La Strada Documentation Center

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Yakin Ertürk. Intersections between Culture and Violence against Women

Document number
1372
Date
2007
Title
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Yakin Ertürk. Intersections between Culture and Violence against Women
Author/publisher
Human Rights Council, United Nations (UN)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Women's rights; International law; Protection;
Summary
The first thematic report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences to the Human Rights Council submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council decision 1/102. Section I is an introduction, section II summarizes the SR's activities in 2006 and section III examines the intersections of culture and violence against women and contains conclusions.The report addresses the dominant culture-based paradigms that justify or explain theviolations of women’s rights, reducing violence against women to a cultural problem. Ittraces the trends in the development of the international normative framework on violenceagainst women in relation to culture that culminated in the recognition of the primacy ofwomen’s right to live a life free of gender-based violence over any cultural considerations.Then, it critically examines how cultural discourses are created, reproduced and instrumentalizedto challenge this primacy and the validity of the principle of gender equality and women’shuman rights in general. It is argued that cultural explanations overlook the material basis ofcultural formations, thus disguising the political and economic foundation of socioculturaldynamics. In order to successfully uphold universally agreed values, in particular the principle thatno custom, tradition or religious consideration can be invoked to justify violence against women,the report identifies the myths around cultural discourses and outlines general guidelines for aneffective strategy to counter and transform culture-based discourses, which constitute one of themajor obstacles to the implementation of women’s rights.
Related documents