Who should be responsible for protecting women's rights?

The 25th of November is the International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women. In 2022, the Spanish government launched a video campaign named ‘#ThenWho?’ (‘#EntoncesQuien’) that aims to raise awareness about sexist and underlying violent behaviours against women in everyday lives. Due to femicide, 44 women died in Spain in 2021 and similar numbers were recorded in previous years (Europa Press, 2022). But just looking at the number of deaths doesn’t convey the magnitude of the problem, as the Spanish National Institute of Statistics reported more than 30,000 victims of violence against women in 2021 (Europa Press, 2022). Yet, as a signatory of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, it is the Spanish’s government duty to take positive action to protect women. So, can it be argued that the Spanish government is failing to protect women’s rights? Moreover, should states be the only ones responsible to do so?

The Spanish Ministry of Equality releases a campaign to bring awareness to women’s rights every year. In 2022, to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women, they decided to incorporate some of that year’s most famous sexist controversies. The video is divided into four different scenarios, the first one being a famous Spanish gaming streamer. He shares with his fans, mostly impressionable young and teenage boys, that one of his friends likes to target drunk women at clubs to have intimate relationships with them. Some of his viewers tell him that his friend might be committing sexual assault, but he denies it. The scene then changes to the most popular late-night show in Spain, where the male host asks the female interviewee whether she ‘wears sexy or comfortable underwear to sleep’. In the video, the guest star breaks the fourth wall to tell the viewers that the host wouldn’t have asked that question to a man. The next example shows a bus driver telling the audience that the football player whom the fans are enthusiastically supporting has been charged with physical assault against his girlfriend. There is a close-up shot of the fans chanting that the football player is innocent. During the last portion of the video, a male voice shares that 1 in every 2 women has been a victim of violence. In conclusion, the campaign tries to highlight the role of men in promoting violence against women and the key role they play in stopping such behaviour (Ministerio de Igualdad, 2022a).

States should focus on women’s rights because they are human rights. Modern human rights were first compiled in the International Bill of Human Rights, which is formed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights published in 1948; the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both adopted in 1966. These international documents protected fundamental rights like the right to life, the right to equality at work, and the right to vote. Although they were not explicitly targeted at women, they aimed to improve their quality of life. However, women were still recurrent victims of human rights violations, so in 1979, the UN created the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to legally bind states to stop any type of discrimination or human rights violations against women based on their sex. In 1999 the UN established the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, an international organisation that oversees the compliance of states with the CEDAW. Since its publication, the CEDAW has been ratified by 189 countries (IWRAW, 2022). It is also the only international treaty that advocates for women's reproductive rights (CEDAW, 1979; Rudolf et al., 2012).

Given the data, the CEDAW is seemingly not functioning as intended. If more than 30,000 women in Spain have reported some type of violence against them based on their sex, can the CEDAW be considered effective in protecting women’s rights? Or is the Spanish government at fault for such numbers?

It is important to note that the Spanish legal system prosecutes human rights violations against women. The liability system, in which someone is convicted and punished after committing a crime or violating someone else’s rights, is currently effective in ultimately convicting people that violate women’s rights. However, feminist civil organisations like the Female Judge Association of Spain condemn the country’s inability to protect women at risk while the trial is in progress. They argue that the bureaucratic process to request and be granted protection from potential abusers is too long. While the cases are being processed, women do not receive adequate protection or support from the state, and their rights to protection, freedom, and safety are at a higher risk of being violated. (Urra, 2018). More than a quarter of the women that died in 2019 due to violence against women reported their killer to the police (Martín Plaza, 2019).

As pointed out by scholars like the American feminist philosopher Iris Marion Young, the problem is that a liability system alone is not enough to address structural injustices. Young proposed an alternative system in the early 2000s under the name of ‘political responsibility’ (Aubert et al., 2019). She defined the concept as the community’s shared responsibility to challenge the status quo and eliminate any forms of violence and discrimination from society (Young, 2006). By removing the culture of blame, Young argues that the number of future human rights violations will be proactively reduced whilst those that are perpetuated will be still retroactively punished. In her model, the state plays the role of a complementary organisation that oversees legal consequences and encourages people to challenge the status quo (Aubert et al., 2019).

