Resources
Use the following downloadable materials to help organize events in your community.
Recommendations on Combating Sexual Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women Through Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations
Statement Provided by Sarah Deer
Member, Native American and Alaska Native Advisory Council, Amnesty International USA, Stop Violence Against Women Campaign
Honorable Chairman and members of the Committee, my name is Sarah Deer, and I am a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. I am a visiting professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a member of the Native American and Alaska Native advisory council to Amnesty International USA’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign. I understand that this is the first Appropriations Committee hearing ever to focus specifically on law enforcement in Indian Country. I applaud you for making this historic moment possible. It is very gratifying for me to take part in it and to provide testimony on sexual violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women.
Background and resources related to the Maze of Injustice report.
International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) resources and background information.
Women are in double jeopardy. Discriminated against as women, they are also as likely as men, if not more so, to become victims of human rights violations. Today, what unites women internationally-transcending class, race, culture, religion, nationality and ethnic origin-is their vulnerability to the denial and violation of their fundamental human rights, and their dedicated efforts to claim those rights.
There are 148,200 women in state and federal prisons. In federal women’s correctional facilities, 70% of guards are male. Records show correctional officials have subjected female inmates to rape, other sexual assault, sexual extortion, and groping during body searches. Male correctional officials watch women undressing, in the shower or the toilet.
Post-conflict reconstruction periods are times of tremendous change that lay the groundwork for the future of the state and society. Post-conflict reconstruction occurs in three broad areas: political, economic, and social, all of which are connected. Women's status and experiences prior to and during conflict heavily influences their roles and experiences in the post-conflict period.
Like most violence that occurs in the course of armed conflict, violence against women is not accidental. It is a weapon of war, a tool used to achieve military objectives such as ethnic cleansing, spreading political terror, breaking the resistance of a community, rewarding soldiers, intimidation, or to extract information. Many forms of violence that women suffer during armed conflict are gender specific in both nature and result.
In the US, a woman is raped every 6 minutes; a woman is battered every 15 seconds. In North Africa, 6,000 women are genitally mutilated each day. This year, more than 15,000 women will be sold into sexual slavery in China. 200 women in Bangladesh will be horribly disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid. More than 7,000 women in India will be murdered by their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries.
Sexual violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination, which denies women equal rights with men, and which legitimizes and sexualizes the violent appropriation of women's bodies for individual gratification or for political ends. Social and cultural norms that deny women equal rights with men render women more vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Reproductive rights - access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and autonomy in sexual and reproductive decision-making - are human rights; they are universal, indivisible, and undeniable. These rights are founded upon principles of human dignity and equality, and have been enshrined in international human rights documents.
Violence against women in armed conflict situations is largely based on traditional views of women as property, and often as sexual objects. Around the world, women have long been attributed the role of transmitters of culture and symbols of nation or community. Violence directed against women is often considered an attack against the values or "honor" of a society and therefore a particularly potent tool of war.
Discrimination and its role in fostering violence based on the attribution of sexual behavior and sexual identity affects all aspects of women's lives, regardless of their sexual identity. The discrimination lesbians face and the human rights violations they experience - as well as their inability to seek protection and redress - is integrally connected not only to their sex, but also to factors such as race, ethnicity, cultural and national origin, class, age, and disability.
Human trade, slave markets, the buying and selling of people – these are words and phrases that, to many people, echo a brutal and distant time in our past. But to the countless women, men, and children trafficked every year, these words coldly define the horror of their lives. Trafficking is a global phenomenon where victims are sexually exploited, forced into labor and subjected to abuse. Trafficking is a crime under international law that requires international cooperation to address.
Every year around the world an increasing number of women are killed in the name of "honor." Relatives, usually male, commit acts of violence against wives, sisters, daughters and mothers to reclaim their family honor from real or suspected actions that are perceived to have compromised it. Due to discriminatory societal beliefs and extremist views of gender, officials often condone or ignore the use of torture and brutality against women. As a result, the majority of so-called honor killings go unreported and perpetrators face little, if any, consequence.
The AIDS pandemic is not simply a health concern. The right to health of those at risk for HIV/AIDS and those who already suffer from it is inextricably linked to other fundamental human rights. Discrimination against women means that women lack power in society. This decreases the amount of agency women have over their bodies and in decision-making, and increases women's risk of violence. Both of these factors increase women's susceptibility to infections. Given the devastating force of HIV and AIDS, gender inequalities have become fatal.
International law prohibits the forcible return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened. Refugees have the right to seek asylum in other countries. Women who fear or have suffered gender-related persecution may qualify for asylum in the U.S. if their governments are unwilling or unable to protect them.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is rooted in a culture of discrimination against women. It is a human rights abuse that functions as an instrument for socializing girls into prescribed gender roles within the family and community. It is therefore intimately linked to the unequal position of women in the political, social, and economic structures of societies where it is practiced.
Economic, social and cultural rights have a particular significance due to the disproportionate effect of poverty and social and cultural marginalization on women. Today, women represent approximately 70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty throughout the world.
Among intimate partners, violence is not unique to the heterosexual community, but in fact occurs with equal prevalence in lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LBGT) communities. In the home and family, LBGT individuals, particularly youth, are at a heightened risk of violence at the hands of their own family members.
In the past, violence against women, particularly violence occurring in the home or between intimate partners, was viewed as a private matter, not as an issue of civil or political rights. Now, however, by applying the legally accepted definitions of torture to the violence that women face everyday around the world, the international community has explicitly recognized violence against women as a human rights violation involving state responsibility.
Women are in double jeopardy. Discriminated against as women, they are also as likely as men, if not more so, to become victims of human rights violations. Today, what unites women internationally-transcending class, race, culture, religion, nationality and ethnic origin-is their vulnerability to the denial and violation of their fundamental human rights, and their dedicated efforts to claim those rights. » Read more
Coalition building is one of the most essential elements of effective organizing. This is particularly true in the women's human rights movement, which by its nature encompasses a wide variety of issues. Women's human rights activists can embrace this diversity, working with a wide variety of individuals and organizations in order to achieve their goals. Coalition work has the potential to dramatically increase the success of women's human rights advocacy efforts. » Learn more
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, or the Treaty for the Rights of Women), was adopted by the United Nations in 1979, and is the most comprehensive international agreement on the basic human rights of women. » Read more about CEDAW
