SLC22-W5/ GENDER VIOLENCE

Steem greetings @everyone on the Steemit ecosystem and welcome to my blog as I share ideas on the topic “Gender Violence”.

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Before I go into the main subject of the day permit me first to give a brief understanding of what gender violence is all about. It is considered any harmful act perpetrated on a person against their will which leads to abuse of power due to inequality on both men and women.

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When I talk about “power”, this is where the word acts in different ways and when abused, it leads to violence in different aspects and mostly affects women while perpetrators are mostly men. Power means the ability, freedom and your capacity to influence and control decisions about your life. Most often men often abuse their power to the extent that leads to violent perpetrated acts.

Part I

Please tell us if there is a special law in your country to protect women's rights and what is your opinion regarding this law.

Cameroon has a penal code that punishes perpetrators of forced marriages, sexual harrasment, and rape under Article 302 section 1 sub-section 1. Notwithstanding, this law does not address domestic violence nor consider it as a violation of human rights.

The government also created the national commission on Human Rights and Freedom which promotes and protect human rights from a general perspective.

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However, Cameeoon has ratified a number of conventions and protocols that protects human rights. Cameroon constitution states that any international convention when ratified takes supremacy over national laws. An example of such conventions is the Convention on the Elimination of all Forma of Violence against Women and girls (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol and also the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

These laws are put in place to protect women's right but most often victims preferred to die in silence because they do not trust the legal system of the country. The judges at times are corrupt and can receive bribes from perpetrators at the detriment of the victim. The victims at times prefer to stay in silence because they fear further humiliation from their host communities. Most of the victims do not speak out.

Please state whether you consider this law to be effective and whether it does not violate the principle of equality before the law enjoyed by both men and women.

As I earlier mentioned, the laws are put in place to protect women but there is a lot of miscarriage of justice in our legal system.

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Most of the judges are men and might not consider the act as women's rights. They are also corrupt and might give unfair judgments to support their fellow men to continue abusing power over women.

Most often judges do not consider the international conventions ratified by Cameroon. They rely on customary rules which at the end unjustly to women.

Part II

From the list of crimes mentioned in class, say which ones you consider may be crimes of gender violence and which ones may be common crimes committed against a woman or women.

The crimes I classified under gender violence are pepertrated against the person’s will are; physical violence, domestic violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, Trafficking of women, girls and adolescents, and forced prostitution.

Common crimes van be bullying, threats, media violence and institutional violence. These crimes do not directly targets women and perpetrators of these acts do not have a particular gender motive.

Have you or someone close to you been a victim of gender violence? What was the situation? Was the victim able to assert her rights? Do you think the law favoured the victim?

I used to be a victim of gender violence when I was a kid from my uncle who constantly abused us because we were all girls. We were name-called as “prostitutes” just because we were girls. Now, I'm empowered and I can say I'm now a survivor and no more a victim.

Nonetheless, I have someone close to me who is currently a victim of domestic violence. She is constantly being abused by the husband and the family both psychologically, emotionally and economically. The mother-in-law insults her at any given opportunity, and humiliates her.

She has talked about it to me several times and I tried to intervene but she was not willing to file a complaint for proper legal proceedings for reasons best known to her.

Part III

Case Study 1.

A thief arrives at a restaurant and subdues the customers there so that they give him their belongings. A woman refuses to hand over her cell phone and her money, instead, she confronts the thief so he fires his firearm and shoots the aforementioned woman, causing her death.

Please state whether we are dealing with a femicide or a homicide committed against a woman. Explain your answer.

I will consider the act as **Homicide” because the act was not targeting a particular gender. The acts of the perpetrator can be considered aas theft and assault that led to the violation of the victim's rights to life.

Case Study 2.

After some time, a man began insulting his wife, telling her that she was not worthy as a woman. He humiliated her, not letting her work or go out, claiming that a woman belongs to the house and cannot go out without her husband's consent.
One day, in the middle of the argument, the woman tried to respond to his insults and he beat her up, leaving her face with bruises.

Please state whether this is a crime of gender violence or a common crime committed against a woman. Explain your answer.

This is a clear case of gender violence against a woman. The perpetrator who is the husband of the victim insults and humiliates her which causes emotional and psychological violence, he deprived her from her right to work which is economic violence perpetrated on women, and to crown it all, he physical abused her by beating her for trying to speak out.

The perpetrator uses his power wrongfully over the woman because of her gender. His harmful actions were against the wife’s will. His actions are clearly to stay in power and control every decision against the wife’s will.

In summary, gender violence is a complex topic and both men and women are victims. Nonetheless, most victims are women while most perpetrators are men because of abuse of power. Therefore we need to address gender-related violence in an inclusive way.

I will invite @suboohi, @shiftitamanna and @wilmer1988 to share their perspective on the topic.