VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. This landmark treaty was the first convention to comprehensively address women's rights within political, cultural, economic, social and family life. In numerous countries, the treaty has become a proven and effective tool for improving equity. As of October 1999, 165 countries have ratified the Convention. The U.S. is the lone industrialized democracy and only one of only a handful of countries yet to ratify CEDAW.

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO CONDEMN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND TAKE CONCRETE STEPS TO ELIMINATE IT

U.S. Law

• condemns violent crimes motivated by gender and creates a civil rights remedy for victims of those crimes.¹
  
  
• provides funding for training law enforcement, prosecutors and judges and advances efforts toward ensuring that public institutions, charged with protecting women against discrimination, are effective.²

How CEDAW Would Help
Ratification of CEDAW will reinforce Congress' commitment to eliminate discrimination against women in the form of gender-based violence. "[Female] victims of rape, domestic violence, and many other crimes are not selected at random,…rather, they are exposed to terror, brutality, serious injury and even death because of their sex."³

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO CONDEMN THE MISCONCEPTIONS THAT ONE SEX IS INFERIOR OR SUPERIOR TO THE OTHER

U.S. Law⁴
The law has prohibited acts of violence from an intimate-partner, acquaintance or stranger in many settings; their homes, school campuses, public transit systems and parks.

How CEDAW Would Help
Although the law provides protection, half of all women, despite religious, ethnic, racial, economic, educational backgrounds will experience physical violence in an intimate relationship. 95% of domestic violence victims are women.⁵ CEDAW would help eliminate the pattern of violent behavior embedded in the American culture.

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO GRANT WOMEN THE EQUAL RIGHT TO ACQUIRE, CHANGE OR RETAIN THEIR NATIONALITY

U.S. Law

• provides battered immigrant women can access shelter services and obtain orders of protection from abusive partners.⁶
  
  
• gives an immigrant victim the right to self-petition for status as a legal resident of the United States, independent of the battering spouse's support or consent.

How CEDAW Would Help
CEDAW would ensure a remedy against the most powerful threats abusers use against a battered immigrant---the threat of deportation.⁷ Abusers frequently threaten battered immigrants with deportation if they complain, threaten to leave, or call the police or others for help…Regardless of their actual immigration status, many battered immigrants believe that they will be deported if they seek help.⁸

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS

U.S. Law

• provides for a national study on campus sexual assault that examines the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of existing policies to protect female students.⁹
  
  
• provides for rape prevention and education programs for school age children.¹⁰
  
  
• provides for the design and implementation of four model domestic violence programs for students in primary, middle, secondary and post-secondary schools.¹¹

How CEDAW Would Help

• Sexual harassment lowers attendance, causes female students to feel frightened at school and less confident in their abilities.¹² Abusers inflict injuries, restrict study, childcare, economic resources and transportation. Ratification of CEDAW would reinforce national commitment to address these issues.

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF WOMEN LIVING IN RURAL AREAS

U.S. Law

• provides funding for a toll-free 24-hour nationally accessible telephone hotline which provides counseling and referral services to victims of domestic violence.¹³
  
  
• provides development of cooperative efforts to investigate and prosecute incidents of domestic violence in Indian tribes and rural areas and encourages the development of collaborative treatment, counseling and community programs.¹⁴

How CEDAW Would Help
Victims of domestic violence living in rural areas would have access to legal and social services. Poverty, geographic isolation, lack of transportation, limited educational opportunity, lack of anonymity and traditional attitudes contribute to insufficient legal and social services.¹⁵ Only 44% of all rural counties have full-time prosecutors.¹⁶

CEDAW CALLS FOR STATES TO ENSURE WOMEN FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT WITH FULL PROTECTION OF THE LAW IN ANY STATE

U.S. Law

• gives full force and credit to any protection order across state, tribal and territorial boundaries and are given full recognition in other state courts.

How CEDAW Would Help
Victims of domestic violence are often limited in their ability to travel because protection orders issued in one state are not always enforced by other states.¹⁷ A woman running for her life must keep track of the protection order and produce it each time she calls the police for help.¹⁸ The failure to enforce protection orders is perhaps the weakest link in the legal safeguards available to women.¹⁹ Ratification will reinforce U.S. commitment to ending violence against women not matter where they live or travel.

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FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT THE CO-CHAIRS OF THE WORKING GROUP ON THE WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY:
Pat Rengel, Amnesty International, U.S.A.
tel: (202) 675-8577, fax: (202) 546-7142, E-Mail: prengel@aiusa.org,
Website: http://www.amnestyusa.org/commit
Kit Cosby, Bahá'ís of the U.S.
tel: (202) 833-8990, fax: (202) 833-8988, E-Mail: usnsa-oea@usbnc.org,
Website: http://www.us.bahai.org/cedaw

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¹Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 13981 (1994).

²Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 13981 (1994).

³Women and Violence: Hearing Before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 101st Cong., 2d Sess. 57 (1990)(statement of Helen Neuborne).

⁴Violence Against Women Act of 1994, P.L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 13981 (1994).

⁵Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Intimates (NCJ-1492259), November 1994.

⁶VAWA Subtitle G § 40701.

⁷Leslye E. Orloff & Naomi Dave, Identifying Barriers: Survey of Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence in the D.C. Metropolitan Area, Poverty And Race, July-August 1997 at 7.

⁸American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, Representing Battered Immigrants: Applying the VAWA Immigration Provision, forthcoming publication Fall 1999.

⁹Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1920 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 14012 (1994).

¹⁰Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1920 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 14012 (1994).

¹¹Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1920 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 14012 (1994).

¹²American Association of University Women, The AAUW Survey on Sexual Harassment in America's Schools (1993).

¹³Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1920 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 14012 (1994).

¹⁴Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) P.L. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1920 (1994), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 14012 (1994).

¹⁵Rural Justice Center and Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Rural Outreach Manual.

¹⁶Rural Justices Center, Not in My County: Rural Courts and Domestic Violence, pg. 22, December 1991.

¹⁷Byron Johnson and Neil Websdale, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Full Faith and Credit: Passport to Safety, pg. 161 (October 1997).

¹⁸National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, Statistics Packet, 3rd Edition (partially updated January 1997) pg. 234 citing Michael Dowd, "How We Batter Abused Women," Newsday, February 1, 1991.

¹⁹National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, Statistics Packet, 3rd Edition (partially updated January 1997) pg. 234 citing Schmitt, "Family Violence: Protection Improves But Not Prevention," N.Y. Times, January 17, 1989, at B1.