The condemnation of violence against women officially enters the international debate with Resolution 54/134 (link), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1999. The text defines this type of violence as “any act of violence based on the gender of the victim, whether it be physical, sexual or psychological. This includes coercion and violation of women’s freedoms, both in the public and private spheres ” (link).
On November 25, forty years earlier, three political activists known as the Mirabal Sisters were murdered by order of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The event is commemorated every year during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and in the 16 days of activism that follow. The initiatives promoted want to put the spotlight on this global phenomenon to raise awareness among the international community, as well as condemn its practice in all its forms.
Since its establishment, Large Movements has strongly professed its active role in the struggle against gender-based violence. We addressed it in relation to the international manifesto #SalviamoleDonneAfghane, launched on August 18, 2021 by the #DonneUnite Department and the anti-violence Observatory of the “United to Unite” movement (UxU), and in collaboration with other analogous associations, regarding the defense of the social and professional role of Afghan women threatened by the violent and targeted repression unleashed by the Taliban once they return to power (https://www.normativa.largemovements.it/donne-afghane/), and it is demonstrated by our firm adherence to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention (https://www.normativa.largemovements.it/greboval-convenzione-istanbul-donne-migranti/).
Violence against women takes many forms, especially when considering migratory phenomena. It is well known that domestic violence or the use of sexual violence in armed conflicts (https://www.normativa.largemovements.it/giornata-internazionale-violenza-sessuale-conflitti-2021/) are often among the reasons why a woman, alone or with her family, decides to leave her country of origin and migrate elsewhere. However, it is precisely during these journeys, in which the vulnerability of migrants increases exponentially, that gender oppression manifests itself in its most merciless forms – first of all, sexual violence. A woman’s body itself becomes a battlefield, a war conquest, or a bargaining chip. The act of sexual coercion dehumanizes the migrant and does not merely harm her physically but inflicts mental suffering on her psyche which is likely to be already compromised by the surrounding emergency context. In 2016, researcher Silvia Sansonetti recalled that “refugees are more affected by violence against women than any other female population in the world” (https://www.unhcr.org/it/risorse/carta-di-roma/fact-checking/donne-rifugiate-la-violenza-molte-facce/).
In a report published in 2020 by the Mixed Migration Center (MMC) in collaboration with UNHCR (https://mixedmigration.org/resource/on-this-journey-no-one-cares-if-you-live-or-die/), 1,634 respondents reported having suffered or witnessed 2,008 cases of sexual violence affecting over 6,100 people. The migratory route of North Africa presented the highest number of episodes of sexual violence against women, who are the victims and / or witnesses of them at least 65% of the time. Between North Africa, West Africa and East Africa, traffickers have perpetuated most of the violence (equal to 45%), without however being the only ones: among the main perpetrators, in fact, we also see members of the forces security and police (19% – some research reports that they also include agents of the European agency FRONTEX), unknown persons and criminal gangs (12 to 11% respectively) and, sadly, other migrants (10 %). The variety of figures and roles guilty of such crimes only reiterates the dangerousness of these travels for women and the brutality that is poured out on them, by both their oppressors and their peers and by those who should protect them.
Sexual violence can occur at any time during the trip, in transit camps, on boats crossing the Mediterranean and attempting to reach European coasts. It manifests itself in the form of rapes – which, according to a report by Amnesty International, are so common that migrants take contraceptives before travel (https://www.amnesty.it/libia-migranti-e-rifugiati-in-fuga-da-violenza-sessuale-persecuzione-e-sfruttamento/) – sexual slavery, forced marriages and abortions and genital mutilation. Most migrants have no choice but to have intercourse with traffickers to pay for their services and, once they arrive in Europe, many are forced into prostitution, unable to escape the network of violence and oppression they entered.
In this context, the detention centers in Libya are infamous. In the latest report by UN Secretary General António Guterres for the UN Support Mission in Libya, the disproportionate use of violence and sexual abuse, which has now become common practice in these structures, was harshly denounced and condemned (https://reliefweb.int/report/libya/united-nations-support-mission-libya-report-secretary-general-s2021752-enar). Despite this, the prison officials’ involvement in this type of violence, and the general approach of silence adopted by local authorities in the face of these and other forms of torture underline the difficulty in eradicating these phenomena.
Despite the long and arduous path, Large Movements strongly opposes violence against women in all its forms and unites its voice, on this day and in all the others, to those that condemn this widespread and rooted phenomenon, and stresses is committed to raising awareness on this issue by any means.Interruzione pagina
Fonti e approfondimenti:
Kirby, P. (2020). Sexual violence in the border zone: the EU, the Women, Peace and Security agenda and carceral humanitarianism in Libya. International Affairs, 96(5), 1209-1226. Disponibile qui (in inglese): https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/96/5/1209/5901383
Freedman, J. (2016). Sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women: a hidden aspect of the refugee” crisis”. Reproductive health matters, 24(47), 18-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhm.2016.05.003
Robbers, G., Lazdane, G., & Sethi, D. (2016). Sexual violence against refugee women on the move to and within Europe. Entre Nous, 84, 26-29. Disponibile qui (in inglese): https://www.hhri.org/publication/sexual-violence-against-refugee-women-on-the-move-to-and-within-europe/
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