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Q&A: Women Suffer 'Hidden Genocide' in
Latin America
Natalia Ruiz Díaz interviews SUSANA
CHIAROTTI, expert on violence against women
in the Americas
ASUNCION (IPS) - Counting cases of
machista or sexist violence separately shows
that "what is happening is practically a
genocide, and a hidden one at that," says
Susana Chiarotti, coordinator of the
Committee of Experts on Violence (CEVI)
which is following up on implementation of
the Convention of Belém do Pará.
The Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of
Violence against Women, adopted in the
Brazilian city of Belém do Pará in 1994 by
the 34 members of the Organisation of
American States (OAS), defines all forms of
gender-based violence as human rights
abuses, and stipulates binding measures to
eradicate it.
Chiarotti, an Argentine lawyer and long-time
activist in the regional women’s rights
movement, is also the coordinator of the
non-governmental Latin American and
Caribbean Committee for the Defence of
Women's Rights (CLADEM), which is active in
17 countries.
During a visit to Asunción, the coordinator
of CEVI, which is part of the OAS but works
independently, spoke with IPS about the
progress achieved in recent years and of how
much remains to be done to eliminate
violence against women at all levels of
society in Latin America.
IPS: How much progress has been made in
Latin America toward the eradication of
violence against women since the Convention
was adopted?
SUSANA CHIAROTTI: If we compare the
situation with how things were 30 years ago,
enormous strides have been made. To have a
Convention and a follow-up mechanism, to
begin to have integrated laws on gender
violence and laws on domestic violence, is
something.
From this perspective, the achievements are
extremely significant, because cultural
change is very slow and in 30 years we have
achieved a great deal.
But now we have to make the leap to the
second generation of laws on violence,
covering every area. We also have to
introduce new study modules in law schools
that are more in line with reality today.
These would provide effective tools and
better-trained, more aware people who would
not behave like cave-dwellers, as they still
do in many arenas.
IPS: The Convention is seen above all as
an instrument to combat physical,
psychological or sexual violence against
women in the family or in couple
relationships. But what is its real scope?
SC: The Convention says that states are
obliged to prevent, punish and eradicate
violence against women in the domestic,
community and state spheres. So by signing
Belém do Pará, the states committed
themselves to take action in these other two
areas as well.
When the Committee of Experts started its
work, we had to analyse violence against
women with all of the governments and
identify common problems within a very broad
range.
We found there were four: the legal
framework, access to justice, budgeting and
statistics.
We also found that most countries had
enacted laws that only applied to the
domestic sphere, and did not have integrated
laws including the community and the state,
as the Convention requires.
So there is a legal vacuum in the field of
protecting women. One of the few countries
that has passed an integrated law is Brazil.
Most countries have neutral laws that refer
only to domestic violence, with no
protection provided in other areas.
IPS: What does violence against women in
the community and state spheres consist of?
SC: Violence in the community is very
important because that is where we find
media violence, perpetrated by the media
when they reproduce discriminatory
stereotypes, for instance, in advertising.
A very telling case involved Volkswagen in
Brazil. A Volkswagen dealership in the state
of Rio Grande do Norte, which also repaired
cars damaged in crashes, ran a publicity
campaign showing the face of a battered
woman with the slogan: "Come and we will fix
you up."
When the Human Rights Association in that
state and CLADEM protested to the
dealership, a local journalist said: "These
embittered feminists, who probably wear
severe clothes and have moustaches and who
have not known the glory of God, do not
appreciate creativity and have no sense of
humour."
Volgswagen Brazil ignored the protest and
the organisations took their complaint to
the parent company in Germany, which
immediately revoked its contract with the
dealership and funded seminars with
advertisers in order to dissuade them from
making sexist ads or promoting violence
against women.
This is what I mean by media violence. We
have no tools to deal with it.
As for state violence, we must remember that
in our countries democracy is in the process
of being built, because we have come from
dictatorships which left the seal of
authoritarianism on many institutions, like
the family, schools, hospitals, psychiatric
facilities and prisons, where order or
discipline are confused with
authoritarianism.
We have to work to eradicate this sort of
thing. For example, we have to work on
obstetric violence, which is meted out to
women who go to hospitals to give birth or
for advice on sexual or reproductive health.
IPS: There are better and stiffer laws
now in the region, but the figures on
gender-based crimes are still alarming. What
is needed for this situation to be overcome?
SC: Femicide (a term for misogynist or
gender-motivated murders of women) has to be
fought from several different angles,
involving the security forces, the media and
sociological studies. It doesn't necessarily
need a specific category of its own in the
criminal code.
Some countries like Costa Rica and Guatemala
have already got specific laws on femicide
in place. Other countries can make progress
on femicide prevention by not encouraging
violence against women, by not excusing it
by making exceptions for violent emotions or
honour killings or so many other reasons. So
measures can be taken for preventing
femicides.
IPS: How important is it for gender-based
crime to be tallied separately?
SC: This is a new and very important
development. The observatories we are
setting up throughout the region, to count
how many women are killed by gender
violence, are holding up a mirror to
society.
Previously, they weren't being counted, they
were classified as crimes of passion and
they were forgotten in time. Now they are
being counted and we will be able to prove
that what is happening is practically a
genocide, and a hidden one at that.
If the same number of people were killed for
belonging to a certain ethnic group or
special group, for being black, Jewish or
indigenous, people would react differently.
But they are women, and unfortunately people
are desensitised.
IPS: Are those in power, politicians and
especially governments, doing their part?
SC: Governments maintain an appearance of
political correctness, and most try to show
that they are well aware of the problem. I
don't know how much of what they say they
really feel in their hearts.
No doubt we'll have to wait a while until we
have officials who are more committed, aware
and sincerely concerned. Then we will have
serious policies that are well-supported and
funded.
IPS: How do women, the victims of the
sexist culture that is so embedded in the
region, cope with the problem?
SC: Women are increasingly tougher and less
tolerant of sexism and machismo. We are less
inclined to collude with it and have greater
solidarity with each other, although of
course there are exceptions.
We can also model new roles for our
daughters and granddaughters, provide models
of women who are strong leaders. Thirty
years ago there were hardly any women in the
media, or female presidents or lawmakers.
Now we are portraying different models and
creating our own genealogy. When men speak,
they refer to a masculine genealogy. Now we
women are validating ourselves and citing
our own history.
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