In the 2019 Prize Brochure she is presented in the following way:

Adjoe Akabo is a pioneer of the organization of women in her country where she founded in 1990 the “Women’s association La Colombe” (The Dove) to bring immediate effective solutions to the different challenges faced by rural women: food insecurity, poverty, major health issues, illiteracy, sexual violence and sexism,the high school drop-out rate among young girls, lack of access to land, hence to credit, i.e. financial dependency on the men. In the year 2000, Adjoa gives up the security of her teaching job to devote herself entirely to her work with women and young girls. A training center for women had been opened in 1997 in the town of Vo Koutime. Over 700 girls and young women victims of various forms of violence and sexual exploitation have been trained there in a variety of fields such as dressmaking, hairdressers, cooking,dying and others. Alongside these areas, all the students received additional training in basic notions of entrepreneurship, leadership, literacy, etc. Parallel to this training, the traditional village chieftains were informed and sensitized to the rights of women in terms of land ownership and inheritance laws.

Her work contributes to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals-Agenda 2030 Target #1, #2, #4 & #5

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Women’s Comfort Corner Foundation conducted a Monitoring and Mentoring session on 02^nd of January 2019 – 03^rd of January, 2019 at Epworth High School, Harare. The purpose was to assess the impact of WCCF training programme conducted in November – December 2018 during the sixteen days of activism. There were 20 peer educators from various towns. The Monitoring and Mentoring session was facilitated by Mildred Wudebwe. The rights stated included, the right to prompt provision of birth certificate, the right to family and parental care, the right to have a name, the right not to be forced to enter into political activities among others. The Peer educators are reporting cases of abuse to the police thereby helping access to justice in the community.

From 02 January 2019 – 12 January 2019 peer educators had reported 43 cases of child abuse. Culture and religion may violate one’s rights by pledging a girl child to placate the ancestors of the offended person. The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe ruled in favour of banning child marriages particularly children under 18 in 2016 but to date, the law has not been aligned with the Constitution. The delay in aligning the Constitution may be associated with the fact that men usually have relationships with very young girls and usually get away with the violations. As Women’s Comfort Corner Foundation we have not been daunted and continue pursuing the matter of aligning the child marriages ruling with the Constitution. On the issue of prostitutes who have increased dramatically as the country continues to deteriorate, it was encouraging to note that there was a consensus that every person has right to be protected by the law despite the fact that they are promiscuous. Generally, the perception is that if one is a prostitute the issue of sexual violence is not a big issue.

Ms Rita Marque Mbatha assisted a girl who was barely 14 to get justice from the Rotten Row Criminal Court. The child was brutally raped and the Senior Magistrate incredulously sentenced the family man, a rapist to community service. The perpetrator had no permanent address and disappeared but was seen by the uncle of the rape victim whilst selling his wares and immediately alerted our organisation who in turn alerted the police. The Prosecutor General’s Office had lodged an appeal at the High Court at our instigation and the man had since been sentenced and in jail.

The education is being disseminated through poems, songs and drawings to the community members. The peer educators have requested WCCF to provide t-shirts, hats or uniforms so that they are visible in the society and most people can be confident in confiding various abuse issues to them.

On a sad note, Women’s Comfort Corner Foundation is experiencing the acute contamination of water at its premises. In violation of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the water from the wells and City Council boreholes are heavily polluted through leachate from industrial dumps by a local company. The adverse environmental and health effects of phosphoric acid abound. We usually assist more than 30 women on a daily basis but because of the water problem, we have reduced the number to ten. Women’s Comfort Corner Foundation has to buy water which is very expensive in order to keep the office open and continue assisting victims of sexual and domestic violence. We are unable to give temporary shelter to victims of abuse because of the ongoing environmental issue which has been reported to the authorities and is being constantly followed.

The Monitoring and Mentoring session was very successful and the participants managed to share various experiences in disseminating information on constitutional rights.

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Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations. In our world today violence against women and girls remains largely unreported due to impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it but also due to lack of political will by governments to implement relevant policies to help victims.

On the 25th of November every year we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the basis of resolution 54/134 of the General Assembly which invites governments, international organisations as well as NGOs to join together and organise activities designed to raise public awareness of the issue every year on that date.

