Tibetan Women’s Association marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
November 25, 2008
Discrimination against women is not only injustice, but is also an obstacle to the achievement of equality, development and peace in the community in every country.
More than 40 years ago in the Dominican Republic, three sisters were brutally assassinated due to their involvement in political activism against the ruling governmental forces. Though tragedy surrounds this day in 1960, its events have served as a platform for action on the rights of women all around the world. Since 1981, women’s groups have remembered those three brave sisters, along with the unjust violence done against them, every year on November 25, in hopes that a celebration of women’s rights in conjunction with a condemnation of violence against them will help end the gendered, physical discrimination women all around the world constantly endure. In 1999, the United Nations decided to adopt this date as well, naming it the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women,” calling upon the world’s women’s groups to use this day for both the perpetuation of women’s local and global rights and the condemnation of the violence against them.
Tonight, here in Dharamsala, India, we celebrate the rights of all the world’s women, paying special attention to our Tibetan sisters in Tibet and in exile, to our Indian sisters in India and abroad. The rights of the world’s women are neither something that must be earned nor defended: these rights are inalienable; possessed by any and every human no matter her or his race, ethnicity, sex and age, physical or mental composition. And yet constantly we find these rights violated in the form of violence against the world’s women. The United Nations General Assembly describes violence against women as “any act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, psychological, or sexual harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” This violence is characterized by a concentration on the victim’s gender.
In Tibet this sort of violence is perpetrated against those pregnant mothers, forced to have abortions by the Chinese government, sometimes as late as seven or eight months into their term. This is the violence committed against Tibetan Buddhist nuns, held in prison indefinitely for requesting freedom for their country, uttering the words “Dalai Lama”, or for simply possessing a picture of His Holiness. These Nuns are tortured brutally, sexually, and without regard for the rights that are theirs as women, and as human beings. The violence against these women in turn denies their rights as human beings, most crucially: the right to life, the right to equality, the right to the highest standard attainable of physical and mental health, and the right not to be subjected to torture, or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading forms of treatment or punishment. The denial or suspension of these rights harms not only the victims of this violence, but hinders the greater project of global peace.
Such atrocities and violence impedes the in-prints of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW}, especially Article 1 and 2 which China ratified in September 1980. It contradicts the Declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, which reiterated the right of women to determine freely matters relating to their choice of reproduction. This reveals China’s lack of commitment to internationally recognized standards of women’s human rights.
The Tibetan Women's Association urges the government of People's Republic of China, international bodies, non-governmental organizations, and especially women's groups, to stand firm against this situation in Tibet - and against all regimes in the world where women's bodies are ruled by the State.
Though peace is built upon many things, a cornerstone of this goal is a consensus on the essential value of every human life. This value entails a profound respect for life: life of all kinds, shapes, and sizes. Those who have committed the acts of violence against women that we condemn tonight hinder this goal of peace through open disrespect for the intrinsic value of human life. We must come together, as women of both local and global communities, to end this violence with our individual and collective voices.
Tibetan Women's Association (TWA) has 49 regional chapters and over 15, 000 members outside Tibet. Today, TWA is the second largest Tibetan NGO and the only women’s NGO in our exile that advocates human rights for Tibetan women in Tibet and empowerment of Tibetan women in exile, particularly the new refugee women from Tibet.