The Spanish government is responsible for women’s rights violations because they have failed to tackle structural imbalances, even if they have an effective liability system. To be a proactive entity in the fight against violence against women, the Spanish government should focus its efforts on promoting a model of political responsibility in which the population knows that they also have to protect human rights (Parekh, 2011). As reflected in the '#ThenWho?’ campaign, people should feel responsible for calling out sexist comments or behaviours they come across. To reduce human rights violations against women, the Spanish government should aim to create a culture of safeguarding human rights. This will help women feel safer and come forward about everyday forms of violence that they regularly experience.

In conclusion, the political responsibility model might be a better alternative to achieve equality and non-discrimination of women in society as it encourages everyone to partake in the safeguarding of women’s rights. The Spanish government understands the power of collective action, as reflected in the last sentence of the ‘#ThenWho?’ campaign: ‘If you’re not going to do anything to stop it, then who will?’. It is important to note that political responsibility is a simplified theoretical solution to a complex issue. Structural injustices are hard to overcome because they are normalised and unchallenged by most of the population. Raising awareness through education and a sense of duty, as political responsibility suggests, could not be an effective measure by itself and might require being part of a multi-faceted response system. It is easy to get discouraged when discussing violence against women because permanent structural change often happens slowly, over the course of many generations. However, that change is already in motion on many levels. From grassroots movements mobilising the public, to policymakers demanding more protection in parliamentary settings, Spain is on the right path to eliminating violence against women.

References

Aubert, I.; Garrau, M; and de Latour, S.G. (2019). ‘Iris Marion Young and Responsibility’ in Critical horizons : journal of social & critical theory, 20(2). Pp. 103–108.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (1979). United Nations Treaty Series, 1249, p. 13. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3970.html (Accessed: 10 December 2022)

Europa Press (2022). Violencia de género - datos y estadísticas. Available at: https://www.epdata.es/datos/violencia-genero-estadisticas-ultima-victima/109/espana/106 (Accessed: 10 December 2022)

Infantes, I. (2017). Sign held during a march that reads ‘Women’s rights are human rights’. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/things-you-can-do-for-womens-rights-in-2017_uk_58875845e4b0f94bb305036c (Accessed: 15 December 2022)

IWRAW (2022). State and non-state parties to CEDAW. Available at: https://cedaw.iwraw-ap.org/cedaw/state-and-non-state-parties-to-cedaw/ (Accessed: 10 December 2022)

Martín Plaza, A. (2019). ‘Doce datos de la violencia de género: de las 1.118 mujeres asesinadas al más de medio millar en riesgo alto o extremo’ in Datos RTVE, 25 November. Available at: https://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=denunciar (Accessed: 15 December 2022)

Ministerio de Igualdad (2022a). #EntoncesQuien. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxfR1-zqdwY&ab_channel=MinisteriodeIgualdad (Accessed: 11 December 2022).

Ministerio de Igualdad (2022b). Screenshot of the #ThenWho (#EntoncesQuien) campaign. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxfR1-zqdwY&t=54s&ab_channel=MinisteriodeIgualdad (Accessed: 15 December 2022)

Parekh, S. (2011) ‘Getting to the Root of Gender Inequality: Structural Injustice and Political Responsibility’ in Hypatia, 26(4). Pp. 672–689.

Rudolf, B. et al. (2012). The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: a commentary. Edited by B. Rudolf et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Urra, S. (2018). ‘Spanish justice system admits it is failing victims of gender violence’ in El País, 18 September. Available at: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/09/28/inenglish/1538128575_682750.html (Accessed: 15 December 2022)

Wikidat (no date). Portrait of Iris Marion Young. Available at: https://es.wikidat.com/info/iris-marion-young (Accessed: 15 December 2022)

Young, I.M. (2006) ‘Responsibility and global justice: A social connection model’ in Social philosophy & policy, 23(1). Pp. 102–130.