Quiet Mountain Essays
Copyright©,2004
Remembering This Year's International Women's Day
(8 March 2004)
by
Chineze J. Onyejekwe, PhD
Abstract
This year's International Women’s Day was marked by concrete actions to improve the plight and preserve the dignity of women both
in times of war and peace. This paper analyzes the activities marking this year’s International Women’s Day. Links are made between
the major themes of “Gender-based Violence” (GBV) and “HIV/AIDS”, which dominated these activities. Also analyzed, is the role of
the United Nations, as well as individual activists, in tackling these problems.
March 8 2004 was celebrated as this year’s International Women’s Day, an idea that first arose at the turn of
the century. Though a symbolic occasion to pay tribute to women around the globe, this year’s International
Women’s Day was dominated by the problem of VAW [violence against women] and related consequences
such as HIV/AIDS. The reasons are many. Around the world, for example, at least one in every three
women, or up to one billion women, have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in their
lifetime. That is, in the home and in the community, in times of war and peace, women are beaten, raped,
mutilated and killed with impunity (PAHO 2003; Amnesty Internal 2001; Amnesty International, Press
Release, 5 March 2004). Studies also show that the most pervasive form of gender-based violence [GBV] is
committed against a woman by her intimate partner (Amnesty USA 2003).
Realizing these problems, in adopting the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against
Women, the [U.N.] General Assembly (in 1993) defines violence against women as “any act of gender-
based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to
women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public
or private life” (Article 1).
Article 2 of the Declaration also states that violence against women includes, but is not limited to: violence in
the family, violence in the general community, and violence perpetrated or condoned by the state.
Such acts of gender-based violence contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS, for example, through rape. Most
of the time these abuses go widely unreported, and few countries have special training for the police, judicial
and medical staff to deal with VAW-related cases. This is especially so with regards to rape, the most usual
form of sexual violence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO 2002), sexual violence is
pervasive throughout the world. It is associated with unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Worldwide, half of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS are women
(UNAIDS Release, 8 March 2004).
This is, however, greatly underreported due to the stigma attached to it, as well as the cultural and gender
norms that restrict women’s sexuality, preventing them from availing themselves of information on sexual and
reproductive health. This underreporting is also due to women's economic vulnerability through lack of
education, employment and economic opportunities; inequitable inheritance laws; and also, the unwillingness
of governments to publicly discuss the empowerment of women in gender relations and sexual practices.
(Amnesty International 2004).
Women constitute about half the world’s population, so the high rate of women suffering HIV/AIDS has
serious socio-economic implications for development, as it affects mostly young women in their economically
productive years. Women's HIV/AIDS rates therefore exert a heavy toll on the capacity of a country's health
system to cope with the provision of adequate care and support of sufferes. It also affects a country’s
productivity, in that it [HIV] results in absenteeism and deaths.
Both violence against women and HIV/AIDS are extreme manifestations of gender inequity. Consequently,
gender equality and the empowerment of women have been the fundamental elements in the reduction of the
vulnerability of women and girls to both gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS, as well as in the protection of
women’s human rights. In this regard, few causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more
intense and widespread support than campaigns to promote gender equality and protect the equal rights of
women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945 was, for example, the first
international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the
Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed upon strategies, standards,
programmes, and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, as well as the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action (1993: 33), has also helped to ensure that all human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights. The principles and objectives of these Declarations state that “the human rights of women
and the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.”
These rights are all enshrined in the “rights-based” approach to development currently dominating the
International, and national major responses to global issues, especially that of gender inequality. The principle
behind this approach is autonomy, of which the various aspects include: physical, which involves the full
control of one’s sexuality; socio-cultural, which implies the right to an independent identity and self-respect;
and economic, which is the sense of having access to and control over the means of production.
These basic rights guarantee individual freedom and enhance human development. In his 1999 work titled:
Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen shows that freedom is the most efficient means of realizing
people’s welfare. To achieve these freedoms, a large number of laws and legal documents worldwide are,
even though not binding, based on the principles and objectives set out in the 1948 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. These rights are aimed at ensuring that all human beings are born free and equal, both in
dignity and rights, which is all enshrined in the ’rights-based’ approach to development. These concerns are
also all enshrined in the ’rights-based’ approach to development, which currently dominates the International,
and national major responses to global issues such as GBV.
