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The historic speech, the murder of the sisters and the movement that changed the world: 150 years of the fight against violence against women - voila! news

2022-11-25T14:21:09.441Z


From the nurses who were murdered on the order of the president and became a sergeant, through the girl who was brutally raped by a representative of the authorities and refused to submit to threats - to the precedent trial of the mayor. In Kenya and the United States, in Kurdistan, in Rwanda and Yugoslavia: the women who fought against all odds and changed history


1878

The first International Congress for Women's Rights convened in Paris in 1871.

In the historic event, in which many legislators were present, seven resolutions were passed, starting with the idea that "an older woman is equal to an older man."



Emily Venturi, 19th-century British artist, writer, and activist for reform and women's rights, gave a memorable speech to Congress in which she declared: "Yesterday evening, a gentleman who seemed a little skeptical of the merits of our Congress, asked me, 'Well, madam, what is the truth? The big one you pretend to reveal to the world?'

I answered him, 'Monsieur, we have declared that a woman is a human being.' He laughed. 'But madam, that is a trite saying.' Indeed, yes; but when this trite saying, which everyone accepts with a smile when it is only a matter of words, is recognized in the laws of humanity, the face of the world will change. Of course, then there would be no need to convene in Congress to demand women's rights."

Suffragist, American social activist and feminist.

Susan B.

Anthony (photo: official website, Wikipedia)

1888

International Council of Women was founded in 1888 (ICW) and was one of the first international women's organizations.

The organization was established with approximately 49 representatives representing 53 women's organizations from 9 countries: Canada, the United States, Ireland, India, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark, France and Norway.

The founders of the council were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony.



The council began to act on the issue of women's suffrage at the beginning of the 20th century.

As of 2020, ICW members are organizations from about 70 countries, and the main headquarters is in Paris, France.

The council conference meets once every three years.

1920

The League of Nations (LoN) was established on January 10, 1920, after the First World War.

The member's goals included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, conflict resolution between countries through negotiation and diplomacy, and improving global welfare.

Section 23 recognizes women's right to "fair and humane working conditions".

The organization also oversaw the Committee on Slavery whose purpose was to remove slavery from the world, and fight the trafficking of women.

Eleanor Roosevelt, head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (photo: official website, Wikipedia)

1948

On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations.

A committee headed by Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President of the United States, Franklin D.

Roosevelt, wrote a special document that declares the rights that every person in the world deserves, and which was signed voluntarily by all the countries that are members of the United Nations.



The declaration reads: "In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they do not appear on world maps.

They are still the world of the single man;

the neighborhood where he lives;

the school or college he goes to;

The factory, farm or office where he works.

These are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equality in justice, equality of opportunity, equal status without discrimination.

If these rights mean nothing there, then they will mean little anywhere else.

Without civic activity aimed at keeping them close to home, any expectation of progress in the wider world will be in vain." (Eleanor Roosevelt)



Minerva Bernardino of the Dominican Republic, one of the four women who signed the convention, said afterward, "I am very proud to have played a role in changing the name of the declaration from the 'Rights of Men' to the Declaration of Human Rights."

Motan Day has become the International Day to Combat Violence Against Women.

The Miraval sisters (photo: official website, Twitter)

1960 - The president of the Dominican Republic orders the political murder of three sisters

Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Miraval - three sisters from a bourgeois family in the Dominican Republic, all married with children - did not think that one day they would be remembered as revolutionaries.

Until the late 1950s, under the rule of the tyrant Rafael Trujillo, they risked their lives and worked with his opponents.

In his 31 years of brutal rule, Trujillo's regime suppressed human rights and dissenting voices.

The Miraval sisters helped organize and strengthen the underground movement that fought the regime, and were arrested countless times for this.



One rainy night in 1960, the three sisters were in a car on their way home, when an employee of Trujillo stopped their jeep and beat them to death with a shovel.

The car was thrown over a cliff to make the incident look like an accident, but no one believed it.

The citizens of the country knew that it was Trujillo who ordered the deadly attack.

Patria was 36 years old, Minerva was 34 years old and Maria Teresa was 24 years old.



The murder shocked the public and led to the assassination of Trujillo by a group of dissidents six months later.

After the Dominican Republic embraced democracy in the late 1970s, the "butterflies" - as the sisters were called by the people - became a symbol of feminist and democratic resistance.

The United Nations has made the day of her death - November 25 - the International Day to Combat Violence Against Women.

The Mirval sisters on the cover of "Time" (photo: official website, official website)

1980

The Second World Conference on Women in Copenhagen adopted a resolution on "battered women and domestic violence".

Representatives from 145 countries participated in the conference.



That same year, the Sixth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders called for equal treatment of women in the criminal justice system - a necessary requirement that guarantees women's right to equality before the law.

1985

At the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, government representatives recognized that violence against women is an "international problem".