I find raising awareness for one day too little. We must find other ways to commemorate the International Day.

The executive director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in her speech at the official commemoration of this day in New York City this year called for turning the struggle to end impunity to a global movement for accountability. This is a very good approach to the issue of violence against women.

IAW has for a couple of years now issued Declarations on Accountability by governments on issues that have to do with the gender equality and women’s human rights. The last IAW Declaration of 2018 is even more important because it refers to civil society, in particular women’s organisations and feminist groups, and the shrinking space they encounter which creates enormous difficulties for them to work.

The reason this is taking place is that CSOs are key players in holding governments to account to ensure their role as duty bearers for the fulfillment of human rights.

So, without a strong civil society, we cannot proceed with what the Executive Director of UN Women is calling for.

We should mobilize to work against overregulation of civil society organisations putting in place restrictions in their funding, taxation, membership registration and thus their functioning.

As the UN Executive Secretary is saying we should turn decades of difficult struggle to end impunity into tangible sisterhood that is getting stronger and telling perpetrators that time is up.

More importantly it is about building partnerships and changing the culture in our society that makes these violations possible and tolerated.

The independence of CSOs is a perquisite for the effective accountability of governments and for building a human rights and gender equality culture.

We have to mobilize to ensure that governments stop using symbolic policies and practices with limited impact as a substitute for the real political and economic commitments that are needed to overcome the structural barriers to eliminating violence against women and more generally the realization of women’s and girls’ human rights.

One way of demonstrating to governments their lack of effective policies and accountability is by gathering data that are comparable at the international level. To that effect I have to reiterate the call of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women who urges the worldwide adoption of femicide watches or gender related killings observatories, in order to collect, analyze and review data at the national, regional and global level.

These data concerning gender related killings would contribute to identifying existing failures of protection, boost preventive measures as well as tackle impunity of perpetrators.

The aim is to move in the direction of collection of comparable world data on femicide and towards the development of modalities of data collection and analysis. Such data could then be turned into femicide rates in order to enable states to objectively assess where they stand on the regional and global level to scale and to adopt actions needed to prevent many preventable deaths of women.

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Continuing the efforts for the advocacy of women rights, we launched a campaign under the overarching theme “Zero Tolerance – End Violence against women and girls ” reflecting the core principle of the transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Our WORK TO PREVENT GBV, in more than 42 Districts of Paksitan. In the past APWA supports interventions to combat gender-based violence includes confidential medical care, counseling, legal assistance and community-based action and awareness programs.

In collaboration with a number of civil society organizations, the association initiated a number of events to create awareness about violence against women. The activities include theatre performances, videos and speeches by survivors of violence, training and provision of legal aid, support for survivors of violence, distribution of pro-women laws booklets.

A social media campaign “agents of social change” involving men and children was the important intervention.

The campaign used the orange colour designated by the UNiTE campaign to symbolize a brighter future without violence.

The #MeToo, which was among the top trends on Twitter these days, also saw widespread outrage on different platforms during the campaign.

It is too early to assess whether the online movement would yield a permanent solution to the grave issue, women have embraced. Me Too is a ‘monumental’ slap on their assaulters. Too Late, Too annoyed, Too harassed over to #MeToo.

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We believe the elimination of violence can only be realized with the understanding that aggression against one woman is abuse against all women.  The individual cannot be separated from the community and therefore national epidemics of violence have a global impact. Whether actors are enablers, bystanders or bullies, each act of violence against women has active perpetrators and conspirators who must be held accountable for attempting to diminish the personhood of the divine feminine.

For this significant Canadian National Day of Remembrance and Action to eliminate Violence Against Women the CFUW is intentionally making connections to SDG #4, #5, #16 and #17 (However, connections to any other SDG may be implied).

This is the sixth feature in the series of nine Theme Days (Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, World Day to end Human Trafficking, International Literacy Day, International Day of the Girl Child, National Day of Remembrance of Violence Against Women – Canada, International Women’s Day, Earth Day, and 50/50 Day).  This initiative provides a critical opportunity to discuss the interconnectedness of the SDGs to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. We also aspire to highlight the intersectionality of women’s issues and the need to engage all stakeholders in the conversation.

