Children

Sadly the case of infanticide in India is not a new story, but the long term effects of what one may consider the worst form of gender inequality are beginning to rear their ugly head. As a result, showing a noticeable effect on the Indian population, especially in the more densely populated states in the northwest of the country, such as Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Infanticide and selective abortions of female fetuses has now shown signs that it is tilting the gender ratio in these regions, leaving the female to male ratio out of balance.

India’s population has continually increased over the years, but the ratio of females to males has steadily decreased, leaving over one quarter of Indian states have an adult population with fewer than 900 women for every 1,000 men. The decrease in females has lead many regions missing suitable brides, causing men to look else where for women. Many find themselves in what has become more of a desperate search for a wife, leaving many to marry out side of their class or culture, creating an obstacle that goes beyond language for many new wives. A great majority of the wives sought outside of the region are significantly younger, and are arranged into marriages of what some are now calling “…neither marriages of convenience, nor of choice”.

The following article, Killing of baby girls triggers social upheaval in India, found that “social workers documenting the impact of female infanticide and feticide on society insist that such marriages are on the rise”. Significant studies and research are needed to adequately track the trend, however it appears that the hard search for a wife in many states will continue. With this desperation comes the increase and likelihood of human trafficking, which as well is not new to Indian society. “Which analysts say, is on the rise.” leading to an increase in the number of stories such as that of “Sonia, a young woman from Banaras who was sold for $1,000 before a sea of curious faces. The business in trafficking women for marriages wouldn’t be thriving quite so much if female feticide and infanticide were under control.”

Some researchers have suggested that this decrease in female population could cause an increase in all forms of sexual exploitation and violence of women and girls. “Initially sold as wives, many are then resold into sex work or as slaves,” says Raj Singh Chaudhury, an activist from Shakti Vahini (Gulf News). Women and girls are sold for as little as $40, the younger the girl the higher the price that can be sought, leaving girls as a human commodity fueled by the toxic combination of desperation, gender inequality, and poverty.

India is not alone in it’s preference for males, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), regions where son preference is most apparent include; Asia (China, Bangladesh, India, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Taiwan), the Middle East (Iran, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) and most parts of Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon, Liberia, Madagascar, Senegal), as well as Latin America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay). China is likely the most notoriously known for such practices due to its stringent once child policy. “As in India, sex imbalances in China may be exacerbating the trade of women, both internally and across borders. According to official Chinese statistics from 1990 to 1999, on average 8,000 women per year were rescued from forced marriages by authorities (“Broken Bodies - Broken Dreams: Violence against Women (IRIN)).”

The last census in India was done in 2001, the next is due in 2011, the results of this census may be a shocking eye opener to the legacy of infanticide and feticide, as well as to India’s growing internal trafficking problem.

On April 30th, 2008 India’s Infanticide Shame and on October 29th, 2007 I posted India’s Missing Girls, please see both post for more information and background on the topic.

In war there are many weapons that may be employed and while the Kalashnikov or IED may be favored arms in modern warfare, there is one weapon all men carry and more often use. Men are choosing to use their bodies as weapons - in fact their manhood - to attack. The victim is raped in an effort to dehumanize and defeat the enemy, leaving an entire society with long-term suffering as victims cascade across generational divides. The scourge of rape as a weapon, affects not only the individual lives of the victims, but the entire family and community in which they live. Leaving their lasting marks on the entire country’s civil society, this in turn affects our globalized world.

The use of rape as a weapon is one of the most violent and humiliating offenses inflicted on the enemy, the brutalization of rape permanently scars the victim’s mind, soul and often body. Rape is often used as a predecessor to murder, where others survive only to serve as daily reminders to those around them of the tragedies of war. Victims are shunned by their families and communities and many become pregnant as a result of their rapes. Rape leaves a permanent reminder of war and of the enemy through the birth of a child, which places both the mother and child in continual victimization and isolation. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the rape victim, but their entire family, village and community. While rape as a weapon of war continues today, many of the psychological effects have yet to be felt in many communities around the globe.

The situation in Sierra Leone highlights the long-term and lasting effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war. Rape as a weapon of war affects not only the victim, but places all women and girls in fear of sexual violence. Fear dominates the daily life of all woman and girls who are living in a conflict or post-conflict zone. This continual fear leaves victims in constant torment and mental anguish, which causes increased long-term psychological stress and damage. Many physiologists believe the fear alone can cause PTSD. A victim traumatized by the lingering threat of rape, is often too afraid to leave the home to work and lives in constant fear, as with one who is ostracized by their community. For many the war never ends, as the scars and memories of the violence of war haunt them for the remainder of their lives. However most do their best to move on and heal the wounds they can and grow in strength for those which they cannot heal.