1,900 representatives from 157 countries attended the conference.

That year, the UN General Assembly adopted the first recognition of domestic violence.

1993

The World Conference on Human Rights was held in Vienna, Austria on 14015 June 1993. The significant moment at the conference was the official recognition that violence against women is a violation of human rights.

In his closing remarks, Conference Secretary General Ibrahim Paul said that the recognition provides the international community with a "new working framework for planning, dialogue and cooperation" that will enable a holistic approach to the promotion of human rights and involve actors at all levels - international, national and local.



In the same year, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Prevention of Violence against Women. Violence against women is "any gender-based violence that results, or is likely to result, in physical, sexual or mental harm to women, including threats of violence, coercion or The denial of freedom, whether in public or personal life."

PKK fighter.

Turkey was responsible for violating Shukran's human rights (photo: official website, official website)

1996 - Aydin v. Turkey case: rape of a stop by an official is considered torture

In 1984, members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) called for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in Turkey - and began an armed struggle against the Turkish security forces.

The conflict continued until the mid-1990s, and as of 1997, there were more than 4,000 civilian deaths.



Shukran Aydin was 17 years old when a group of village guards came to her village.

They arrived at her family's home and began questioning them about visits by PKK members to their home.

After threats and insults, Shukran and her family were forced to leave the house.

Shukran and her father's eyes were blindfolded and they were pushed into vehicles and taken to the police station.



Shokran was separated from her family and for three days she was beaten, stripped, sprayed with ice water with a strong stream while tied to a tire.

She was taken to an interrogation room where a man in uniform forcibly raped her.

Before her release, Shukran was forced to return to the room where she was raped.

She was beaten for an hour by several assailants and refused to report what they did to her.



When she returned to the village, Shukran and her father complained to the public prosecutor's office.

He sent Shukran to a doctor to check if she was a virgin at the time of the rape.

The conclusion was that her hymen was torn and there are many bruises on her thighs, but it is impossible to determine when the hymen was torn.

The doctor had no experience in examining rape victims.

After that, Shukran was sent for two more tests that required to know when she lost her hymen.

After an investigation was opened, Shukran and her family were subjected to constant harassment and intimidation in order to cancel the complaint.



The ruling states: "Rape of a detainee by a political agent is a particularly serious and shameful form of ill-treatment in light of the ease with which a transferee can take advantage of the vulnerability and weakness of his victim. Moreover, rape leaves deep psychological scars that do not disappear with time like other forms of mental or physical violence".



The court decided that Turkey was responsible for the violation of Shukran's human rights, emphasizing Article 3 which prohibits torture and Article 13 which defines the right to receive treatment.

The court ruled that the public prosecutor should have acted immediately and opened an investigation into Shukran's complaints.

In general, the public prosecutor did not look for supporting evidence for the complaint and adopted a "respectful attitude" towards the security personnel.

Jean-Paul Akiso was captured by the police (photo: official website, Twitter)

1994 - The first conviction of sexual violence and rape as a "crime of the type of genocide"

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Juvenal Biarimana, President of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntriamira, President of Burundi, was shot down over Kigali.

The assassination shattered the peace agreement forged between the Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Severe violence erupted throughout the country.



During one hundred days, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed mainly against Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutus.

In response, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda was created by the UN Security Council to "prosecute those responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international law on the territory of Rwanda and neighboring countries." Rape and sexual violence were included in the charges.



On September 2, 1998, the tribunal convicted Jean-Paul Akeiso was charged with genocide. The trial of Akeiso, who was an educator in the past and served as the mayor of the city where the Tutsi were murdered, is considered one of the most prominent trials dealt with by the court established in Rwanda due to the precedent ruling regarding rape.



In the trial it was established for the first time that rape can also be a crime of the type of genocide.

The judges of the tribunal determined that "sexual assaults were an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group, and that the acts of rape were systematic and aimed only at the Tutsi women, which indicates the explicit purpose of these acts - to commit genocide."



The court stated that "rape is a form of violence" and that "the central elements of the crime of rape cannot be defined mechanically by objects and body parts".

The court defined rape as "physical penetration of a sexual nature, carried out by a person under conditions of coercion".

"Rape is a form of violence" (Photo: Reuters)

1998 - "Rome Treaty" recognized gender-based crimes as "war crimes"

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognized gender-based crimes under its jurisdiction as "war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide".

These crimes include rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, gender-based persecution, trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and sexual violence as crimes under its jurisdiction.

2000 - Resolution 1325

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, which recognizes that military conflict has a unique and disproportionate impact on women, and that women's participation in resolving the conflict is necessary to preserve peace.

1992 - Bosnian war

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia experienced an economic and political crisis.

At that time, the federation included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Kosovo and Vibodina had the status of autonomous regions within the Republic of Serbia.



Due to the crisis, the central government weakened and the federation became divided.

In March 1992, Bosnia voted for independence, the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote.