The 2030 Agenda is for all, and achieving its goals requires action at all levels. In the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, contributors from diverse backgrounds have offered a perspective that we hope you can connect to and extend the conversation beyond your circle.

Cheryl Hayles, VP International Relations, Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), Regional VP North America, International Alliance of Women (IAW)

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It Has Been Twenty-Eight Years and What Has Changed?

Violence against women takes many forms: physical, mental, verbal, and sexual.  In 1989, 14 young women were murdered, an event now referred to as “The Montreal Massacre”.  At the time, the public expressed shock and outrage; something had to be done to prevent this type of thing from happening again.  But, what has really changed since then?  Not much apart from the fact that we now have a national day of remembrance.  During the 28 years since that event how many Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing? In most cases, authorities did not take the situation seriously.  How many victims of sexual assault have not come forward because they fear being victimized again by the system and even by court officials themselves? This kind of behaviour on the part of males, even ones in positions of great responsibility, has become normalized as their bragging of their actions has been dismissed as “just boy talk”.

While we do have that day of remembrance, nothing will change until men form a bigger part of the discussion and they are made to see how their actions have affected their women victims.

Valerie Hume, Member of the International Relations Committee, (CFUW) 

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We Remember December 6, 1989

Geneviève Bergeron, 21

Hélène Colgan, 23

Nathalie Croteau, 23

Barbara Daigneault, 22

Anne-Marie Edward, 21

Maud Haviernick, 29

Barbara Klueznick, 31

Maryse Laganière, 25

Maryse Leclair, 23

Anne-Marie Lemay, 22

Sonia Pelletier, 23

Michèle Richard, 21

Anne St-Arneault, 23

Annie Turcotte, 21

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Male violence against women knows no geographical boundaries, no age limit, no class distinctions, no race, nor cultural differences. It manifests itself in multiple forms and involves a wide variety of perpetrators that range from intimate partners and family members, work colleagues and social or community acquaintances to strangers and institutional actors such as police, health, professional teachers, and soldiers. Yet male violence against women is still invisible and the voices of women victims are still silenced.

Although equality between women and men is guaranteed in the constitution of 139 countries and territories all too often women are denied justice and protection from violence.

Impunity concerning perpetrators of acts of violence is the norm, even if these acts have to do with Femicide. Femicide is an extreme manifestation of violence against women as it has to do with killing women only because they are women. Such acts an ultimate act of violence which is experienced on a continuum of violence, while a lack of accountability for such crimes is the norm.

The discrimination and violence that are reflected in gender-related killings of women encompass structural, institutional, interpersonal, and individual factors. Thus, an understanding of gender killing requires taking into account the political, social and economic context within which it takes place. This includes male responses to women’s empowerment, the political, legal and societal reaction to such killings, the principle of the continuum of violence and patterns of structural discrimination and inequality that continue to form part of the reality of women’s lives.

What is the most important concerning impunity to acts of violence, in particular, femicide which has become a global concern, is that it compounds the effects of this violence as a mechanism of control.

When the state fails to hold the perpetrators accountable, impunity not only intensifies the subordination and powerlessness of the targets of violence, but also sends a message to society that male violence against women is both acceptable and inevitable.

This explains the reasons why violence continues to be one of the most pervasive global problems in the world.

The most important reason why there is no progress in dealing with this global pandemic of alarming proportions is that violence against women as stated in the Beijing platform Action of 1995 is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of women’s full advancement.

Male violence against women refers to a structural system of patriarchal values by which violence against women and girls is tolerated, legitimized and even trivialized. It aims at ensuring men domination over women, through different forms and levels of violence, in order to control women and girls, their bodies and their sexuality. It is part of a broader system of patriarchy, where men establish and keep on developing strategies to control all sectors of society thus disempowering women.

The prevention and eradication of male violence against women rests on addressing women’s inequality and patriarchy. Women’s inequality is both cause and consequence of male violence against women and vice versa. Male violence against women shapes women’s place in society. At the same time, inequality between women and men creates the conditions for male violence against women and legitimizes it.

