NGO CSW Outcome document for Latin

America and the Caribbean

--An open discussion paper--

Version 11 December 2012

This NGO CSW outcome document for the Latin America and the Caribbean region is submitted by
an independent editing committee appointed by the NGO CSW (See Appendix for the list of NGOs).
The purpose of NGO outcome documents is to ensure civil society a voice in the CSW Outcome
document process. It is the result of wide consultation among NGOs but remains an open platform
for continued dialogue before, during and after the CSW.

I. Violence against women & the legal framework in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against
Women Convention of Belm do Par, adopted in Belm do Par, Brasil, on 9 June 1994 during
the 24th session of the Organization of American States (OAS), is the only binding international
instrument that the Latin American and Caribbean region has to address violence against women.
It was ratified by 32 of the 34 countries of the OAS, which means that the governments of the
region assumed the commitment to adjust their legal and policy framework to the terms of the
Convention.
Although most of the countries in the region have moved forward in terms of legislation
regarding violence against women, program development and implementation of care services
for women victims of domestic violence and many countries in the region have passed laws or
amended their penal codes to punish sexual crimes and domestic violence and to provide powers
to issue protective orders, the Convention of Belem Do Para has still not been fully incorporated
as legislative framework by all countries in the region.
There are few countries in the region that have introduced legislation to prevent and punish
violence experienced by women and girls in the public domain, as stipulated in the Convention
of Belem Do Para:
Violence against women shall be understood to include physical, sexual and psychological
violence: that occurs within the family or domestic unit or within any other interpersonal
relationship, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the
woman, including, among others, rape, battery and sexual abuse; that occurs in the community
and is perpetrated by any person, including, among others, rape, sexual abuse, torture,
trafficking in persons, forced prostitution, kidnapping and sexual harassment in the workplace,
as well as in educational institutions, health facilities or any other place; and that is perpetrated
or condoned by the state or its agents regardless of where it occurs.
Argentina is one country that does have a national law addressing violence against women in all
spheres in which it occurs, including the public domain, since the approval of Law 26.485 in
early 2009, which is aligned with the Convention. However, countries such as Chile, Uruguay
and Brazil, which also ratified the Convention, have legislation to address violence against
women only in the domestic sphere, ignoring the many forms of violence suffered by girls and
women outside the family. Other obstacles are found in countries such as Uruguay, where the
criminal law related to sexual crimes stipulates as grounds for acquittal the passion caused by
adultery, giving the judge the power to forgive the offender for the so-called passion provoked
by adultery. Meanwhile, some countries laws still do not criminalize certain offenses against
sexual integrity such as marital rape and sexual harassment.
Even in countries where progress has been made toward achieving a proper legislative
framework in the field of gender violence, due to the lack of implementation and the difficulties
women face in accessing justice, this is not sufficient to ensure the protection of girls and women
from becoming victims of violence. The Inter-American Human Rights Commissions report

Access to justice for women victims of violence in the Americas, says that although it is
mindful of the efforts that States have made to adopt a legal and political framework through
which to address gender-based violence the formal existence of the law and policy is one
thing, their practicality and effectiveness in remedying acts of violence against women is
altogether another. 1 The report also states that the judicial response to cases involving violence
against women is notably deficient and hardly on par with the severity and impact of the
problem. The administration of justice is influenced by gender stereotypes and discrimination,
resulting in measures that protect the aggressor and victimize women, allowing violent acts to go
unpunished.

II. The current situation of Violence against Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
Throughout the region, it is very difficult to obtain statistics on violence against women due to
the lack of unified registers that gather this information. Despite this significant obstacle in
having clear and correct data, statistics that are available show a significant increase in the
frequency of violence against women in its different forms, especially femicide. The multiple
forms of violence and discrimination affect women and girls worldwide. In public and private
spheres of life women are exposed to abusive situations that threaten their health and their lives,
not only due to the direct effects of violence but also because it limits their access to education
and health care services and increases their social marginalization and violation of their rights.
Historically in Latin America, many countries have undergone military dictatorships and
transitioned back to democracy, but continue to be home to armed conflicts related to
militarization, armed groups, narcotrafficking networks and human trafficking networks, in
which women and girls are particularly vulnerable, considering that violence against women is
used as an weapon of conflict. With the most emblematic cases being Mexico, Colombia,
Guatemala and Honduras, it is seen that Central America is no exception. 2
Honduras in particular, which is classified by official reports to the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights as one of the countries in Latin America with the most serious human rights
violations. As seen in other examples, the problem of violence against women is exacerbated in
general climate of violence, conflict and impunity. This general tolerance of violence against
women also contributes to the high frequency of the most extreme form of violence against
women femicide-, in which Honduras is third in the sub-region following El Salvador y
Guatemala, which is explored below.
Although Nicaragua does not show the very same characteristics, there has still been a
significant increase in the number of reports of violence against women received by the
1

