Citation

Meyer MK. Aggressive Behav. 1998; 24(2): 135-146.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Violence against women is a global phenomenon linked to patriarchal cultural values and social structures that subordinate women. In Latin America, grass roots women's organizations and the Inter-American Commission of Women have recently turned their attention to pressing the governments of the Americas to address the endemic problem of violence against women. The work of the Inter-American Commission of Women has been particularly important but widely ignored in this area. As a specialized commission of the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Commission of Women has long worked to improve the rights and status of women throughout the Americas and has recently succeeded in negotiating an important international convention, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women. This convention breaks new ground by defining violence against women as a violation of women's human rights and by identifying the duties of states to address the problem. This article traces the historical and contemporary role of the Inter-American Commission of Women in negotiating international norms aimed at defining and securing women's rights in the Americas. It outlines the specific work the commission carried out in negotiating the Convention on Violence Against Women, which has been in force since 1995, and it examines the innovative international norms found in the convention. It shows that, despite problems of public obscurity and state resistances to change, the commission has pressed governments from the international level to address and improve women's rights. Combined with a growing women's movement at the grass roots level in the Americas, the governments of the region are now having to take real steps to combat violence against women.