The structure of capitalism which brings different forms of exploitation and oppression also fuels patriarchal structures and men’s domination over women as it exacerbates economic inequalities and discrimination.

This situation is deplorable more so because, in recent years, we have had some very positive developments. We now have a powerful tool to combat this scourge. This is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. This Convention is the first international legally binding instrument open to any country in the world to provide for a comprehensive set of measures to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. It recognizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and as a form of discrimination.

We all know that despite having strong instruments and analyses, we do not see change on the ground. We all know why. What is really needed is political will which is difficult to find unless it is a feminist political will and democratic processes. We need political will to accelerate implementation, change mentalities and ensure women’s and girls’ rights. The world community has agreed on new SDG’s, which comprise again a commitment to end violence against women. To transform this declaration into action, the UN system needs to play a bigger role and to hold member states accountable. The women’s organizations should be consulted at all levels and all steps and funded in a sustainable way. They should lobby governments for accountability on measures and policies adopted by them to combat this scourge.

Let us all, affiliate and associate organisations, members of the IAW, as well as individual members, try to hold governments accountable on their will to end male violence against women and girls.

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The meeting was videotaped and can be watched here

In his introductory remarks and responses to questions from the floor the Secretary General among other things stressed

• that there is a backlash not only where women’s issues are concerned, but in all fields
• that parity is essential in order for women to achieve empowerment, but it is a struggle as some men will lose their seats or positions
• that parity is the best way to overcome resistance
• that a road map is being prepared for the UN to ensure gender parity throughout the UN system by 2030
• that there is a shrinking space for civil society at the UN and in the world as such. Consequently he would like to launch a campaign raising awareness about how  working with civil society is the best way to govern
• that equality creates wealth and welfare
• that there must be zero tolerance to violence against women among UN staff including peacekeepers

During the meeting a document was handed over to the Secretary General. It has over 900 signatories from 85 countries. In the document it says among other things:

Excellency, we are waging a battle alongside your efforts, to achieve a peaceful and prosperous world, one in which all members of society have the opportunity to live a life with justice, human rights and dignity. While current financial and political trends continue to hamper our efforts, we draw courage and hope from our long-standing relationship with the United Nations. We recognize that strong mutual support has propelled substantial progress for girls and women of all ages.

Read the whole letter and see the signatories:
NGO letter to UN SG March 2017_group edited FINAL (2)

Charlotte Bunch, long time activist for women’s rights,  Funding Director and Senior Scholar at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University welcomed  the Secretary General hoping that this would be the first of many such meetings.

She continued:

Many of us were involved in UN Reform and the creation of UN Women, and women are among the most important supporters of the United Nations.

 We welcome you as a MAN who stated in the opening of CSW that: you “will stand up for women’s empowerment and gender equality.”    We take you at your word, and we will work with you & work to keep your feet to the fire.

We thank you for the initiatives you have already taken in that direction, —–such as the appointment of the top UN Posts of the 3 great women leaders here today with you;

-your recognition of the importance of women’s equality to achieving the SDGs and all UN goals, especially in peace and security. 

– We were pleased to learn that you met with local women’s projects in the Mathare slums in Kenya on International Women’s Day.  We see this as a Best Practice and hope you will make contacts with diverse women’s groups on all your trips around the world… to see both our daily realities and  the amazing activism of women for change taking place at the grass roots.

Today we hope to explore with you how we can break down barriers to gender equality and make faster progress on the commitments to women’s rights made by the UN.  This is especially crucial now – in a time of growing populism, racism and other forms of intolerant extremism with backlash against women’s gains, especially around reproductive and sexual rights.

As members of civil society  we have many questions to ask, but we all share the concern of shrinking space for our advocacy at the UN and nationally.   As you can see, we have a Chair with the sign “WHY is this Chair Empty” to symbolize all those who tried to come to the CSW, but could not because they were denied Visas to enter.  We ask that you work with us to ensure this does not happen again.

 We also want to ask you about how the UN can better assist in the Protection of Women Human Rights Defenders(WHRDs) … women facing many threats, violence & death as a result of their activism for women’s and other human rights.

Many women have sent statements and papers to you about our hopes for what you will do as SG toward a more Feminist United Nations with women’s rights at its core.

