“Women and children are often in great danger in the place where they should be safest: within their families. For many, ‘home’ is where they face a regime of terror and violence at the hands of somebody close to them – somebody they should be able to trust. Those victimized suffer physically and psychologically. They are unable to make their own decisions, voice their own opinions or protect themselves and their children for fear of further repercussions. Their human rights are denied and their lives are stolen from them by the ever-present threat of violence.” From Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls (2000) UNICEF

Domestic Violence is a problem that occurs in all cultures and countries. However, research and experience shows, there is a great deal of variation from country to country, and from setting to setting. This highlights the fact that Domestic Violence is not inevitable and can be stopped.

Gendered Nature of Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence is defined as any pattern of physical or psychological abuse, between intimately involved partners, roommates, or family members. Collecting reliable statistics on the prevalence of Domestic Violence is difficult. Victims are often afraid to speak out. However, most research on the prevalence of Domestic Violence indicates that while men may also become victims of Domestic Violence, in the vast majority of cases, the perpetrator is a man and the victim a women

Committing to Developing a Human Rights Compliance Instrument on Domestic Violence

Aim for human rights is committed to the struggle for women’s human rights and specializes in developing methods to gap the bridge between the international Human Rights Standards and the practice on the ground. The methods have become known as Human Rights Compliance or Impact Assessment Instruments. Many organizations, like your own, work hard to end Domestic Violence, but often find it difficult to use the existing Human Rights standards to strengthen their work and to hold their government accountable for the violations of the rights of the victims.

Aim for human rights has already developed one successful instrument to address violations of women’s rights. HeRWAI, the Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument , is being used by many organisations worldwide to assess if women’s rights to health are upheld. You, or your organisation, may have experience working with HeRWAI already.

From 2003 to 2006 Aim for human rights implemented a program with 14 partner organizations in 6 Western Balkan countries to improve their work on banning Domestic Violence. The partner organization were assisted in setting up and carrying out research on the implementation of their government’s international Human Rights obligation to end Domestic Violence . Based on consultation with our partner organisations, Aim for human rights has now committed itself to developing a Human Rights Compliance Instrument on Domestic Violence.

Domestic Violence and Human Rights

Government officials and societies often do not recognize Domestic Violence as a human rights violation, but believe the violence to be a private matter, and therefore fail to address it. There is an acceptance and tolerance of Domestic Violence within many societies, which directly impacts on the ability of victims to seek protection and redress.

But Domestic Violence is a health, legal, economic, educational, developmental and, above all, a human rights issue. Being subjected to Domestic Violence violates a range of Human Rights, such as, a person’s right to physical integrity and human dignity, the rights to equality of men and women. Being subjected to Domestic Violence has direct consequences on a victims/woman’s health rights, including a victims/women’s reproductive rights.

Increasingly the international community has recognized that stopping Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence is an obligation of states. International Human rights treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (especially its protocol on the rights of women in Africa), require action by the world’s governments to stop Domestic Violence. However, in many countries no adequate laws or policies exist to address Domestic Violence. And even if the norms have been established in the law, countries often fail to implement the norms in practice.

Developing A Human Rights Compliance Instrument On Domestic Violence: The Co-Developer Group

You and your organization have been approached by us to join the co-developer’s group. Aim for human rights experience has taught us that for a Human Rights instrument to be effective, it is crucial that a group of potential users are an integral part of the developing process. In order to develop a useful, efficient instrument that can be used by a wide variety of organizations, we need a co-developers group which includes the following expertise; development of Human Rights compliance instruments; international Human Rights standards on Domestic Violence; service provision to victims of Domestic Violence (including shelter provision and legal representation) and advocacy and lobbying. The co-development group also needs to represent, as much as possible the different regions of the world.