Remarks by CDA Thomas Smitham at the Global Center for Behavioral Health inaugural Caribbean Conference on Domestic Violence and Gender Equality: Protecting Women and Girls, Magdalena Grand, Tobago March 26, 2013
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| CDA Thomas Smitham delivering his remarks |
(AS PREPARED)
SALUTATIONS
- Dr. Donna Baird and Dr. Tamarah Moss-Knight, of the Global Center for Behavioral Health
- Minister in the Ministry of People and Social Development, Mrs. Vernella Alleyne-Toppin
- Secretary for Health, Social Services and Gender Affairs, Tobago House of Assembly, Mrs. Claudia Groome-Duke
- Specially invited guests
- Members of the Media
- Ladies and gentlemen
Strengthening the prevention of and response to gender-based violence, including domestic violence, is of vital importance. No country can achieve peace and prosperity if half of its people are deprived of reaching their full potential. Addressing this epidemic is a priority for the United States.
Promoting the status of women and girls and striving to end domestic violence is not just a moral imperative; it is, in essence, a strategic one. As former Secretary Clinton so often said, women are drivers of economic growth. Women’s education is linked to economic growth and improved health outcomes. When women and girls are not protected, their ability to participate fully in the development of society is stunted, which adversely affects us all. Gender-based violence is an issue of international human rights and national security.
According to one study, women and girls are the victims of 95 percent of the world’s domestic violence. One-third of women in the world have experienced sexual, physical, emotional, or other abuse in their lifetime. One in five women will experience rape or attempted rape.
I have had the privilege of meeting many of Trinidad and Tobago’s leaders in the fight against domestic violence. And they always say to me, “we can’t forget the men!” And they’re right. The truth is we – men and women – are all fully invested here. Ending domestic violence is not a gender-specific concern.
Both men and women should be united in the fight against domestic violence as an intolerable violation of human dignity. But, in addition to encouraging a united front based on a moral imperative, let’s also focus on the economic costs of domestic violence. As long as domestic violence exists, a community cannot prosper fully. We do not only pay emotional and psychological tolls. We also pay the medical bills and legal costs; we lose wages and productivity. Businesses lose employees. Families lose primary wage-earners.
Violence and abuse keep women out of the workforce and drag down communities for generations. Focusing global efforts on fostering women’s economic participation will grow national GDPs and personal incomes. One study estimated that lowering barriers to women’s economic participation in emerging economies could raise per capita incomes as much as 14 percent. Larger incomes mean more money to feed families, send children to school, and support local merchants and producers, igniting a virtuous circle of economic growth.
If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish.
And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.
The United States continues to work on improving its response to gender-based violence, both domestically and abroad. In August of 2012, the U.S. Government released its first-ever Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, accompanied by an Executive Order from President Obama, which directs all relevant U.S. agencies to implement the Strategy. It has four main objectives:
- to increase coordination of gender-based violence prevention and response efforts among U.S. Government agencies and with other stakeholders;
- to enhance integration of gender-based violence prevention and response efforts into existing U.S. Government work;
- to improve collection, analysis, and use of data and research to enhance gender-based violence prevention and response efforts; and
- to enhance or expand U.S. Government programming that addresses gender-based violence.
Domestic violence is not cultural, it’s criminal. And it must be treated as a crime, with the entire legal system working together to prevent and prosecute these crimes. It starts with having the right laws in place. And these laws need to be implemented to hold people accountable and address impunity, which often fuels the violence.
Last December, the Secretary of State’s Office for Global Women’s Issues organized the first Caribbean Dialogue on Rule of Law and Gender-Based Violence in Miami. Approximately 80 representatives from 12 countries of the English-speaking Caribbean joined forces to exchange ideas, best practices, and strategies for strengthening the rule of law and improving the response to gender-based violence. The robust turnout included representation from a spectrum of leaders and professionals – attorneys general, judges and magistrates, prosecutors and defense lawyers, police officers, and civil society actors – all of whom play an essential role in addressing this complex issue.
The Dialogue gave participants an opportunity to deepen their understanding of how violence against women and girls affects all sectors of society, the cost of violence in the work place, its linkage to HIV, and the importance of the role of men and boys in preventing domestic violence. During breakout sessions, participants had intensive peer-to-peer discussions: prosecutor to prosecutor, police officer to police officer, and lawyer to lawyer, enabling them to learn directly from each other. Participants also had the opportunity to observe the U.S. court system in action and visited the Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Court.
They had a firsthand glimpse of the U.S. judicial and legal process for prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence.
As part of our global strategy to end gender-based violence, we are taking a whole-of-government approach. The U.S. Government is initiating and supporting projects around the world as nations join together to end this scourge. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense provided nearly U.S. $ 3 million for a project administered by the U.S. Department of State in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help create a civilian police force to respond effectively to cases of gender-based violence. The project has trained male and female officers on how to investigate gender-based violence cases, built police stations, provided essential equipment enabling police to be more responsive to the community, and funded a public awareness campaign on gender-based violence.
In Afghanistan, the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs supports a training program for prosecutors at the Office of the Attorney General in Kabul and seven provinces nationwide, which are dedicated to prosecuting crimes against women and girls.
As the U.S. Government continues to provide worldwide support to combat violence against women, we are fully aware that we still have work to do at home.
Domestically, we’ve recognized gender-based violence as both a human rights and public health policy concern. The U.S. Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 to protect victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The Act provides 1.6 billion U.S. dollars toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposes automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allows civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. Just last month, the U.S. Congress voted to reauthorize and expand this important law.
The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice. It funds services provided to victims of domestic violence and supports training on these issues to ensure consistent responses across the country. One of the greatest successes of the Act is its emphasis on a coordinated community response to domestic violence and sexual assault. Courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services, and the private bar currently work together in a coordinated effort that had not previously existed at the state and local levels.
There is a repeated theme we see at home and throughout the world when it comes to our fight against domestic violence: It’s about cooperation and coordination. Laws alone do not prevent domestic violence. Police officers, lawyers, judges, and civil society must work together to protect and empower victims.
No one should be afraid to report that they’ve been a victim of violent crime. No one should be afraid that the police won’t listen. No one should be afraid that they can’t afford to leave a violent home. Communities must come together to ensure that fear does not hold victims back. Police must be responsive, and community organizations should have the resources to help victims find emotional and financial security.
Domestic violence holds back entire societies. Because when women are unequal participants, economic growth is undermined. Development is stymied. Communities and countries are robbed of the contributions that women could make.
The good news is that there are impassioned leaders around the world, and in this room today, pushing for change. And I know that by working together, by using every tool at our disposal and by refusing to ever back down or give up, we can see real improvement in the Caribbean and around the world.
Thank you.
Source: http://trinidad.usembassy.gov/speeches/remarks-by-cda-thomas-smitham-march-26-2013.html
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