Domestic Violence around the World

Domestic violence or abuse occurs when one a partner, ex-partner or a family member tries to physically emotionally or sexually dominate the other (Buzawa, 2002). Domestic abuse has been happening around the world and the United Nation through a research found out that, there is a correlation between the poor performing economies and women’s discrimination. Countries that have high rate of women violation incur very high costs that are detrimental to their economies and therefore all governments should aim at reducing the rate of sexual violation and other discrimination that women undergo.

Living conditions of women have been improving since the year 1994 when 179 governments met in Egypt and decided to improve women living conditions. Stan Bernstein, a senior researcher said that they are still many cases of women discrimination around the world that constitute to grave human rights violations and therefore we should all try to eradicate this in our society as this would improve our economies.

According to a report titled “state of the world population 2000,” it is claimed that 1% increase in the number of women attending secondary school it would lead to an increase of 0.3 of the country’s economy. If, for example the Pakistani government increased its education budget by only a small percentage this would translate in to an economic growth worth $262 million.

The report shows bleak statistics about women abuse. One out of three women is abused and in most cases, by people that they know. Sexual abuse results to deaths, stillbirths, unwanted pregnancies and abortions that are committed to get rid of the unplanned child. More than 80 million children are not planned for. Women all over the world fear discussing family planning methods and ways of having protected sex with their husbands for fear of being physically abused. This has resulted to increase in HIV/Aids leading to poor economies.

The report suggests that governments should do more to change these scenarios. Some remedial measures planned are banning female genital mutilation, the sale of low dosage oral contraceptives, adding in the constitution laws that govern sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality of all women. If all this are embraced by all the countries of the world then women violence would be reduced or even eliminated.

References

Buzawa, C. (2002). Domestic violence: the criminal justice response. London: SAGE, 2002.

United, Nations.2000. Women’s unequal treatment hurts economies. Worldwide abuse ‘a massive violation of human rights. Retrieved on August 26, 2009,

from http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/09/20/un.population.report/index.html