issues within the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allowing for greater cooperation, focus, and funding. The bill also outlines a five-year strategic plan aimed at combating violence against women in ten to twenty countries through federal funding. These funds would go to local and indigenous model programs working on issues related to violence against women.
The purpose of I-VAWA is not to pressure other countries to view feminism from a Western perspective, but rather to fund effective local programs in the country of choice. Types of programs which may receive funding through I-VAWA, although this list is not by any means exclusive, include: empowering women through microfinance; rule of law reform; training assistance programs; military and police trainings; programs focusing on changing norms about gender; and programs in the health sector.
I-VAWA is important and unique because it tackles not only public sphere violence against women, but also highlights private sphere violence against women which is often hard to call attention to around the world because of the personal nature of the family. The public sphere pushes the issue of violence against women into the private sphere where it is not publically condemned or criminalized and without punishment or shame it becomes condoned by both the state and society. While there are debates as to whether feminism is universal around the world, one thing is true: violence against women is always a human rights violation and physical and mental violence against women should be condemned in all countries.
Violence against women has larger links to the progress and fate of the world. It is a health epidemic and has links to the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Governments and researchers have drawn links between nations with poor women’s rights records and terrorism. Additionally, violence against women affects generations of both women and men that bear witness to the beatings and mental abuse of their grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and sisters. It slows economic development and harms families and communities because females and males cannot progress to their full potential when surrounded by violence against more than half of the population.
I-VAWA is very important in the global fight against gender-based violence. However, some have argued that I-VAWA discriminates against men because it does not include their gender in the legislation. In response to this it is important to understand why I-VAWA does not and can not include men. It is not because men do not also suffer from violence, but because the violence women experience is rampant and often ignored. Furthermore, women are targeted and violated solely because they are women. Extreme inequality between males and females continues to exist around the world because the institution of patriarchy continues to thrive world-wide. While it is important to recognize violence against men and boys, violence against women and girls deserves its own special recognition and it warrants the acknowledgment that it is a widespread and serious issue which states and the international community cannot ignore. Therefore to try to group violence against women into a category with all other violence against human beings only seeks to dilute the problems that are unique to females around the world.
I-VAWA is special because it advocates for the use of holistic community programming which can have an affect on society’s view of women and violence against them. This may not happen within a five-year timeframe, but it is a start. Additionally, the creation of important high-level offices which focus on women and the discrimination they face world-wide is an important recognition of the problems women face around the world from such horrors as acid attacks, sexual slavery, domestic violence, and genocidal rape.
I-VAWA should pass because recognizing and combating violence against women is not only an important human rights issue, but it is also a health issue and an economic development issue. Maybe by explaining that violence against women not only harms the minds and bodies of women and those that bear witness to the violence, but also depletes the global wallet, more ears will listen.
More information and background on I-VAWA can be found here.
Miranda Jolicoeur is an International Liaison/ Research Analyst at the National Institute of Justice/U.S. Dept. of Justice (contractor). She is also an Associate Professor at the American Military University. She graduated with a J.D./M.A. in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC in 2008. She has worked extensively on human rights issues addressing violence against women in Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East. Please note that the views she expresses in this piece are her views alone and are not to be construed as the views of her employers.
