On 7 December, during an online webinar for the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, four nations – Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, the Democratic

Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone – released a joint statement calling for the creation, adoption and implementation of a new Optional Protocol on violence against women and girls to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) based on General Recommendation 35.

‘As we embark on the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, we express our collective alarm at the increase in violence against women and girls across the globe,’ said the Honorable Samantha Marshall, Minister for Social Transformation, Human Resource Development and Youth and Gender Affairs for Antigua and Barbuda, reading from the statement.

The joint statement detailed the pandemic of violence occurring around the world and issued an urgent appeal to all UN Member states to support the creation of the optional pr
otocol.

In a video statement, H.E Ambassador Mr. Paul Empole, Democratic Republic of Congo, noted that in 2022 on average, more than 133 women and girls were killed every day by a member of their family.

‘Violence against women and girls must end and it must happen now,’ he said. ‘We have waited too long and during this time, impunity sets in and diversi?es to the detriment of all these women and girls who are killed.’

The nations’ call was supported and echoed by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Ms. Reem Alsalem, and two former special rapporteurs, Ms. Dubravka Šimonovic ( 2015 – 2021) and Ms. Rashida Manjoo ( 2009 – 2015). The three special rapporteurs issued a joint statement urging UN Member States to strongly consider adopting an Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

‘We believe it would be a timely and effective way of advancing gender equality and non-discrimination, of ending violence and achieving greater accountability and justice for the crimes comm
itted against women and girls,’ said Ms. Alsalem during the event. ‘History has shown that the lack of a universally accepted legal framework continues to be a stumbling block. We need one that explicitly de?nes and spells out the various forms of violence against women from an international perspective that criminalizes it and that sets out prevention and protection measures, and that does so in a binding way.’

‘Real gender equality and women empowerment cannot take place in violent contexts,’ said H.E. Ambassador Shara Duncan Villalobos, Costa Rica, during the webinar. ‘The promise of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind cannot be ful?lled without putting an end to violence against women and girls. We believe that it’s time to generate the necessary momentum and put the issue of violence against women in the international agenda as a priority.’

The ambassadors and special rapporteurs called for civil society – women human rights defenders, women-led organizations and survivors – to be
an integral and equal part of the process of creating an optional protocol.

The joint statements mark a crucial, necessary and signi?cant step forward toward gender equality and eradicating violence against women and girls.

Joint Statement by the Core Group of Friends of a new Optional Protocol to CEDAW to eradicate violence against women and girls

As we embark on the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, we express our collective alarm at the increase in violence against women and girls across the globe.

Reports abound on the recent rise of sexual violence taking place as a result of war and con?ict. Incidents of violence against women and girls have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. New forms of violence, such as online violence and technology-enabled violence, have become widespread. Estimates suggest that as many as 73 percent of women experience online violence. Levels of domestic violence remain high in every country in the world. Every 11 minutes, a woman is killed by her p
artner or a family member. Each climate catastrophe is followed by higher levels of multiple forms of violence perpetrated on women and girls.

We know, however, that con?ict, climate change, and public health emergencies exacerbate violence, but they do not cause it. Violence against women and girls is entrenched in global norms, in every nation.

We therefore issue our urgent appeal to UN Member States to join the call for the creation, adoption, and implementation of a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) dedicated to eradicating violence against women and girls.

We stand ready to work with all UN Member States ready to deliver lives free from violence for every woman and girl everywhere.

The Honorable Samantha Marshall, Minister for Social Transformation, Human Resource Development and Youth and Gender Affairs, Antigua and Barbuda

H.E. Mr. Christian Guillermet Fernández, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Costa Ric
a to the United Nations

H.E. Mrs. Shara Duncan Villalobos, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Costa Rica to the United Nations

H.E. Mr. Paul Empole Losoko Efambe, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations

H.E. Dr. Lansana Gberie, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, Geneva

Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls

Statement by current and former Special Rapporteurs on violence against women, its causes and consequences*

Now is the time for an optional protocol to CEDAW on violence against women and girls

We, the undersigned current and former Special Rapporteurs on violence against women, its causes and consequences call on States to strongly consider the adoption of an optional protocol on violence against women to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

According to UN Women, globa
lly, an estimated 736 million women-almost one in three-have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life (30 per cent of women aged 15 and older). This figure does not include sexual harassment. The rates of depression, anxiety disorders, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV are higher in women who have experienced violence compared to women who have not, as well as many other health problems that endure after the violence has ended. In most instances, violence against women is perpetrated by current or former husbands or intimate partners.