 Today, Saphira Rameshfar and Susan O’Malley of the NGO CSW NY committee would like to present a letter to you, signed by more than 900 NGOs and individuals from 85 countries, pledging to work with you to support the UN and to strengthen its commitment & actions toward gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

We thank you for your time with us today. 

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 Women Empowerment and Human Resource Development Centre of India (WHI)

The celebration included a peace rally where women were carrying carrying placards with captions such as ‘stop violence against women’,’ stop female foeticide’,’ treat children well’, ‘be a man not a beggar to ask dowry’,   ‘bruises fade, but the pain lasts forever’, ‘not all wounds are visible’ , ‘be bold’ etc.

Report sent by Dr. Vijaya Lakshmi, chair of WHI.

Read the whole report: March 8 WHI

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Femicide is far more than murder. In general killing is done by men. One man kills another. This is statistical evidence. As we also know, men kill women, women kill women and women also kill men.

And then, there is “femicide”, a term, a combination of “femina” and “caedere” – meaning “woman killing”. It is used whenever a woman is killed because of her sex. It’s the murder by a partner or family member (family honour), or criminal gangs as a power demonstration (humiliation of the enemy), and as a weapon of war.

It’s the definition seen through the gender aspect that makes the difference, because it reflects the reasons behind femicide.:  Violence against women is rooted in inequalities and discrimination against women and its prevention and eradication must be grounded in gender equality and empowerment of women.

In 2012 the United Nations counted  approximately 43.000 cases of femicide (killings within relationship). This is four times the number of persons killed in terrorist attacks, as stated by Paul Bekkers, director of OSCE and  General Secretary Lamberto Zannier. (Approximately, because of the lack of reliable data on femicide). This is why Duvravka Simonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, once again requested collection of data as an important first step towards creating awareness as a precondition for requesting concrete measures to prevent femicide. In consequence she promoted the establishment of Femicide Watches at the national level, the systematic collection and documentation of data, allowing an analysis of victims’ profiles and perpetrators’ profiles – and, therefore, address the root causes.

Representatives of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, of the Serbian Department of Gender Equality, of the Armenian Coalition to stop violence against women, of the Femicide Census, in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation England, of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Second University of Naples and COST Action “Femicide across Europe” and the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence participated in two plenary sessions in a panel format.

Suggestions put forward: training of police officers, encouragement of women to bring violent cases to the courts, awareness-raising within the judiciary, the administration. One very important request came from Ms. Anna Costanza Baldry, Professor in criminal and law psychology, representative of the Second Universit of Naples calling for help for the orphans of inter-family femicide.

According to Aldo Lale-Demos, Vice-Director of UNODC (the Office of the United Nations on Drugs and Crime Prevention, with its headquarters in Vienna) 78 per cent of the victims killed by partners are women – with regional differences. Considering all regional differences all these cases Had one  aspect in common: “it represents the most extreme, ultimate form of inequality between women and men”. 

Monitoring at both global and regional levels has shown that:

• Femicide or gender related killings of women, and sexual and other forms of gender based violence against women and girls are widespread and persistent human rights violations,
• There is widespread impunity due to the lack of implementation of the global and regional instruments on women’s rights and violence against women and the failure to turn these into real pr4oteftiuonof every woman and girl,
• There are significant gaps and shortcomings in national legislation and prevention systems often combined with tolerance of such violence, exacerbated by a lack of reliable and disaggregated ate, the absence of adequate risk assessments, and concealment and underreporting of gender-related killings, rapes and other form of gender based violence against women.

The symposium had been jointly called by the UN Rapporteur on Violence against Women and all other global and regional mechanisms to end femicide and gender-based violence ( The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), the Inter-American Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) , the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanisms to the Belém de Pará Convention (MESECVI) and the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence of the Council of Europe (GREVIO). 

Suggestion for IAW: creation of an IAW observatory on national femicide data on the basis of a questionnaire to be sent to member organizations and individual members.

Some useful e-addresses;

http://:www.ohchr.org

http://coe.int/en/web/istanbul-convention/grevio

http://www.oas.org/en/mesecvi/about.asp

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