Inter-American Court of Human Rights/Organization of American States (2007). Access to justice for women victims of
violence in the Americas: http://www.cidh.org/women/Access07/tocaccess.htm
2
Informe Final de Femicidios en Honduras 2011. Impunidad: UN grito sin respuesta. Campaa Nacional contra los Femicidios
(2011): http://www.contralosfemicidios.hn/images/generales//publicaciones/2012/09septiembre/InformeFinaldeFemicidios.pdf

Womens Offices between 2006 and 2012, reaching approximately 95 reports each day and
almost 30,000 a year. Women who must go through the Public Ministry for legal defense face
diverse obstacles in accessing justice, since they must fulfill the requirements of providing proof
and fulfill all the investigations required by the National Police, the rotation of public attorneys
for the same case in different judiciary stages, rescheduling of hearings and trials, lack of
information, lack of financial resources of the victims, among other barriers that discourage
violence victims to fight for justice. 3
In South America, there are greatly varying contexts. That of Colombia may show more
similarities to contexts of generalized conflict and violence as seen in Central American
countries. The armed conflict and the resulting displacement of a large part of the population in
Colombia it has been found to affect women differently from men. Refuge in towns and cities is
often insecure, putting displaced women at greater risk of sexual violence. 4 Most of the survivors
of sexual violence were displaced when they suffered the attack of were forced to leave their
place of residence after the attack. The numbers are not showing reductions. In 2011, the
National Institute of Legal Medical and Forensic Sciences carried out 22,597 examinations into
cases of sexual violence, compared to 12,732 in 2000.5
In Peru, according to a 2010 government survey, 38.4% of women express having suffered
physical violence by their spouse or partner.6 However, this survey only considers intimate
partner violence, and therefore only takes into account acts of violence that occur in the family
context and private sphere. 7 According to the same report, in 2009 only 16.1% of the violence
victims surveyed went to an institution in search of help, while 41.6% of them went to family
members for help. Among those who turned to institutions, 70% of them went to the Police
Station.8 The 100,800 reports of domestic violence filed with the police nationally in 2010
represented a 5% increase from the previous year. That same year, the Public Ministry reported
an even greater number of reports of domestic violence (128,198) and 1,704 reports of
deprivation of sexual freedom, referring primarily to trafficking victims. None of the statistics
are sex-disaggregated. Physical violence was found to be more prevalent among divorced,
separated or widowed women (59,5 %) and among women aged 40-44 (42,9 %), with the largest
percent of victims pertaining to the middle quintile in terms of income (45.1 %). Physical
violence against women has a slightly higher prevalence in urban areas (39.2%) than in rural
areas (36.5 %).
In Chile, registers of domestic violence have shown a significant increase (284%) in the number
of cases filed between 1995, when there were 38.200, and 2007, when there were 108.538, and
continued to increase until 2008 after which point it remained more stable. During this whole
3

Observatorio Nacional de Violencia de Pareja, Violencia Sexual y Femicidio, Red de Mujeres contra la Violencia -Nicaragua,
http://reddemujerescontralaviolencia.org.ni/
4
AI report. Sexual violence in Colombia 2012.
5
IBID.
6
Segn la Encuesta Demogrfica y de Salud Familiar 2010 ENDES (PERU).
7
Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres en el Per 2010. NGO Demus. 2010
8
INEI, 2009

period, 90% of the victims were women. According to the only national survey on domestic
violence and sexual crimes of the Ministry of the Interior, 35.7% of all women in Chile between
the ages of 18 and 59 have been a victim of domestic violence. Among these cases, the most
predominant form of violence is psychological only (between 8.4 and 18.9%), psychological a nd
physical (10.3 to 16%) and a combination of psychological, physical and sexual (7.1 to 21.4%),
with psychological violence being present in most cases of other forms of violence. 9 In 2005 a
Domestic Violence Law was passed, which represents an advance in recognizing this type of
violence as a punishable crime. The law also increases the protection measures for victims as
well as the sentences for the aggressors.
In Argentina there are no national statistics, rather only statistics from some specific provinces
and cities. In Buenos Aires cases of domestic violence have been increasing each year, with the
Office of Domestic Violence filing 654 cases in 2010, 708 in 2011 and 797 in 2012.10 Of the
victims, 63% were women, 15% girls and 14% boys. 81% of the aggressors were men and 80%
of them were an intimate partner or ex partner of the victim. In 96% of the cases there was
psychological violence, in 72% physical violence, in 42% economic violence, and in 15% sexual
violence. In order to monitor the grave situation that continues to grow in the country there is
urgent need for a unified national register of violence against women. NGOs working on issues
of violence against women have declared a National Emergency of Violence against Women,
and are calling on the government to officially declare this situation and to apply the 2009
National Law against Violence against Women, which has yet to be implemented.
In Brazil, 43% of women reported having suffered some form of gender-based violence in their
lifetime11. The Central for Womens Care, a national hotline run by the Secretary of Womens
Politics (SPM) that receives reports of violence and provides information on services for
violence victims, received 734.416 calls in 2010, including a total of 108.546 cases of violence.
58.8% of these were physical violence, followed by physiological violence (25.3%), moral
violence (11.6%), and sexual violence (2.1%), among others of less frequency. 43.1% of cases of
physical violence occurred in the womans own homes and 36.8% in public areas. 12 However,
they do not collect information on the victims place of residence -urban or rural-, education
level, in what way the victims were hurt or if they were in serious condition. Data from 2011 on
sexual violence, and rape specifically, shows that the majority of victims were under 12 years of
age, while the next age group was 12-17 years, while older age groups showed significantly
lower rates. In these same cases, the majority of the rapists fell in the 30-34 age group, followed
by the 25-29 age group and the 18-24 age group. This reflects that in most cases it is an adult
male committing sexual violence against minors, highlighting girls great vulnerability to this
type of violence.
9

