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Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Jul24/02) Penang, 1 Jul (Kanaga Raja) — Economic violence against women and girls is one of the forms of gender-based violence that even today too often goes unseen and unregulated, Mr Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said. In opening a full-day panel discussion at the United Nations Human Rights Council on 28 June on the human rights of women, focusing on economic violence as a form of gender-based violence against women and girls, Mr Turk said that while economic violence against women may not manifest in bruises and wounds, it can be just as harmful as physical violence, trapping women and girls in cycles of denigration and inequality. “Economic control. Economic sabotage. Economic exploitation. These are the three forms of economic violence playing out all around the world,” he said. In this context, Mr Turk pointed to: “Restricting a woman’s access to money and assets. Tracking her spending. Ensuring she cannot open a bank account, or make financial decisions. Preventing her from seeking employment, or going to school. Taking her wages, or her pension. Accruing debt under her name.” In all its forms, economic violence is facilitated by archaic gender norms that consider men the financial decision makers. In all its forms, women are stifled, and blocked from living a life of autonomy, said Mr Turk. “We know that economic violence most commonly occurs in the home, and often interconnects with physical or sexual violence.” But it can also be enabled, even perpetrated by the State through discriminatory legal frameworks which restrict women’s access to credit, employment, social protection, or property and land rights, said the human rights chief. “The world is failing to deliver on the promise of gender equality. Failing to put in place the measures needed to ensure half of humanity enjoy their fundamental rights and freedoms.” Painting a somewhat startling picture, the High Commissioner said some 3.9 billion women worldwide face legal barriers affecting their economic participation. “Women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. Ninety-two countries lack provisions mandating equal pay for work of equal value.” The wealth gap between women and men globally stands at a staggering 100 trillion USD, Mr Turk noted. “Women’s equality lies at the core of all human rights, of human dignity and of our collective future,” he said. “To put a stop to economic violence, and proactively to ensure economic equity, we need a complete overhaul of discriminatory laws and practices,” the High Commissioner emphasized. Gender equality needs to be positively fostered through laws governing all areas of life – economic, public and political. And we need policy measures to ensure that these laws are applied, he said. In this regard, he pointed to policy measures that protect and empower women’s economic, social and cultural rights, access to decent work, including equal pay for work of equal value, and quality education that promotes human rights, gender equality and respect. He also highlighted the need for the full realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as equal property ownership, equal access to and control over financial resources, shared childcare responsibilities and adequate childcare options, and above all, choice and opportunity to define one’s own life. “Where economic violence occurs, we must make stronger efforts to ensure survivors can seek justice and remedy.” “We need better complaint mechanisms. Better economic and social support systems. Better and more widely available psychological assistance. And, importantly, perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said Mr Turk. At its simplest, violence against women and girls is an egregious expression of power domination and patriarchy indeed, he added. It is a blunt roadblock to gender equality and the ultimate benefits that this can bring everyone, including greater development and peace. He said gender-based violence persists because of pervasive cultures of toxic masculinity and misogyny, and that it is not specific to cultures, or regions, or religions. “It is widespread, fuelled by centuries-old mind-sets and practices that are still dangerously prevalent, almost everywhere.” Today, regardless of income or background, all women and girls live with the threat of gender-based violence, said the human rights chief. “Almost one in three women have been subjected to some form of it at least once in their life, be that physical, sexual, psychological or economic.” “One in three. If one in three men globally were subject to such devastating and pervasive harm we would be convening an emergency summit,” said Mr Turk. Violence against women and girls – in all its forms – is abhorrent and inexcusable. It prevents their full and equal participation in society, suffocating their potential, and stealing choice and opportunity, he added. +
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