Engaging Men in Ending Violence Worldwide
Jun 19, 2009
How can men help change other men’s behavior? How can men and boys of different cultures help end harmful traditional practices that hurt women and girls? How do we promote global messages of non-violence and respect? Leading violence prevention, health and international experts told congressional staff members at a Capitol Hill roundtable last week that the answer to those and other questions is to engage men and boys in violence prevention.
Experts at the roundtable, a part of the Open Square Forum series, included: Gary Barker, International Center for Research on Women; Feroz Moideen, Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF); Claudia Garcia-Moreno, World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Gender, Women and Health and Coordinator, WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health & Domestic Violence; and Regis Mtutu, Sonke Gender Justice Network, in South Africa. They discussed successful programs around the world that are changing social norms and attitudes about violence.
The roundtable helped build support for the reintroduction of the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA), legislation spearheaded by the FVPF in collaboration with Amnesty International USA and Women Thrive Worldwide. I-VAWA, which will soon be introduced in the Senate, authorizes funds for programs in countries around the world to help end violence against women and girls, with an emphasis on fragile nations and conflict zones.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women estimates that at least one of every three women globally will be beaten, raped or otherwise abused during her lifetime. In most cases, the abuser is a member of her own family. The 2005 WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence found that of 15 sites in ten countries – representing diverse cultural settings – the proportion of ever-partnered women who had experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetimes ranged from 15 percent in Japan to 71 percent in Ethiopia.
The Capitol Hill roundtable discussion, Partners for Progress: Engaging Men to End Violence Against Women and Girls Internationally, was made possible by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the International Center for Research on Women, and the Open Square Foundation. It was the first in a series of Open Square Forums designed to generate discussion on solutions to end violence against women globally.
