Article.
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and all Ugandans recall that the year 2015 marks the 24th year of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, initiated in 1991 and internationally coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership.
As we mark this year’s events under the theme: “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All”, the EOC joins the rest of the world to condemn Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the strongest terms.
Gender-based violence’ and ‘violence against women’ are terms that are often used interchangeably as most gender-based violence is inflicted by men on women and girls. However, it is important to retain the ‘gender-based’ aspect of the concept as this highlights the fact that violence against women is an expression of power inequalities between women and men. The terms are used interchangeably as it is always understood that gender-based violence means violence against women and vice versa.
For emphasis, Gender-based violence involves men and women, in which the female is usually the target, and is derived from unequal power relationships between men and women. Violence is directed specifically against a woman because she is a woman or affects women disproportionately. It includes, but is not limited to, physical, sexual, and psychological harm. The most pervasive form of gender-based violence is abuse of a woman by intimate male partners.
This form of violence includes: battering, intimate partner violence (including marital rape, sexual violence, and dowry/bride price-related violence, feticide, sexual abuse of female children in the household, honour crimes, early marriage, forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM)/cutting and other traditional practices harmful to women, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in school and elsewhere, commercial sexual exploitation, and trafficking of girls and women.
In 1995, the U.N. expanded the understanding of GBV to include: violations of the rights of women in situations of armed conflict, including systematic rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy; forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coerced or forced use of contraceptives; and prenatal sex selection and female infanticide. It further recognized the particular vulnerabilities of women belonging to minorities: the elderly and the displaced; indigenous, refugee, and migrant communities; women living in impoverished rural or remote areas, or in detention.