The tolerance and standardization of rape as a weapon of war has lead to its international impunity, and thus increased its silence. Impunity regarding the increasingly brutalized use of rape as a weapon of war combined with its effectiveness, only provokes its use, for the perpetrators are less likely to be tried and punished for the use of this weapon, and if convictions do follow the punishment is disproportionate to the crime.

As Nelson Mandela stated:

“Safety and security don’t just happen: they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear. In order to ensure this, we must become tireless in our efforts not only to attain peace, justice and prosperity for countries but also for communities and members of the same family. We must address the roots of violence. Only then will we transform the past century’s legacy from a crushing burden into a cautionary lesson.” (The 2002 World Report on Violence and Health)

There is no doubt that the effects of the use of rape as a weapon of war are effects far-reaching regardless of time, place or culture. Short and long-term support and treatment for victims is substantially lacking, which will only serve to exacerbate the use of rape as weapon of war. Thus an end to the perception that rape is a common and unavoidable tactic of war must occur, making it unequivocally unacceptable. In order to do this there are three main areas of focus which must be in place:

•  One the issue of gender inequality and bias must be removed in all countries, when such programs are in place at peace time it will significantly reduce the stigma and use of rape and gender-based violence in times of conflict.
• Two, there must be a unified international response to ban the use of rape as a weapon of war once and for all, and thus strategies of prevention and awareness must be put into place, including in internally displaced persons and refugee camps and in times of post conflict.
• Three, impunity was come to an end, or victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological and legal attention if they feel there is no retribution or care for which they are safe to receive.

If one is listening, victims will talk, thus if aid and government agencies step forward and ask victims to speak out, then they must be willing to not only listen, but provide them both the short and long-term care and support, including providing physical and financial access to services.

“Any woman or girl who falls victim to this sort of violence, especially rape, is really having her possibilities for contributing to society greatly diminished.” -Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Liberia, Ellen Margrethe Løj (UN News Service).

One of the biggest obstacles in the support and rehabilitation of survivors of sexual violence is finding them adequate shelter. However in Liberia they are looking to ease that burden, as The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has built a new safe house for survivors of sexual violence in the capital, Monrovia. In addition to the safe house UNMIL has also worked to refurbish a former jail in an effort to ease overcrowding in country’s strained prison system. The safe house, who’s operations where handed over to a local NGO, was built as part of a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) supported project, costing $24,000. The safe house is more than just a house for the survivors of sexual violence, as they also receive psychosocial support, basic literacy skills development, vocational training and information about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Liberia’s long running civil war, saw an all too common use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war. Since the end of the conflict in 2003, peace has not erased the scars of violence from the girls and women who where raped and assaulted, due to both the nature of the crimes, for which one never truly recovers and the standing impunity to prosecute the perpetrators of such horrific crimes. It has been estimated that more than half of all women and girls where victims of gender based sexual violence during the 14 year conflict.

The battle against sexual violence is far from over, but the new safe haven is a ray of hope in a dark world which plagues millions of women in Liberia and across the globe. Gender based discrimination and violence remains prevalent in many countries worldwide, especially in West Africa, and the building of a safe house and the establishment of support services in conjunction with sustainable life skills training programs is an example one hopes to see springing up in all countries of conflict. However safe havens and support programs alone should not be seen as the key to end sexual violence, as the roots of gender violence and discrimination must be tackled and overcome before we are to see true progress and advancement of the women of the world. Therefore it is vital that education and awareness programs be put into place, especially in rural communities, to educate families and communities on the realities and long term effects of gender discrimination. Additionally the long standing impunity over gender based crimes, especially the use of rape as a weapon of war, must come to an end.

Save the Children has released it’s 9th Mother’s Day Report Card: The Best and Worst Countries to Be a Mother, this year’s list leaves Sweden as the best place for motherhood and Niger as the worst. The United States Ranked 27th out of 146 countries.

“A mother’s well-being is connected to her children’s well-being,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children. “It is not surprising, then, that in the worst places to be a mom, both women and children die young. There is a great divide between the status of mothers’ health and well-being in rich and poor countries. In rich nations, where women have access to basic health care, giving birth is usually a time of joy. But in poor countries, where there is little or no access to skilled health workers, it is typically tragic. Every woman in the 10 worst countries is likely to suffer the unbearable loss of a child in her lifetime,” added MacCormack

The Report Card is based off of findings in the 2008 State of the World’s Mothers Report, which highlights that some 200 million children under 5 years old around the world do not receive basic healthcare. These neglected children are in the world poorest countries, and the international aid that is directed at the problem is severely lacking in comparison with the need. Save the Children estimates that closing this gap in healthcare need would save some 6 million children each year.