Globally, women and girls continue to be subjected to femicide, or gender-related killings. According to the joint UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women report on femicide, nearly 89,000 women were killed intentionally in 2022 – the highest yearly number recorded in the past two decades.

CEDAW and the committee monitoring its implementation (hereafter t
he CEDAW Committee) have played an important role in ensuring that the term discrimination against women implicitly covers violence against women. In its General Recommendation 19 of 1992, the CEDAW Committee first clearly framed violence against women as a form and manifestation of gender-based discrimination, that is used to subordinate and oppress women. It unequivocally brought such violence outside of the private sphere and into the realm of human rights. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) was established in the same vein. General Recommendation 19 was superseded by General Recommendation 35, which was developed in cooperation with the SRVAW mandate, and in which the Committee elaborated on gender-based violence, recognizing it clearly as a norm of international customary law. The committee has also examined the degree to which States have advanced in the prevention and response to gender-based violence against women. The CEDAW Committee u
pdated its General Recommendations based on the need to establish measures for combatting and preventing violence against women, in line with its jurisprudence and monitoring. However, while the General Recommendations provide authoritative interpretations of CEDAW and guidance for States parties on the implementation of their obligations under the Convention, the much-needed improvements in law and in practice to address violence against women at the national level, have yet to take effect.

Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls

Similarly, we further acknowledge the importance and the impact of specific treaties that were adopted regionally with the objective of preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. Collectively, they have gone a long way in defining the different forms of violence that all women and girls may experience as well as seek accountability and redress for women and girls who are survivors of violence. We call on States to ratify these trea
ties where applicable; and to apply their provisions robustly. Furthermore, regional human rights instruments and mechanisms that are tailored to the needs and realities of the region continue to be vital for advancing gender equality, non-discrimination and accountability.

Nevertheless, history has shown that the lack of a universally accepted legal framework that explicitly defines and spells out the various forms of violence against women, criminalizes it, sets out prevention and protection measures and entitles victims to reparations, continues to be a principal stumbling block that must be overcome. While women and girls have long faced discrimination, violence, persecution on intersecting grounds, including on the grounds of sex and gender, these realities have been aggravated by the onset of additional global challenges, including among others, the COVID-19 crisis, the proliferation of conflict, and climate change. Furthermore, women are being subjected to new and emerging forms of violence rooted in
misogyny and patriarchy, exercised online and offline and negatively impacting all spheres of life thereby not only affecting their lives, safety, dignity, and freedom, but their equal and full participation in society as a whole.

We therefore believe that a global treaty dedicated to ending gender-based violence against women would constitute a timely and effective way of advancing gender equality and non-discrimination, ending violence and achieving greater accountability and justice for crimes committed against women and girls. To ensure that minimum global standards on women’s rights are not further compromised, but are upheld and strengthened, it would be essential for this global treaty to be attached to CEDAW as an optional protocol, whereby it would provide an explicit legally binding roadmap on the measures needed to combat and prevent violence against women, and trigger much needed changes at the national level to secure every woman’s right to live a life free from violence.

We welcome the interes
t expressed by some States in devising such a protocol, call on other States to follow suit, and invite United Nations Member States, together with the CEDAW Committee and other regional and international human rights mechanisms addressing discrimination and violence against women and girls (EDVAW platform), as well as other relevant actors, particularly women human rights defenders and women-led organizations, to embark on a formal process of reflection on the detailed content and objective of such a future treaty. We stand ready to support such a process with our expertise and drive.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon