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Abstract
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Men and boys bear most of the mortality and morbidity burden from intentional injuries. Yet the recent World Health Assembly (WHA)'s resolution to strengthen the role of the health system in addressing violence specifically requests a focus on women and children. The new Resolution sets a remarkable precedent: no other WHA response to a priority health condition purposively directs prevention efforts away from the most vulnerable group.
The Resolution recognises that men are among those most affected, but nearly every clause directs focus to women, girls, and children without clear justification. The distinction between girls and children further entrenches a preventive effort directed at female children. Why should boys be accorded less protection? Adverse childhood experiences including harsh physical punishment predict later violent behaviour. Preventing violence against boys should be a priority not an afterthought.
Women are more vulnerable than men to certain forms of violence such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and rape. The role of gender features prominently in all of these forms, but if this is what the Resolution seeks to address it should do so explicitly, and not exclude men victims by also focusing on homophobic violence. For other forms of violence men and boys feature prominently among the vulnerable: youth violence, random acts of violence, abuse of the elderly, and child abuse. It is hardly coincidental that men are more frequently both the victims and perpetrators of most violence and should be primary targets for intervention. But the Resolution stops short of condemning the acceptability and tolerance of violence against boys and men in its requests to Member States, and relegates their involvement to promoting gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
The Resolution might raise the profile of violence among the world's pressing health and development problems, but it is not clear how this omission of men is expected to strengthen the health system's response.
The UN system is replete with reports, resolutions, and declarations denouncing various forms of violence against women and children. The sentiment is laudable in attempting to offer redress to groups that are traditionally equated with vulnerability. For UNICEF, children are the raison d'être and the wellbeing of mothers a natural extension. For UNDP maternal and under-five mortality are key evaluative metrics for its MDG. But the World Health Assembly as the highest decision making authority for global health needs to be guided by epidemiology and evidence rather than sentiment.
Language: en |