For our information,

[elleng]

"For the last two years, Senators Joe Biden and Richard Lugar have co-sponsored an International Violence Against Women Act, which would adopt a range of measures to spotlight such brutality and nudge foreign governments to pay heed to it. Let’s hope that with Mr. Biden’s new influence the bill will pass in the next Congress."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4563429

[ismnotwasm]

1. Amen

(I went cruising for a few links)

Rape as a weapon of war
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—sometimes referred to as the ‘African World War’—has devastated the country since its onset in 1998. The world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, it has killed 5.4 million people and displaced a million more. Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003 and again in 2008, fighting has been ongoing throughout the east, and the prevalence of rape in this region has been described as the worst in the world.

Much of the violence is unspeakably brutal. Many sexual violence survivors have received debilitating damage to their reproductive organs, resulting in multiple fistulas and incontinence. Women and girls have been left with broken bones,missing limbs and burned flesh. Some have been shot and stabbed in the vagina with rifles, shards of glass and other objects. Family men have been forced at gun point to sexually violate their own daughters, sisters and mothers.
“Sexual violence constitutes a plague in the DRC,” said Dr. Margaret Agama, the country’s UNFPA representative. “Initially, rape was used as a tool of war by all the belligerent forces involved in the country’s recent conflicts, but now sexual violence is unfortunately not only perpetrated by armed factions but also by ordinary people occupying posi

http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=1230

Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned.
— UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, 8 March 2007

Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime — with the abuser usually someone known to her . Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, it devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development.
http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/violence_against_women/facts_figures.php


And for perusal, if anybody doesn't already think Justice Scaila is a disgusting waste of air;

"Justice Scalia’s decision to leave certain key terms undefined –“testimonial,” “interrogation,” and “confrontation” – has resulted in a 600-page outline of caselaw across the country and a nation of befuddled criminal justice system professionals. Prosecutors in jurisdictions where it was already difficult to admit hearsay, who had developed finely tuned methods of doing so, now found themselves jumping through additional hoops with no direction. Prosecutors who already avoided pursuing convictions in domestic violence cases with reticent witnesses now had a perfect excuse not to bother."
http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/docs/crawford-08-roundtable-final-rpt.pdf

Hopefully somewhat mitigated by this ruling:

"A recent Supreme Court decision affects the admissibility of evidence in domestic violence
prosecutions when the victim is unable or unwilling to testify as a result of the defendant’s
wrongful conduct.
The Supreme Court in Giles v. California clarified the elements of the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing
exception to the Confrontation Clause. The ruling holds that forfeiture applies when a prosecutor
shows that the defendant wrongfully caused the victim’s absence and did so with the purpose of
preventing the victim’s testimony or cooperation. This opinion establishes a constitutional
minimum for admission of unconfronted prior statements of the victim under the forfeiture-bywrongdoing
doctrine.
http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/docs/cindydyer-reaction-supreme-court.pdf

While neither ruling addresses the root cause of violence against women, of course---they attempted to give a nod toward socio-economic position of women who may be afraid of their partner, and afraid of the police, and afraid of the law. Those women are often left behind and unconsidered. And used, quite frankly in rulings of this kind

I welcome open dialog on the issue of violence against women, I welcome change in attitudes and approaches legally. I'd love to to see a workable woman positive economy, and more than anything, I love to see the end of the truly named 'pandemic' of violence against women.


One more, from an on-line course
Myths and Facts about Substance Abuse and Violence Against Women
http://pathwayscourses.samhsa.gov/vawc/vawc_1_pg3.htm