A conflict broke out between the Bosnians, the Bosnian Serbs and the Croats in Bosnia who also declared independence.

During the tripartite conflict, civilians on all sides found themselves victims of horrific crimes.

At least 100,000 people died in the conflict and two million were forced to flee their homes.

About 35 thousand women were raped.



During the wars in Yugoslavia, many acts of sexual violence against women took place: they were raped, sexually abused and sexually humiliated, and many of them were held in rape camps, became pregnant and were forced to give birth.

In Croatia, acts of sexual violence and rape against women began to be committed for the first time.

Acts of sexual violence and rape escalated especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as they were part of an offensive policy aimed at carrying out ethnic cleansing and deporting other ethnic groups from a certain territory.



Some of the women testified that they were taken from the detention centers against their will to apartments or private homes, sometimes for 5-6 months.

There, their freedom was denied, they were repeatedly raped, beaten and forced to clean, cook and serve the tenants, who were Serbian soldiers.

Psychological control and fear did not allow escape.

The women were aware of the danger involved in running away and also knew that they had nowhere to run.

Bosnian women (Photo: GettyImages)

2000 - Rape and sexual slavery are crimes against humanity

In May 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in response to the atrocities that occurred in Bosnia, Croatia, and Herzegovina. The individuals brought to trial before the tribunal ranged from the rank of ordinary soldiers to heads of state, prime ministers, and army and police commanders



. - March 20, 2000 and over the course of eight months, 63 witnesses testified, including 16 survivors of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery. The ruling reads: "The evidence shows that the Bosnian Serb soldiers used rape as a tool of terror.

A tool given to them at their free disposal to apply when and how they want...the evidence shows that the most basic human dignity was denied to Muslim women and girls, mothers and daughters, and they were treated as assets to be used and thrown around by the occupying Serbian forces." The charges were for using torture, rape and slavery as crimes against Humanity, torture and rape as a violation of international law.



The mental and physical pain caused to rape victims was specifically noted and recognized in court.

"Rape is one of the most horrible experiences a person can inflict on another," it was ruled.

In addition, rape as a form of torture was officially recognized.

"Severe pain or suffering, as required by the definition of the crime of torture, is proven as soon as the rape itself is proven, since an act of rape inevitably entails such pain or suffering," it was said.



The trial was considered groundbreaking because it was the first time the International Criminal Court brought charges solely for crimes of sexual violence.

It was also the first time that a conviction for rape was a conviction for a crime against humanity.

Before the trial, sexual violence committed during a military conflict was not recognized at all in international humanitarian law.

About 35 thousand women were raped in the war (photo: screenshot, Straight Times)

2008

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 which recognizes the link between sexual violence and war tactics. The declaration also states that countries involved in military conflict must act immediately to protect civilians from sexual violence, including trusting soldiers and implementing disciplinary measures.

2010

The United Nations Agency for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - UN Women - was established through a combination of four different departments that were dedicated to women.

45 countries are signatories to the Istanbul Convention (photo: official website, Wikipedia)

2011

The Istanbul Convention ("Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence") was founded.

The International Convention of the Council of Europe was approved by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on April 7, 2011 and entered into force on August 1, 2014. As of November 2020, 45 countries have signed the Convention (including the European Union), of which 34 have ratified it in their legislatures.



The list of countries that joined or ratified the Istanbul Convention: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

2015

The UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals - which call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.

The phrase "Me Too" was originally used in social networks in 2006 (photo: official website, Wikipedia)

2017 - The MeToo Movement #

The #MeToo movement - a social movement against sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape culture, where people publish their experiences of sexual exploitation or harassment - was born.



The phrase "Me Too" was originally used in this context on social networks in 2006 on the "MySpace" website, by sexual assault survivor and activist Trana Barak.



The goal of "Me Too", according to Barak and others who joined it, was to empower victims of sexual assault (mainly young women who are not white) through empathy, solidarity and "strength in numbers", by exposing the huge amount of women who have experienced sexual assault and harassment, mainly in the job.



After the disclosure of allegations of sexual exploitation and harassment against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the movement began to spread virally and the phrase "Me Too" was added to the Twitter hashtag - #MeToo.

On October 16, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted that "If all the women who were sexually harassed or assaulted wrote in their status 'Me too,' maybe people would start to understand how widespread the problem is."

Many American celebrities joined her call and added #MeToo on their accounts.



Extensive media coverage accompanied the movement, and the discussion in Hollywood, mainly led to high-profile dismissals of men in high positions of power who, according to the evidence, took advantage of women.

After millions of people started using the phrase, it was translated into dozens of other languages.



Recently, Barak even said that this is an international movement for justice and for marginalized people.

After #MeToo went viral in late 2017, Facebook reported that nearly half of all its US users were friends at some point with someone who had been sexually harassed or assaulted.

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Source: walla

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