Violence against Women: State Responsibilities in International Human Rights Law to Address Harmful ‘Masculinities’
| Published date | 01 June 2008 |
| Author | Kirsten Anderson |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600202 |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/2, 173–197, 2008.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 173
PART A: ARTICLES
VIOlenCe agaInsT WOMen:
sTaTe ResPOnsIbIlITIes In InTeRnaTIOnal
HuMan RIgHTs laW TO aDDRess
HaRMful ‘MasCulInITIes’
K A*
Abstract
Increasingly, norms of masculinity are the focus of inter national d evelopment
programmes aimed at e liminating viol ence again st women, as it is recognised that
harmful masculinitie s mu st be ‘ de-mystied’, subjected to scrutiny and ultimately
reconstructed in order for violence agains t wome n to be eect ively eliminate d. To
what exte nt are these developments reected in, and to what extent can they rely on,
international human rights law as imposing an obligation on states to identify an d
address aspects of masculinities that cause and perpetuate violence against women? is
article ex amines the positioning and construction of ma sculinities within the die rent
understandings of violenc e against women in international human rights law.
It must now be men’s work to challenge men’s violence. We can condently take up
the issue because we k now that men are not born to rape or batter. It isn’t in our genes,
hormones or anatomy. It’s lodged in our vision of man hood and the structure s of
patriarchal p ower (…) e fact that most men don’ t explode, or do so r arely,
is a testimony to some sort of ba sic human principle that resists t he more
destruct ive norms of masculinity.1
* BA, LLB (Hons) (Grith); LLM (Public and International Law) (Melbourne); Socio-Legal Researche r,
e Chi ldren’s Legal C entre, United Kingdom. is article was wr itten in partial fulll ment of a
Master of Public and International Law at the University of Melbourne. e author would like to
thank Dia ne Otto for her helpful com ments and advice on an ea rlier dra of this a rticle.
1 Kaufman, M., Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain and the Lives of Me n, Pengui n, Toronto, 2 002,
p. 118.
Kirsten Ande rson
174 Intersentia
1. INTRODUCTION
Violence against women is ‘one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human
rights abuses in the world’.2 Women routi nely experience acts of violence, such as
intimate par tner physical, sexual and emotional abuse; rap e and other acts of sexual
abuse; torture during armed conict; sex-selective abortion or female infanticide;
selective deprivation of food and medical care; honour killings; dowry-related violence;
tracking for sexual exploitation and workplace sexual abuse and harassment.3 e
World Health Organisation has reported that, worldwide, 4 4 percent of women have
experienced some form of gender-based violence.4 Acts of violence against women
can have devast ating and long-lasting consequences, b oth for individual women and
for the broader family, community or society in which she lives. Among 15–4 4 year
old women, it has been found that gender-based violence accounts for more deaths
than t he eects of cancer, malaria, trac injuries and war combined.5 Women who
experience violence may suer f rom physical injuries and disease or psychologica l
harm.6 I n addition, violence against women, by limiting the active role women can
play in the broader communit y, ‘impoverishes so cieties economically, politically
and cu lturally’.7 Whi le particula r experiences of violence a re contextually variable,
violence agains t women cuts across li nes of nationality, cultu re, class, age and race;8
2 United Nations Sec retary-Genera l, ‘Message on the I nternational Day for t he Elimination of
Violence Against Women’, available at: www.un.org /events/women/violence/2007/sg.sht ml ( last
accessed 25 Novembe r 2007).
3 See gener ally Watts, Charlotte and Zimmer man, Cathy, ‘ Violence Agains t Women: Global Scope
and Magnit ude’, e Lancet, Vol. 359, No. 9313, 2002, pp. 1232–1237; Fitzpat rick, Joan, ‘e Use of
Internationa l Human Rights Norms t o Combat Violence Against Women’, in: Cook, R ebecca (ed.),
Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspective s, University of Pennsylvania Press,
Philadelphia , 1994, pp. 532–572; and Coomaraswa my, Radhika and Kois, Lisa M., ‘Violence Against
Women’, in: Askin, Kelly D. and Koenig, Dorea n M. (eds), Women and Internati onal Human Rights
Law: Volume 1, Transnational P ublishers, Ardsley, 1999, pp. 139–177. See also ompson , Marilyn,
‘Boys Will Be Boys: Addressing the Social Cons truction of Gender’, in: Cleaver, Fra nces (ed.),
Masculinitie s Matter! Men, G ender and Developme nt, Zed Books, London, 2002 , pp. 166 –185, at
p. 171.
4 In Society for I nternational Development , Violence Against Women and the C ulture of Masculinity,
Society for Inter national Development, Rome, 2 004, p. 2.
5 UNIFEM, Masculinity and Gende r-Based Viole nce, 2002 , p. 2, available at: http://unifem- eseasia.
org/resources/fac tsheets/UNI FEMSheet5.pdf (la st accessed 5 May 200 8).
6 Idem; UN ICEF, Domes tic Viole nce Again st Women and Girls: Inn ocenti D igest No. 6, Innocenti
Research Cent re, Florence, 200 0, p. 9; and Amnesty I nternational, It’s In Our Han ds: Stop Violence
Against Women, Amne sty International P ublications, London, 20 04, pp. 8–9.
7 Amnesty I nternational, op.cit. (note 6), at p. 9.
8 Bunch, Charlotte , ‘Women’s Rights as Human R ights: Toward a Re-Vision of Human Rig hts’,
Human Rights Quar terly, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1990, pp. 486–498 , at p. 489.
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