Dear reader,
November 25 is designated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Too often people talk about this subject without really understanding what the term means or what the term covers. Let me then start by defining it.

I am taking the definition from the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention of Belem do Para).The term is defined there as being or covering "any act or conduct, based on gender, which caused death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public or the private sphere".

These acts of violence, the Convention adds, can occur within the family or domestic unit or within any interpersonal relationship whether the perpetrator shares or had shared the same residence with the woman. It makes clear that it also encompasses those acts of violence against women which occur in the community including rape, sexual abuse, torture, trafficking in person, forced prostitution, kidnapping and sexual harassment in the workplace and other institutions.

It is clear and I think we can all accept that women and girls are largely the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence of all kinds, not only in Jamaica but worldwide. For much too long in our human history, this has been taken to be the norm and was only in relatively recent times that governments enacted legislation to deal specifically with what really is a scourge in every society.

It is interesting to note that after the second world war no one was charged for war crimes or crimes against humanity for the sexual violence in the form of enslavements, torture and experiments which were inflicted against women of the defeated nations. It was only in the International Tribunals of 1993 and 1995 that rape was listed as a crime against humanity. It was in the elements of crime of the Statute for the International Criminal Court that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation or other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity were defined as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

It is to be hoped that this now being the case, sexual violence of the women of vanquished peoples in times of conflict will no longer be looked upon as spoils of war to which the victors are entitled but as a despicable crimes that they are.
On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I must admit to some despair in this regard because this year from the report in the media and from certain organisations it seems that violence against women and girls both sexual, physical and psychological is on the increase.

We must all make it our business to ensure that conciliation is the order of the day rather than aggression in any dispute which may arise between peoples.

Let us celebrate peace and love rather than witness violence and injury. I trust that the bills to amend the Offences Against the Persons Act and the Incest Punishment Act 2006, which had been laid in Parliament in 1995 and were being discussed then by a Joint Select Committee and which were relaid in Parliament this year, would receive the sort of very serious consideration which such provisions of law ought to warrant. Parliament owes it to the nation to enact the best possible modern, enlightened and clear pieces of legislation on the fundamental issues of sex and sexuality.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women's and children's rights advocate. Send questions and comments via email to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com or fax to 968-2025. We regret we cannot supply personal answers.

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