June 2012 VAW Monitor

June 2012
The  Stop Violence Against Women website (STOPVAW) is a forum for information, advocacy and change. This site addresses violence against women as one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide. STOPVAW provides women's rights advocates with information and advocacy tools focused on ending the most endemic forms of violence against women in the region, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and trafficking in persons.

StopVAW Website News

What's New on StopVAW:

 
National News
China
  • China: North Korean Women Refugees Forced into Sexual Exploitation (More information)  
India
  • India: New Efforts to Celebrate Girl Children Hope to Challenge Declining Sex Ratio  (More information)

Nepal 

Papua New Guinea 

  • Papua New Guinea: New community Justice System Seeks Empowerment of Women and Children (More information)

South Africa

  Sri Lanka

  • Sri Lanka: Police Branch Created to Improve Domestic Violence Response (More information)

  Tajikistan

 Tanzania   

  • Tanzania: Serengeti Sees Launch of HIV/AIDS, Gender-Based Violence Campaign (More information)

  United States

  • United States: Sexual harassment Class-Action Suit Dismissed (More information)
  • United States: Jury Returns Split Verdict in Sex Trafficking Case (More information)
  • United States: Female Immigrant Farmworkers Vulnerable to Sexual Abuse           (More information)
  • United States: House Passes Restrictive Version of Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Bill (More information)
  • United States: Campus Safety Bill Fails to Compel Schools to Comply with Vice President's Call to Address Sexual Assault (More information) 
InternationalandRegionalInternational and Regional News
Mona Eltahawy's Article Challenging Misogyny in the Middle East Sparks Backlash

 After surviving a sexual assault in Tahrir Square while covering the Arab Spring in Egypt, Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian journalist, wrote an essay entitled "Why Do They Hate Us" for Foreign Policy magazine. (More information) 


West Africa: Call for Governments to Criminalize Domestic Violence

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) describes in its report, Let Me Not Die Before My Time: Domestic Violence in West Africa, the perverse problem of domestic violence in the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  (More information) 

   

New Research and Reports
Special Rapporteur Right to Health Report Highlights Special Concerns of Women 
The 2012 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health includes a section that highlights the special concerns of women. The report argues that "it is critical that a gendered perspective be adopted in the formulation and implementation of occupational health laws and policies."  (More information)

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 Is your country in the process of drafting or amending a domestic violence law?

The Advocates for Human Rights provides commentary to laws and amendments on domestic violence upon request. See examples of our Commentary on National Laws here.

 

Additionally, The Advocates for human rights works on domestic violence legal reform, including trainings for legal professionals and extensive research and reports that monitor domestic violence laws and implementation in partner countries. Learn more about this work.

 

To request commentary or to inquire further, please contact Cheryl Thomas at cthomas@advrights.org.

 

Current staff members of The Advocates for Human Rights involved with the development of STOPVAW include: Mary Ellingen, Beatriz Menanteau, Mary O'Brien, Rosalyn Park, Robin Phillips, Helen Rubenstein, and Cheryl Thomas. Current interns and volunteers include Lauren Woodbury, Laura Stecker, Eleanor Lewis and Eleanor Frisch .

 

www.stopvaw.org / www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org