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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
CIM of the OAS Hosts Round Table on “Political Violence against Women”
From left to right:
Susana Villarán, Perú
Lucero Saldaña, México
Morena Herrera, El Salvador
Luz Patricia Mejia, Secretaria Técnica Mesecvi
Angélica de la Peña, México
Gabriela Montaño, Bolivia
Date: February 25, 2015
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Maria Patricia Leiva/OAS
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The
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of
American States (OAS) today organized a Roundtable discussion titled
"Political Violence Against Women: A Hemispheric Challenge," as part of
the activities commemorating Women's Day of the Americas, held on
February 18, and International Women's Day, on
March 8.
The event was inaugurated
by the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza; the Minister
of Women of Costa Rica and Chair of the Inter-American Commission of
Women, Alejandra Mora; the OAS Secretary for Multidimensional Security
(SMS), Adam Blackwell; and the Alternate Representative of the Permanent
Mission of Canada to the OAS, Brett Alexander Maitland. At the
conclusion of the event, the Executive Secretary of the CIM, Carmen
Moreno, described the meeting as "a way to rethink and deepen the
quality of democracies."
The CIM official recalled that, in the present and in the future,
the debate should begin with the Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women the Convention of Belém do Pará,
the key document in the region in terms of gender equality. Ambassador
Moreno added that "we must start from the conviction that we have heard
throughout the day important approaches to the rights of women, the
rights of each and every one of us, and how this is linked to
discrimination, democracy, inclusion and participation," which in her
opinion is a contribution to the subject of the event.”
Panel I: Political Violence Against Women: From Impunity to Law, from Law to Implementation
The first panel of the day, entitled "Political Violence Against
Women: From Impunity to Law, from Law to Implementation," was moderated
by the technical secretary of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do
Pará Convention (MESECVI) Luz Patricia Mejía. The discussion focused on
reviewing the regional reality regarding different legislative
initiatives to ensure the participation of women in politics, including
the prevention and punishment of actions that restrict such
participation.
In this context, the president of the Chamber of Deputies of
Bolivia, Gabriela Montaño, recalled that the South American country
became in 2012 the first to have a specific law against political
violence against women. This law, she said, along with other public
policies, such as the law on the electoral regime, created conditions of
parity at all levels of government.
On the experience of her country, Deputy Montaño said "it is not
possible to generate these legislative initiatives without political
will," and said she herself is a result of this will, which has also
ensured the political participation of representatives of indigenous
peoples. Finally, she said it is not possible "to advance toward this
type of legislation when there are no women committed to the rights
agenda in decision making positions."
In the view of Mexican Senator Lucero Saldaña, member of the
Commission for Gender Equality of her country, the issue of political
violence against women includes actions and omissions and also a
security aspect. "Women seek peace, we want to be in the process of
reconciliation, we want to be in public affairs, we do not exclude
ourselves by nature or because we are biologically domestic," she said.
In her presentation, she recalled that the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,
November 25,
commemorates the murder of the Mirabal sisters, political activists in
the Dominican Republic who were murdered in 1960 for their opposition to
the regime of Rafael Trujillo. "If this results in an international
day, I think one of the challenges we have is to make awareness
campaigns in the media so that this year we raise awareness that this is
a real issue and to work for its prevention, with the commitment of
institutions and governments," she said.
Loretta Butler-Turner (Bahamas) Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS
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Susana Villarán, former Mayor of Lima, Peru, and President of the
National Network of Women Authorities (RENAMA), recounted her personal
experience as the first woman to hold the municipal seat of the Peruvian
capital, saying that from the first moment she began to be harassed
politically. As an example, she mentioned that her predecessor, during
his eight years as Mayor of Lima, was called eight times to Congress,
accountable to different committees. She, however, was cited 88 times in
four years to comply with the same duty.
She said that she did not tell her story to portray herself as a
victim: "this is telling the truth. When women enter into the male
preserve of the exercise of political power, whether by election or
designation, in that moment comes a process of 'disciplining' of us
women, we arrive to a party to which we were not invited.” For this
reason, the former Mayor felt that having a law to punish political
violence against women is important, but not sufficient to guarantee the
rights of participation.
Mexican Senator Angelica de la Peña, Secretary of the Commission
for Gender Equality, highlighted the progress that has been made in her
country with the constitutional provision requiring political parties to
nominate at least fifty percent female candidates for the Chamber of
Deputies and state legislatures.
"The law is not everything, but it is an essential step for us to
be recognized as full subjects of all our rights, on equal terms with
men. We are disputing not only the political power, but the power to be
fully included in decision making," she said. "We are building a human
equivalence that does not exist, therefore we should not be amazed by
all the obstacles we are facing," she added.
