ASUNCION, May 19 (IPS) - Counting cases of machista or sexist violence separately shows that "what is happening is practically a genocide, and a hidden one at that," says Susana Chiarotti, coordinator of the Committee of Experts on Violence (CEVI) which is following up on implementation of the Convention of Belém do Pará.The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, adopted in the Brazilian city of Belém do Pará in 1994 by the 34 members of the Organisation of American States (OAS), defines all forms of gender-based violence as human rights abuses, and stipulates binding measures to eradicate it. Chiarotti, an Argentine lawyer and long-time activist in the regional women's rights movement, is also the coordinator of the non-governmental Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women's Rights (CLADEM), which is active in 17 countries.
MADRID, May 16 (IPS) - While domestic violence in Spain is becoming more and more visible, the country's laws and justice system are proving weak instruments to fight the phenomenon, according to experts from different fields who are demanding further legal reforms to address the issue.The government of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who took office in 2004, passed a Law on Gender Equality, appointed women to key positions in the administration, created special courts and issued drastic instructions to crack down on domestic violence. But the violence continues: between 2001 and 2007, 425 women were killed in domestic violence cases in Spain, with 71 of the murders occurring in 2007 alone. And this year, 32 women were murdered by May 12. Feb. 27 was a particularly black day, with four women killed. Between the creation of the special courts for violence against women in 2005 and the end of last year, 69,400 men were prosecuted and 48,971 convicted. In 2007 alone, 126,293 complaints were filed. But the courts are snowed under with cases and are short-staffed, so prosecutions drag on for years.
New York -- Women's rights activists, senior military figures and top United Nations officials met in New York this week to discuss what the world body's former humanitarian chief Jan Egeland described as "one of the biggest conspiracies of silence in history" - the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The talks focused particularly on the lack of female involvement in peace negotiations, and on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1820, passed last year, which for the first time acknowledged the use of sexual violence in conflict as a deliberate tactic of war.
The talks focused particularly on the lack of female involvement in peace negotiations, and on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1820, passed last year, which for the first time acknowledged the use of sexual violence in conflict as a deliberate tactic of war.
