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Domestic Violence
auf Deutsch
Unremedied domestic violence
essentially denies women equality before the law and reinforces their subordinate
social status. Men use domestic violence to diminish women’s autonomy and
sense of self-worth. States that fail to prevent and prosecute domestic
violence treat women as second-class citizens and send a clear message
that the violence against them is of no concern to the broader society.
Countries as diverse as Uganda,
Nepal, Pakistan,
South Africa,
Jordan, Russia,
Uzbekistan, and Peru
have one thing in common: horrendous records on addressing domestic violence.
In Uganda, many
women are infected with HIV and will eventually die because the government
has failed in any meaningful way to condemn, criminalize, or prosecute
violence against women in the home. In Pakistan,
officials at all levels of the criminal justice system believe domestic
violence is not a matter for criminal courts. In South
Africa, the police and courts treat complaints by battered women as
less serious than other assault complaints, and there are persistent problems
with the provision of medical expertise to courts when women have been
abused. In Jordan, “honor
killings” occur when families deem women’s behavior improper, and, despite
some legislative reforms, the perpetrators receive lenient sentencing before
courts. In Russia
and Uzbekistan, police
scoff at reports of domestic violence, and harass women who report such
violence to stop them from filing complaints. In Peru,
despite improvements in its domestic violence legislation, the law still
does not protect women from marital rape and stalking. Discriminatory attitudes
of law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges, who often consider
domestic violence a “private” matter beyond the reach of the law, reinforce
the batterer’s attempts to demean and control his victim.
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