last updated February 1, 2006
United Nations conference documents address the issue of domestic violence. They are widely recognized as consensus documents—that is, documents that reflect an international consensus on the state of international law. While not legally enforceable, they are, as one writer states, "signposts of the direction in which international human rights law is developing and should influence states that have accepted a commitment of progressive development toward enhanced respect for human rights in their international conduct and domestic law." Rebecca J. Cook, The Elimination of Sexual Apartheid: Prospects for the Fourth World Conference on Women 29 (1995).
The Report of the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, Copenhagen, July 1980, U.N. Doc A/CONF.94/35 (80.IV.30), was the first time domestic violence was explicitly mentioned in an official document of the United Nations. Domestic violence is referred to several times in the document. The Legislative Measures section states:
Legislation should also be enacted and implemented in order to prevent domestic and sexual violence against women. All appropriate measures, including legislative ones, should be taken to allow victims to be fairly treated in all criminal procedures.
At the 1985 Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, domestic violence received significant attention. The final conference report called on governments to "undertake effective measures, including mobilizing community resources to identify, prevent and eliminate all violence, including family violence, against women and to provide shelter, support and reorientation services for abused women and children." Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, held in Nairobi, July 1985, including Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.116/28Rev.1 (85.IV.10).
The final conference document from Second World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in June 1993, was the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (A/CONF.157/23), 12 July 1993. The Vienna Declaration stated:
In particular, the World Conference on Human Rights stresses the importance of working towards the elimination of violence against women in the public and private life . . . the elimination of gender bias in the administration of justice and the eradication of any conflicts which may arise between the rights of women and the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices.
Violence against women, including domestic violence, was a major focus at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The conference document, the Beijing Platform for Action, identifies domestic violence as a human rights violation. The Platform states: "Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms." It addresses violence against women as a separate "Critical Area of Concern" and includes it under the "Human Rights" section. The Beijing Platform outlines many specific actions governments, nongovernmental groups and others should take to confront and combat violence against women, including strengthening legal systems' response to domestic violence.
Five years later, at the United Nations' conference, Beijing plus 5: A Special Session on Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century, the final document detailed obstacles for women and included domestic violence. The language of the document is strong and very specific:
14. Obstacles. Women continue to be victims of various forms of violence. Inadequate understanding of the root causes of all forms of violence against women and girls hinders efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls. There is a lack of comprehensive programs dealing with the perpetrators, including programs, where appropriate, which would enable them to solve problems without violence. Inadequate data on violence further impedes informed policy-making and analysis. Sociocultural attitudes which are discriminatory and economic inequalities reinforce women's subordinate place in society. This makes women and girls vulnerable to many forms of violence, such as physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation. In many countries, a coordinated multidisciplinary approach to responding to violence which includes the health system, workplaces, the media, the education system, as well as the justice system, is still limited. Domestic violence, including sexual violence in marriage, is still treated as a private matter in some countries. Insufficient awareness of the consequences of domestic violence, how to prevent it and the rights of victims still exists. Although improving, the legal and legislative measures, especially in the criminal justice area, to eliminate different forms of violence against women and children, including domestic violence and child pornography, are weak in many countries. Prevention strategies also remain fragmented and reactive and there is a lack of programs on these issues . . . .
69. (a) As a matter of priority, review and revise legislation, where appropriate, with a view to introducing effective legislation, including on violence against women, and take other necessary measures to ensure that all women and girls are protected against all forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence, and are provided recourse to justice;
(b) Prosecute the perpetrators of all forms of violence against women and girls and sentence them appropriately, and introduce actions aimed at helping and motivating perpetrators to break the cycle of violence and take measures to provide avenues for redress to victims;
(c) Treat all forms of violence against women and girls of all ages as a criminal offence punishable by law, including violence based on all forms of discrimination;
(d) Establish legislation and/or strengthen appropriate mechanisms to handle criminal matters relating to all forms of domestic violence, including marital rape and sexual abuse of women and girls, and ensure that such cases are brought to justice swiftly . . .
Other United Nations conference documents address the issue of domestic violence. The Programme of Action from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, articulates the need for government attention to all forms of violence against women. This need was emphasized again in the "Cairo plus 5" document, the Programme for Action, from the second International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1999. The Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development from the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen also calls on governments to take effective measures to combat and eliminate all forms of violence against women.
The Durban Declaration and Program of Action from the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, recognizes that the intersection of gender and race, ethnicity or other status can make women particularly vulnerable to certain kinds of violence and calls on governments "[t]o consider adopting and implementing immigration policies and programs that would enable immigrants, in particular women and children who are victims of spousal or domestic violence, to free themselves from abusive relationships." | 