November 25 Is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

On this day in 1960 three sisters from the Dominican Republic—Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal—were violently assassinated for their political activism and opposition to the dictatorship of Raphael Trujillo. The sisters, known as the "Unforgettable Butterflies," became a symbol of the crisis of violence against women in Latin America. This date has been acknowledged since the 1980s by activists as the day against violence.

In December 1999 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 54/134, designating November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to commemorate the Mirabal sisters’ lives and promote global recognition of gender violence. In doing so, the United Nations acknowledged that, in order to combat the global crisis of violence against women and girls, all nations must make a concerted effort to address this issue and increase public awareness of this form of violence. In adopting the resolution, the United Nations explicitly recognizes that

• violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, and this has led to the domination over and discrimination against women and to the prevention of their full advancement;
• the human rights of women and girls are inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of universal human rights, and there is further need to promote and protect all human rights of women and girls; and
• the efforts made by civil society and nongovernmental organizations have contributed to a worldwide awareness of the negative impact—both on social and on economic life—of violence against women.

Alleviating the Impact of Violence Against Women in the United States

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that intimate-partner-violence survivors lose almost 8 million days of paid work per year and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity. The cost of the violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year. This includes $4.1 billion for direct medical and mental health services and $1.8 billion in productivity losses. Another study found that, although 74 percent of survivors were harassed while at work by their abusers, only 30 percent of workplaces have some sort of workplace violence policy, and only 44 percent of those workplaces have a policy to address domestic violence in the workplace. And, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, rape (excluding child abuse) has higher annual costs to its victims than any other crime; about half of all rape survivors are in the lowest third of income distribution.

As a state senator, President-elect Barack Obama was the sponsor of the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act (VESSA), which became law in August 2003. VESSA protects the workplace rights of employees who are survivors of domestic or sexual violence or who have a family or household member who is a survivor; the law allows employees to get help without losing their jobs. VESSA provides job-guaranteed, unpaid leave for up to twelve weeks in a twelve-month period and prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against employees.

While VESSA covers all public agencies in the state, it is limited to private employers with fifty or more employees; it leaves far too many survivors unprotected. Accordingly the law should be expanded so that more women can benefit from the protections of VESSA. President-elect Obama has included VESSA protections for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in his federal agenda. The Shriver Center is working to expand and advance the protections of VESSA on the state and national level.

For more information, contact Wendy Pollack, director, Women’s Law and Policy Project, Shriver Center, at 312.263.3830 ext. 238 or wendypollack@povertylaw.org.

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Volume 12, Issue 5
November 25, 2008