Home About
Module 2: Understanding Violence Against Women and Girls
Session 5:More than a Fist: A Deeper Look at Violence against Women and Girls
Session 6: Violence against Women and Girls: A Violation of Human Rights
Session 7 Understanding the Impact of violence against women and girls

Session 6: Violence against Women and Girls: A Violation of Human Rights

collage-couple2.png

Session Objectives and Material Needed

Objective
By the end of this session, participants will be able to

• Describe why different types of violence are violations human rights.

Materials Needed

  • Flipchart listing the 1 thing that the men share they wanted to get out of the program (from introductory session)
  • Agree, Disagree, Not Sure signs
  • Flipchart paper and Markers 
  • Notecards
  •  Tape

Key Messages

Human rights are principles that guarantee that everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

CEMFU, IPV and Rape are violation of a woman or girls human rights.

CEMFU, IPV and Rape are violations that increase in refugee and displaced settings and it is important for men to speak out against the violence and speak up in support of survivors.

Activities

Activity 1

Welcome and Review (20 minutes)

1. Welcome the participants on the next step of the journey to non-violence and survivors support, with today's discussion focusing on violence against women and girls and human rights.

2. Ask participants to reflect on the last session where different types of violence were discussed.

3. Facilitator reminds participants of the “is this violence” statements that were read aloud during last session. Point out the 1-2 that caused the most discussion. Ask participants to spend 5 minutes in silent reflection thinking about last week’s discussion.

4. After five minutes invite participants to share some of the things that came into their mind during the reflection. After about 10-15 minutes thank participants for sharing and transition into the topic of violence against women and girls as a violation of human rights.

Activity 2

Facilitated Discussion (25 minutes)

1. Ask participants to share what they think of when they hear human rights?

  • What are human rights?
  • Do we have the right to…education? freedom? Safety?
  • What else would they consider to be a human right?

If you are using a board or chart paper, write these examples down. If the group is having trouble thinking of rights, provide some additional examples:

Human Right examples

a. Equal treatment under the law;
b. Food, water, shelter, and clothing;
c. Being treated with respect and dignity;
d. Freedom from torture;
e. Freedom of expression;
f. Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion;
g. The right to assemble and to participate in society;
h. The right to education; and
i. The right to health, including access to health information and services.

2. Facilitator asks participants if they’ve heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)? If any of the participants have ask them to share what they understand the UDHR to be?

3. Facilitator states that the UDHR states that: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. The UDHR, adopted by the United Nations 80 years ago says a person has these rights regardless of their age, sex, ethnicity, gender identity religion, sexual orientation, or any other factor.

4. Facilitator shares with the group or emphasises if it has been mentioned by a participant that human rights are principles that guarantee that everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

5. Facilitator asks participants to share what they think it looks like to be treated with respect? With dignity? Write their answers on a flipchart or whiteboard if available.

Activity 3

Small Group Work and Facilitated Group Discussion (45 minutes)

1. Ask participants if they think human rights apply to women, men, boys, and girls equally. Why or Why not?

2. Explain to the group that they will spending time discussing Child Early Marriage and Forced Unions (CEMFU,) IPV, and Sexual Violence from a human rights perspective.

3. Break participants into groups of three and give each group one of the three types of violence,

Group 1: Child Early Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU)
Group 2: Intimate Partner Violence
Group 3: Rape (a form of sexual violence)

4. Ask participants to spend 10 minutes in their groups discussing the meaning of each term. Facilitator asks each group to share their definition of the three types of violence. After 10 minutes, ask each group to present their definition. Engage in a discussion.

Definitions

Child Early marriage/forced Union
When parents or others arrange for a minor to marry someone (a minor is anyone under the age of 18) or enter into a “union” with someone

Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is violence that happens within anintimate relationship – typically a husband perpetrating violence against his wife. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) IPV is "... any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours. Some examples: physical violence includes pushing, punching, shoving, throwing, choking; sexual violence, e.g. coercion or not consensual sexual acts; emotional violence, which includes threats, humiliation, controlling behaviours, isolating, intimidation.

Rape
Any act of non-consenting sexual intercourse; any degree of oral, anal, or vaginal penetration is considered rape. Note that rape is a legal term, and the definition varies somewhat between countries.

Facilitated group discussion

1. Facilitator reminds the group that human rights are principles that guarantee that everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Using examples from earlier in the session from when participants were asked to share what they think it looks like to be treated with respect or with dignity

2. Using the questions prompts below, ask participants to discuss how CEFMU, IPV and Rape are violations of human rights.

  • How does CEFMU violate human rights? Which rights does it violate?
  • How does IPV violate human rights? Which rights does it violate?
  • How does rape violate human rights? Which rights does it violate?

3. Ask participants if thinking about violence against women and girls as a violation of human rights was new to them? How do they feel now that they’ve had a chance to think more about the impact that violence has on women and girls?

Activity 4

Closing/debrief (15 minutes)

1. Facilitator closes the discussion by asking each participant to share a word or a comment about the session focused on exploring intimate partner violence, child early and forced marriage, and sexual violence as a human rights violation. Was it challenging? Thought provoking?

2. Briefly summarise what IPV, CEMFU and rape is. Reminding participants that in previous sessions we’ve talked about the physical, emotion and other consequences violence has on women and girl.

3. Emphasise that an additional impact of the violence named above is that that it violates or denies women and girls their human rights.

4. Thank the participants for their active participation and for starting the journey and remind them when and where the next session will take place