Book Review:
Cyberspace Strategy to End
Violence Against Women

Women @ Work Against Violence: Voices in Cyberspace, UNIFEM publication, 1999. Available from Women, Ink (wink@womenink.org) US$6.50

To create a venue in which individuals and groups around the world could talk to each other about successful strategies in reducing the incidence and impact of violence against women, girls and children, UNIFEM launched the End Violence Working Group in Cyberspace in October, 1998, in cooperation with the World Bank’s Educational Development Center and the Global Knowledge Partnership. Over one thousand men and women around the world, front-line workers against violence, joined this passionate email debate, comparing experiences and strategies to dismantle the power structures and attitudes in which violence is used and tolerated as a tool in the oppression and degradation of women.

Excerpts from this world-wide email conference have been collected by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in a newly published book entitled: "Women @ Work Against Violence: Voices in Cyberspace". Descriptions are given of some of the campaigns to eliminate violence against women that have mobilized political will and spurred new partnerships for action between governments, civil society and the private sector. Encouraging results have been achieved in strengthening legislation, gaining more effective enforcement of the law, successfully educating judges, police and policy makers to recognize and respond appropriately to situations of gender-based violence; and providing increased services to survivors of violence.

In 1994 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur, Ms.Radhika Coomaraswamy, on Violence Against Women with a mandate that includes the "causes and consequences" of violence. The Special Rapporteur has characterized impunity - the failure of governments to ensure accountability for violence against women - as the greatest cause of that violence. Other leading causes identified are: historically unequal power relations between men and women, as manifested in economic discrimination and women’s subordination in the family; attitudes towards female sexuality which encourage or demand the control of women’s sexuality; cultural ideologies which justify the subordination of women, including stereotyped gender roles, beliefs which legitimize certain violent practices as expressions of religion, culture or tradition, and negative stereotypes of women in the media; doctrines of privacy which deter action to eliminate violence against women in the family; and social patterns of conflict resolution.

Among the consequences highlighted by the Special Rapporteur are: the fear of violence which deters women’s full participation in society; death; physical and mental ill-health, including injuries, exposure to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, depression, stress-related illnesses, and chronic disabilities as a consequence of injuries; the negative effects on children of exposure to violence against women in the family; the denial of women’s sexual health; material costs to society related to the provision of health care and other services; and human resource costs related to the loss of women’s full participation in society and the development process.

Women’s groups and NGOs around the world, who are working to end violence against women are doing so in the face of serious obstacles such as limited resources, resistance by legal, political and social forces, and underdeveloped institutional and communications infrastructures. All agree that legal strategies to end impunity for violence and ensure remedies for survivors are essential. As well, advocacy campaigns and public education are necessary to build support for legal reform and ensure the implementation of laws. Public education, community dialogue and training can help to transform the social and cultural beliefs and practices that foster violence against women. And action to promote and protect the full range of women and children’s human rights is necessary to empower them to live lives free of violence.