Afghanistan has yet to find a strategy to cope with the growing practice of “loan brides,” young girls traded into marriage as a result of the opium trade. While traffickers get rich by loaning money to impoverished poppy farmers, the families are often are unable to pay the debt. Families are thus forced to give their daughters over as a form of repayment for the debt they have incurred. The instability of poppy farmers is ever growing as efforts to eradicate Afghanistan of the opium trade push on, however one battle over good has now only lead to another battle for the countries mainly poor and illiterate rural poor. It is estimated that some half a million families in the country survive off of poppy farming, and as efforts to introduce other crops continue to fail.

The opium brides of Afghanistan not only leave families shammed and torn apart, but blight the nation with the lasting scars of a generation of lost girls. Girls as young as infants have been know to be promised in marriage over debts, others are teenagers who where looking hopefully towards the future until they where ripped away by the drug trades increasing hold on the countries struggling families. Families such as Shah who has now given his 9 year old daughter Khalida in exchange for a debt off some $2,000 which he was unable to repay after a government crop-eradication team destroyed the families two and a half acre poppy field. ” Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-old drug runner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible. “It’s my fate,” the child says.”

In Afghanistan reports from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and UNICEF, claim as many as 60-80% of marriges in the country are forced and 57% of marriages involve girls under the age of 16, which is the legal age for marriage in the country. The Afghan government put a new 15-page formal marriage contract, the ‘Nikah Nama’, in to place this past March. “The new marriage contract is a strong legal instrument that will end child marriages and will empower women’s legal status after marriage,” said Nibila Wafiq, a women’s rights programme officer for German NGO Medica Mondiale (IRIN).

Child marriages are not just a social and gender problem, but also a health problem as they lead to higher instances of domestic violence and early pregnancies, which leave girls at high risk for death in childbirth, complications, and low birth weights. Please see my other posts on Child Marriage

UN treaty for world’s disabled people takes effect A United Nations pact aimed at boosting the rights of the 650 million disabled people around the world took effect Saturday. Twenty-five countries so far have ratified the treaty, which outlaws discrimination based on disability in the workplace and in education.

Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro has been designated the laureate of the 2008 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The investigative journalist exposed the involvement of wealthy Mexican businessmen and politicians in prostitution and child pornography rings. She also wrote about the violence in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, where hundreds of women have been killed. The prize will be awarded in the Mozambican capital Maputo on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day. The award includes a cash prize of USD 25,000. (Radio Netherlands)

Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise “guardianship” over them, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group has said. The New York-based group says Saudi women have to obtain permission from male relatives to work, travel, study, marry or even receive health care. Their access to justice is also severely constrained, it says. The group says the Saudi establishment sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women. Saudi clerics see the guardianship of women’s honor as a key to the country’s social and moral order.

Study links autism to parents. In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child’s risk of being autistic.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday the country should be ashamed of its frequent abortions of female fetuses, a practice that is widespread because of the country’s deep-seated cultural preference for boys. Every year, an estimated 500,000 female fetuses are aborted because of their gender, due in part to the traditional belief that sons will better support their parents when they are old.

“This is a national shame and we must face this challenge squarely here and now. No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated at a conference on ways to “Save the girl child” on Monday (Google/Associated Press).

The case of infanticide in India closely mirrors the case of infanticide in China, due to the high social desire for boys, which are seen as, however while China’s ‘one baby policy’ compounds the the situation, there is little difference in the plight of unborn females in either country. While infanticide is more widespread in rural populations, it is not only a rural issue and effects all social classes due to the culmination of both social stigma attached to girls and poverty. Girls are seen as an a burden, while boys are looked upon as an investment, and thus the gender balance in the country has heavily shifted. Now many rural areas has such hard populations of males versus females that finding a bride is often a challenge.

This public outcry over India’s continual blind eye to the large scale use of infanticide is a major step in the right direction to not only ending the large scale use of this practice, but to saving the future stability of a nation.

Please see my previous post, India’s Missing Girls for more information and background on the situation of infanticide in India.

In the Online Africa Policy Forum, the NGO Women for Women International explains why ending sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should be a global priority. Patricia Morris, the Director of Program Development for the NGO, went on to explain not only the horrors of gender based violence in times of conflict, but how the effects stretch beyond the victim and effect all of civil society:

“Women’s status in conflict and post conflict countries is a leading indicator of a state’s strength or fragility. Countries in the world where women are the most marginalized, oppressed, and victimized are the ones that are the most fragile; they are the weakest of states. The overwhelming majority of the productive, reproductive and community work that builds strong nations is done by women. When women are destroyed, societies are destroyed and when women are uplifted, societies are uplifted – weak women, weak states, strong women, strong nations. Women must be brought from the background to the foreground of discussions on peace, security and development.”

