Witches, Widows & Weddings

A POLITICAL & PUBLIC WILL FRAMEWORK to address human rights violations

United Nations

UN Palais des Nations – Geneva, Switzerland

Lori Ann Post, PhDAssociate Professor and Research Director

YALE UNIVERSITY

June 22, 2015

Witches are still burned?

• Growing desires for land along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline are allegedly causing a rise in ‘witch lynchings’ by residents to intimidate their elderly relatives who own the title deeds of desirable areas.

• Sadaka Muruu, 100, who owns 12 acres of sought-after land in coastal Kilifi county, claimed she was told by her grandchildren that they would burn her alive after investors asked about purchasing it.

• The frightened grandmother was allegedly dragged naked from her home in January by relatives who had turned up without notice, and told neighbors they had caught her doing witchcraft.

Forced Child Brides

Widow Cleansing

• Theresa Chilala, a 79-year-old widow who lives in this hilly region about 180 miles from Lusaka, the capital of Zambia

• Achila’s in-laws drove her off her husband's property. They also took away her livestock, forcing her to start over as an old woman on this new homestead.

• Chilala's husband died in 1990 and, for four years, she refused to be "sexually cleansed," a traditional Tonga custom in which a widow is inherited by her in-laws after she has sex with one of her dead husband's male relatives.

Take Aways

• GBV as a Human Rights issue

• What is Political Will?

• What is Public Will?

• How PPW can decrease GBV?

• How culture plays a role in GBV?

DefinitionsPolitical Will (Post et al. 2010)

Public Will (Raile et al. 2014)

A sufficient set of decision makers

A social system’s

With a common understanding of a particular problem on the formal agenda

Shared recognition of a particular problem

Is committed to supporting

And resolve to address the situation

A commonly perceived, potentially effective policy solution

In a particular way through sustained collective action

Toolkit for Developing Public & Political Will

Task 1: Identify key political actors and public stakeholders in issue area

Task 2: Determine existing problem and solution definitions

Task 3: Align problem and solution definitions, as necessary

Task 4: Build firm commitments and mutual accountability

Task 5: Evaluate progress in tasks 1-4 and adjust as necessary

• “Violence against women” is…a violation of human rights & a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in…physical, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

Istanbul Convention

Coercive Control

• By Evan Stark

Coercive Control is a strategic course of conduct designed to establish and extend male privilege in personal life through fear, economic dependence, shame, isolation and the arbitrary deprivation of women’s human rights and liberties.

Physical/Sexual Violenc

e

Intimidation&

Stalking

Isolation Control

Coercive Control

How Chinese women solved a 1000 year

problem

Without Western interference!

An emperor had a favorite concubine

1000 Years ago……….

Foot binding started with the royal court and then spread throughout

China

3 Inch Feet

Became a status symbol

Became necessary to marry!

The ball touched the heal!

Between ages 4-6, the feet are massaged, four toes broken, soaked, bound and

wrapped

During the British Occupation,missionaries tried to stop the

practice

Social marketing campaign. It had no effect!

The Emperor, British government, Communist Party

outlawed the practice!

Political will exists when “a sufficient set of decision makers with a

common understanding of a particular problem on the formal

agenda is committed to supporting a commonly perceived,

potentially effective policy solution.”

Political Will existed to end foot binding so why did it continue?

Failure to secure Public Will!

No Public Will Existed

Until………………………

A small group of Chinese women signed

a contract

Forbidding their sons to marry a bound girl!

Footbinding stopped in one small village!

The practice of unbound marriages spread and footbinding was eradicated in 3 years!

A small group of women were able to mobilize

Public Will

Public will exists when “a social system has a shared recognition

of a particular problem and resolves to address the situation in a

particular way through sustained collective action.”

When Public and Political Will are aligned, social change is

possible

All mothers love their daughters!

Footbinding was the lessor of two evils!

Female Genital Cutting

Similar to footbinding, FGC results in infection, pain, death, injuries! It was practiced in the United

States to stop female hysteria!

Outlawed in every country! Condemned by every religion!

We have political will but no public will!

Western feminists are outraged!

It has no impact on female genital cutting except to alienate women who practice FGC

from the West

All mothers LOVE their daughters!

Similar to footbinding, a small group of women in Senegal signed a contract that they would not allow their sons to marry cut girls.

There as been some success locally!

Martelo Syndrome

• GBV is deeply rooted in cultural traditions that need to be considered when mobilizing public and political will to resonate rather than alienate.

• GBV is universal! Don’t victim blame.

• What varies is the prevalence and taxonomies of GBV.

Neck Coils

Spinal cord injuries, pain, disabilities, suffocation, death, dependency on rings.

Wasp Waist<19 Inches

Organs are squeezed and reorganized, suffocation, fainting, miscarriage, death, lodged food!

Pinky Amputation AKA Stiletto Surgery

Permanently damaged tendons, painful feet! Women without amputations can still own land and hold a job and don’t need a husband to survive. 87% of American women have painful feet due to shoes but its really a civil rights issue.

Malabo Declaration on Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity (June

2014)

USAID Food Security Project is loaded with GBV issues

…and Human Rights

• Violence = Right to Security

• Intimidation and Degradation =Right to Dignity & Live Without Fear

• Isolation= Right to association

• Control = Liberty and EQUALITY Rights

Gender Based Violence as a Human

Rights Issue• 805 million people are dealing with hunger in the world. Women

produce more than half the food. Yet, women farmers are often deprived of such basic rights as land ownership, which keeps them from producing to their full potential. The situation is so uneven, in fact, that if male and female farmers had equal access to resources, food output would increase to pull 150 million people out of hunger. Women own fewer working animals and don’t control what they earn. They have less education and are less likely than male farmers to own modern advancements such as seeds, fertilizers, pest control measures, and mechanical tools. Their plots of land are less fertile than male plots and women are less likely to secure loans. We cannot begin to increase food security until we address the gendered nature of global agriculture. The global community needs to consider financial exploitation as gender based violence and we need to stop thinking about individual acts of violence and focus on patterns of behavior that are ongoing, systematic and cumulative in effects. GBV goes beyond the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse to include the deprivation of a woman's freedom in her personal, social, economic and political life.