New Handbook on laws against violence against women

The Division for the Advancement of Women, located in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, has published a Handbook for Legislation on Violence Against Women.
The 66-page manual provides a model framework for legislation addressing violence against women. This framework is divided into 14 chapters, discussing broad topics such as implementation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as more specific guidance on protection orders and sentencing. The handbook is targeted at parliamentarians, government officials, civil society and U.N. staff, and was borne of out a May 2008 meeting of experts -- convened by the Division for the Advancement of Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime -- regarding legislation of address violence against women.
The handbook is intended to assist states without (or with inadequate) legislation to address violence against women, thus meeting their international legal obligations "to enact, implement and monitor legislation addressing all forms of violence against women."

The publication is important in light of news, released in anticipation of last week's 10th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, that "70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime." The prevalence of such violence is exacerbated by inadequate legal protections for female survivors of violence throughout the world. Consider, for example:

► in Haiti, spousal rape is not a crime;

► under the Egyptian penal code, the murder of a wife (but not of a husband) who has committed adultery is dropped to a misdemeanor on account of "extenuating circumstances";

► in Yemen, men who kill female relatives for "immoral behavior" such as sex outside of marriage, receive a maximum of only one year in prison--as opposed to harsher penalties for other murders;

► female genital mutilation is still legal in states such as Gambia; and

► 102 states lack legislation on domestic violence.

In the United States, the International Violence Against Women Bill, slated for re-introduction before the House of Representatives this week by Rep. William Delahunt, includes provisions for assisting nations with high levels of violence against women to develop legal and judicial protections for victims of gender-based violence. If passed, this bill, along with the United Nations' handbook, represent a start to assisting states to meet their international legal obligations to address violence against women.

Hopefully, these efforts will translate into a reduction in the prevalence of violence against women throughout the world.

On February 18

On this day in ...

... 1965, Gambia gained independence from Britain. Today this sliver of a West African republic (left), less than half the size of the state Maryland, has 1.7 million people. Its capital, Banjjul, was the site where the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was adopted in 1981.

... 1972, in People v. Anderson, California's Supreme Court held 6-1 that the state's death penalty violated the ban on "cruel or unusual punishment" contained in California's Constitution, and commuted the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment. Later in the same year the state's voters approved a constitutional amendment reinstating capital punishment. Since this time the state has executed 13 persons; another 667 are on death row (right). (photo credit)

(Prior February 18 posts are here and here.)

On this day

On February 17, ...
... 1821, Eliza Rosanna Gilbert was born in Grange, County Sligo, Ireland. She and her family moved to India, where her father died 2 years later; eventually she was sent to schools in Scotland and England. Her marriage by elopement at 19 with a British lieutenant faltered within years, and the 22-year-old Irishwoman launched a career under the stage name “Lola Montez, the Spanish dancer” noted for her tarantula dance. Her adventures in Europe included a tumultuous stint as mistress to Bavaria's King Ludwig I, also called "Louis":

Under Montez's influence (the cabinet became known as the “Lolaministerium”), Louis inaugurated liberal and anti-Jesuit governmental policies, but his infatuation with her helped to bring about the collapse of his regime in the revolution of 1848.

Thereafter she journeyed to Gold Rush California and then on to New York, where she died, at age 40, a philanthropist. (credit for circa 1855 photo)

... 1965, Gambia readied to become independent from Britain at midnight. The 1st "African nation conquered by the British," Gambia, an Atlantic Coast state surrounded on 3 sides by Senegal would become "the 21st member of the Commonwealth, as well as the 116th member of the United Nations." In 1981 its capital, Banjul, hosted the conference that adopted the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. (map credit)

On July 2, ...

... 2006, the 1st 11 judges to serve on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights were sworn in at an African summit meeting in Banjul, Gambia. They included 2 women, Sophia A.B. Akuffo, formerly a Justice on the Supreme Court of Ghana, and Kellelo Justina Masafo-Guni, formerly a Justice on the High Court of Lesotho.
... 1966, France conducted its 1st atmospheric nuclear weapon test (left), code-named Aldebaran, at its Centre d'Expérimentation du Pacifique near Mururoa in French Polynesia; earlier testing had been conducted in Algeria. According to Atomic Forum:

Apparently the local populations were not notified about the radiological situation.
Documents recently made public state that four days after the test, drinking water was measured to contain six times normal levels of radioactivity on Mangareva. Unwashed lettuce contained 666 times the normal level. Six days after the test, levels in drinking water were 50 times above normal background levels.