DOMOS Centro de Desarrollo de la Mujer. Informe final estudio. Estimacin del Costo de la Violencia Contra las Mujeres en
Chile en el contexto intrafamiliar. 1 de Octubre de 2010.
10
Office of Domestic Violence (OVD), 2012 data: http://www.csjn.gov.ar/docus/documentos/verdoc.jsp
11
Anurio das Mulheres Brasileiras 2011, Secretaria de Polticas para as Mulheres e Departamento Intersindical de Estatstica e
Estudos Socieconmicos (Dieese).http://www.dieese.org.br/anu/anuarioMulheresBrasileiras2011.pdf
12
Anurio das mulheres brasileiras 2011, DIEESE.

In the Caribbean, findings of the World Bank and other studies characterize the Caribbean as
one of the regions with the highest rate of violent crimes, including extensive violence against
women. Although all CARICOM countries have signed the UN CEDAW agreement and other
international and regional agreements, levels of violence against women have not gone down and
accurate data that fully quantifies the problem is not being collected. Most countries in the
region do not collect disaggregated and pre-defined data on the issue. While data is insufficient,
those available reveal a concerning trend of increasing violence against women including
femicide, especially over the last ten years in different countries of the region. A 2006 UNICEF
study on gender-based violence in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, pointed out that
70% of young girls in Haiti had been victims of some form of sexual abuse. Regionally,
UNICEF (2006) found that 42.8% of girls had been victims of forced sex before they were 12.
Preliminary research suggests that the socio-economic status of victims and perpetrators as well
as their household environments, may play a role. Research in Jamaica 13 found in one
geographic area of the country 79% of the victims of GBV were employed while only 31% of
the perpetrators were employed. The catchment area for the police division in which the study
took place, included low to upper income communities. The main trouble spots in the
community were the low and middle income areas. 69% of the victims were either related to or
knew the perpetrators. The majority of the victims were females between 25-44yrs old and the
perpetrators were males between 26-35yrs old.
As a unique case in the region given the political, environmental and humanitarian context, Haiti
has a very particular situation regarding sexual violence and displacement. Although there is
little official data since the countrys first normative structure for addressing violence against
women was not created until 2004, the high incidence of violence against women and
particularly sexual violence led many non-governmental and international organizations to
monitor and study the phenomenon. Sexual violence has been found to be the most frequent form
of gender-based violence against married women, accounting for 29% of cases of violence
reported in Haiti, followed by physical violence (19%). A 2010 study 14 found that 11% of
women have experienced forced sex by their male intimate partner in the last 12 months, a
statistic that is much higher than in neighboring countries: 4% in Dominican Republic and 3% in
Jamaica. The high frequency of all forms of violence against women and especially sexual
violence became even greater after the 2010 earthquake. Makeshift displacement camps and
other temporary shelters and slums are where women and girls are most affected by violence
since it is a context where they are made especially vulnerable to rape and sexual harassment.
Young women and girls are most often the victims. Even before the earthquake, 40% of 500 rape
cases were among girls under the age of 18.15 Despite the increase of rape in the camps, it has
been found that fear of discrimination prevents victims, who are usually from the poorest classes,
from filing complaints and the lack of shelter and guidance for women has also been a problem
in tracking and building trust with the victims.

13

Dunn, L and Sutherland, V. (2009, revised 2010) Gender Based Violence in Jamaica : A Profile of of Victims and
Perpetrators A Preliminary Case Study. University of the West Indies, Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Mona.
14
Contreras, Bott, Guedes & Dartnall (2010), in Kong, J.Y. (2011) The Hidden Epidemic: VAW in Haiti.
15
MSF (2007), in Kong, J.Y. (2011) The Hidden Epidemic: VAW in Haiti.