Many countries have cited, or included in their basic laws or constitutions, provisions of these United Nations
laws regarding women’s welfare, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women, the General Assembly (in 1993),
although problems often arise from their implementation. In addition to the above efforts, many organizations
and activists have collaborated, and still are collaborating, to arrive at this new level of action and
commitment (UNIFEM 2004).
To mark the occasion, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for example, launched an
operational manual “Addressing the Needs of Women Affected by Armed Conflict: An ICRC Guidance
Document’.
In addition to this, the four global conferences on women (1975-1995) -- Mexico City, Mexico (1970);
Copenhagen, Denmark (1980) Nairobi, Kenya (1985), and Beijing, China (1995)-- not only strengthened
the growing international women’s movement, but have also helped make the commemoration [International
women's Day] a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the
political and economic process.
In this regard, Gillian Caldwell, an activist and the executive director of the nongovernmental organization,
comes to mind. Gillian Caldwell believes in using the media as a way to leverage issues and try to generate
change on a human rights level. Caldwell’s 1997 video called “Bought and Sold”, was produced and
directed by Gillian Caldwell, and released by the Global Survival Network, a human and animal rights
nonprofit in Washington, D.C. At great personal risk, Caldwell and a partner went undercover in Russia with
video cameras, setting up a dummy escort service, to document how organized crime controls a multi-million
dollar business in trafficking women and girls for sexual slavery (Asjylyn Loder, Women’s Enews, 1 March
2004).
According to Loder, the film received widespread media attention from major news outlets such as ABC,
CNN, BBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The coverage provoked an outcry against
trafficking for sexual slavery and prompted legislators in the United States to pass the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act of 2000, which gives victims of trafficking, who are willing to testify against their trafficker, an
opportunity to legally remain in the U.S.
In 2001, Caldwell helped produce “Operation Fine Girl: Rape as a Weapon of War”, which
documented the systematic use of rape against women and girls during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. Sierra
Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked Caldwell to produce a follow-up video that will become
part of the nation’s official effort to promote a national dialogue on the subject.
With the International Women’s Day assuming a new global dimension for women in developed and
developing countries alike, one can say that it was appropriately celebrated with more than words and
gestures.
References
Amnesty International (2001) Broken Bodies, Shattered Minds: Torture and Ill Treatment of Women. First
published in 2001 by Amnesty International Publications, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X ODW, United
Kingdom Publication date: 8 March 2001
_________ (2004) “Its in Our Hands: Stop Violence Against Women.” Available on the Internet at: http:
//web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact770012004
Loder, Asjylyn (2004) “Caldwell Focuses Video on Human Rights Abuses.” Women’s Enews, 1 March
2004. Available on the Internet at: http://www.womenenews.com/article.
cfm/dyn/aid/1733/context/jounalistofthemonth
PAHO (2003) Violence against Women: The Health Sector Responds. Available on the Internet at: http:
//www.paho.org/English/DPM/GPP/GH/VAWhealthsector.htm
Sen, Amartya (1999) Development as Freedom, New York: Knopf.
Violence against Women and AIDS. UNAIDS, 2004.
UNIFEM (2004) “Not a Minute More: Ending Violence against Women.” Available on the Internet at: http:
//web.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGACT770342004
United Nations Cyberschoolbus (4/402) Website: Http://www.un.
org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/humanrights/about/understanding.asp
WHRnet (2003) Violence against Women. Available on the Internet at:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-VAW.html
WHO (2002) The World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva. Available on the Internet at: http://www.
who.int/violence_injury_prevention
Contributor's Notes...
Chineze J. Onyejekwe is a sociologist writing from Concord, New Hampshire, USA. She has contributed to
Journals such as Parallax: A Journal of Ethics and Globalization as well as Nebula, an international
academic journal of interdisciplinary cultural studies . She is currently involved in broad based women
empowerment issues.
Clipart by Grace de Jesus-Sievert, courtesy Isis Int'l.