The epidemic of the use of rape as a weapon of war, I want to point out that while the DRC has one of the highest levels of use of rape in combat, they are far from alone. The use of rape as a weapon of war is rooted deep in our history, however in it’s modern form it has become more violent and more destructive to both the victim and society. The long-term reaches of rape as a tool of warfare go beyond victim and state, they are global and their impact will continue to be felt time and time again. Therefore it is imperative that we make gender inequality a global priority, and see that the use of rape as a weapon ends it’s long run of impunity.

To see the unspeakable horrors of rape as a weapon of war, and it’s effects first hand, you can tune into HBO this month. HBO is airing the documentary The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.

Countries where rape has been used as a weapon of war in recent conflicts include:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Chechnya, Congo, Cyprus, East Timor, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Liberia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam, The Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia), Zimbabwe.

Countries currently engaging in the use of rape as a weapon of war include:
the Sudan, Chechnya, the Central African Republic (CAR,) Congo, and Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC).

Earlier this month in a recent op-ed for the Washington post, Council on Foreign Affairs writer Michael J. Gerson asked, “What does rule of law can mean for women and children in Africa?” His answer, Justice for the Poorest . is what the International Justice Mission (IJM) hopes and works for. ‘The founder of IJM, Gary Haugen, argues that the legal empowerment of the poor is an essential precondition for development.’

While to most in the west when we think of legal empowerment, we think big or corporate, but in many developing nations rule of law is about protection of their basic rights. Women are especially marginalized in the developing world, and thus most have their rights to things such as property, easily violated with little option for legal recourse. Rule of law is absent in many cases of gender based violence, including sex trafficking and the use of rape as a weapon of war. The nature of most of these crimes makes reporting difficult, however it is the continuous impunity over such crimes that leaves most women with a feeling of hopelessness. As impunity only fuels violence and gender inequality for women and girls, it is time states and the international community took a stand. The silence of so many women and children’s pain must be broken, and appropriate justice must be served.

Thus we must end the perception that violations such as violence, slavery, and rape are common, and make it unacceptable for gender inequality to continue to thrive. In order to do this there are three main areas of focus; One the issue of gender inequality and bias must be removed in all countries, when such programs are in place at peace time it will significantly reduce the stigma and use of rape and GBV in times of conflict. Two, there must be a unified international response against such acts as the use of rape as a weapon of war, and thus strategies of prevention and awareness must be put into place, including in IDP camps and in times of post conflict. Three, impunity must end or victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological or legal attention if they feel there is no retribution or care for which they are safe to receive.

If no one is listening, no one will talk. If one is to step forward and ask victims to come out then they must be willing to not only listen to their stories, but to provide them with care and support in both the short and long term, including providing physical and financial access to such services. Many are currently fixated on the trial of a Former Slave who is suing the State of Niger, which could set precedent for many other gender based violence and victims of slavery across Western Africa. Thus let up that rule of law is truly on its way to the women and girls across the developing world.

Women and girls in Sudan’s war torn Darfur region continually face rape and sexual assault, despite increased international awareness in the five years since the start of the conflict. Human Rights Watch calls on government to end sexual violence in Darfur, as neither the Sudanese security forces nor international peacekeepers are doing enough to protect women from attack.

The issue of rape in Sudan is far from new, it is a staple of the conflict, sadly the impunity of the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Sudan is also far from braking news. However thus far out cries over such monstrous crimes have generally fallen on deaf ears, despite reports by aid agencies such HRW and Doctors Without Borders/MSF who released a report on the ‘alarming’ number of rapes in March 2005, The Crushing Burden of Rape, Sexual Violence in Darfur. Nonetheless these reports are just a few of many, however their efforts remain fruitless against the growing impunity and continued instability in Darfur.

Sadly rape is not the end of most victims suffering, as stigma, shame and shame accompany numerous physical and physiological effects long after the rape. Fatima (pictured on the left) was only 15years old when in front of her own mother she was brutally gang-raped. She soon found her self pregnant, but that would not be the end for Fatima, as she was “arrested by Sudanese police and charged with fornication” when she was seven months pregnant (The Age).

Since the dawn of the conflict pro-government militias have continually been accused of using sexually based attacks on women, as a means to terrorize, destabilize and demoralized the civilian population. The Sudanese army has recently criticized a UN report in March which accused soldiers of raping women and girls.

In a report issued April 7, 2008, Five Years On - No Justice for Sexual Violence in Darfur, HRW lays out clear recommendations for both the government of Sudan, rebel forces and aid agencies. Some of the reports recommendations include; the Sudanese government taking a clear stand against sexual assault and rape, the inclusion of female investigators, firewood patrols, better training, awareness and prevention.

The mass scale of rape and sexual assault in Sudan, as in other conflict ridden nations, must be taken seriously and dealt a heavy hand. The impunity must end, and the protection and rebuilding of lives must begin. For the use of rape leaves lasting long term effects on just on the victim, but their families, and community as it erodes the social framework of nations.