For her part, Morena Herrera, an expert on women's rights in El
Salvador, said that a law to eliminate political violence against women
should include cultural and structural fields, which deals with the
people and instances that apply the law. For this reason, she considered
it essential to strengthen alliances between women in public office and
women's movements and feminists.
"The party system has been legitimized on the basis of blackmail
and the silence of women. While the problem is experienced individually,
it is a structural problem, and in that sense an act of denunciation
does not victimize those who make a complaint, but is an act of
individual and collective empowerment,” she concluded.
Panel II: The role of political parties in addressing political violence against women
The second panel of the round table was titled "The role of
political parties in addressing political violence against women," and
was moderated by the Deputy Minister of Human Rights of the Interior
Ministry of Mexico, Lía Limón.
The Magistrate of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary
of Mexico, Maria del Carmen Alanis, said that to achieve the full
exercise of political rights of women there must be synergies between
the three branches of government, the executive, legislative and
judicial. In this regard, she said the authorities have to function
democratically and with the recognition of the political rights of
women, because "a judicial system is useless iif there is no access to
justice," and "it is useless to discuss the issue of women if the judges
are not prepared to judge the facts with a gender perspective."
Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS
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Magistrate Alanis urged those present to participate in the
internal affairs of political parties, "because that's the big change
that we need." According to the Mexican magistrate, women must fight to
ensure that different social groups are represented in the party
structures, and for women, she also said it is important not only ensure
they are elected, but also that that they permanently occupy the
positions for which they were elected.
Member of Parliament and Former Deputy Political Leader of the
Free National Movement Party (FMN) of Bahamas, Loretta Butler-Turner,
said in her country "women are vastly underrepresented" and that in
political life, when women are not physically attacked to be
marginalized, they are often intimidated. "We need more participation of
women in the political life of The Bahamas, both nationally and
locally," she said.
Congresswoman Butler-Turner said that the round table organized by
the CIM is an enriching experience, but she wondered how to convey
everything learned in the debate to the local communities where gender
violence is an issue. In this sense, the Caribbean congresswoman said it
is essential that women participate directly in politics so they can
understand what is happening and will be able to put an end to political
violence against women.
For her part, the former Senator and former Colombian Minister
Cecilia López said that "the big brake" for the growth of women are
political parties, and said the phenomenon "is more severe at the
sub-national level." The former legislator said the low participation of
women in politics is due to the crisis of the parties, and that in the
region there are many populist regimes in which, when quotas are
established to increase the participation of women, "men put their
family or their loved ones."
Lopez said it is "regrettable" that after the breakthrough that
women achieved in the twentieth Century, in the twenty-first century
they "are stuck." The underlying theme regarding the political
participation of women, she added, is that "it is a fight for power,
economic power and political power."
The former Deputy and Leader of "Movimiento Winaq" Party of
Guatemala, Otilia Lux de Cotí, said women are making their way to seek
justice and equity. "When you talk about political violence, it should
be clear that use it is illegitimate, counterproductive, undemocratic
and a crime," she said.
Lux de Cotí said the problems affecting Latin America are
structural because they are the product of patriarchal models, and said
it is imperative to give more visibility to "all the problems and the
situation of women's lives." She also urged political parties to
internally apply the same rules that govern democracy in general. "We
want to see in the democratization of the parties the commitment to
equality," she added.
The Member of Ecuadorian Parliament, Paola Pabón, said that in her
country women have conquered important spaces in the struggle to assert
their rights, and by way of example she said that more than 46 percent
seats in Congress are occupied by women. However, when analyzing the
regional situation, she said that political parties have become purely
electoral machines, and "therefore need to be renewed."
Deputy Pabón said it is important that women occupy the leadership
of political parties, noting that at present "the structures of
political parties at the national and local level are still completely
masculinized."
The Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Political Leader of the
United Workers Party (UWP) of Saint Lucia, Gale Rigobert, said there is a
semantic problem in denouncing political violence against women,
because it is very difficult to analyze the issue without seeming
concerned about victimization. The opposite effect, she said, is that
there is violence imposed by silence that ignores the problems faced by
women.
The UWP leader said through political dialogue must be used to
motivate political parties to "do the right thing," and "that is to have
more women candidates." She also called for maintaining the fight for
women's rights, adding "I pray for the day we will not have to organize
such round tables," saying that when that day is reached, there will be
equality in the political systems of the region.
In the closing of the event, Susana Chiarotti, from the Follow-up
Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (CEVI/MESECVI) said the
Convention "has an appropriate framework to advance the identification
of the different forms of violence, including all manifestations that
occur in political violence.”
She also recognized that "there was never, neither in the era of
slavery, nor during the fight for labor rights, a revolutionary movement
that had representatives in all countries" where "we find women and men
who want equality between the sexes."
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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