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Summary: UNIFEM South Asia Office and Save the
Children Sweden-Denmark Regional office for
South and Central Asia had organised a 3-day
regional workshop on “Strategies and Tools
for Working with Men and Boys to end
Violence against Girls, Boys, Women and other
Men” on 2-4 December 2004, Delhi. Twenty-seven participants representing various organisations were part of
the workshop. The organisations involved were:
- Bangladesh: INCIDIN-Bangladesh, CARE- Bangladesh, Association for
Community Development (ACD), Save the Children Sweden- Denmark
- India: Butterflies, STOP, Sanjog, MAMTA, Prajwala
- Sri Lanka: American Center for International Labour Solidarity
- Pakistan: Rozan
- Nepal: International Save the Children Alliance, Kathmandu School of
Law, Pro Public
The workshop aimed and achieved an increased knowledge on processes
and practical tools for working with men and boys to addressing violence
against girls, boys, women and men (including sexual exploitation and
trafficking) in South and Central Asia. The workshop also produced a South
Asian work-plan on promoting partnership with men and boys to end
violence against girls, boys, women and other men. It also marks the
fortnight marking of the 16 days of Activism to End violence against Women
and it will also contribute to the ongoing UN Study on Violence against
Children.
A highlight of the workshop was the key facilitator Michael Kaufman, the
originator and one of the founder members of the White Ribbon Campaign
against Violence against Women. For the past decade Michael has been
leading workshops for men, boys and women in support of a new
understanding of manhood and for a freer and non oppressive relationship
between men/boys and women/girls.
Rationale for the workshop: in-spite of over a decade of attention to
mainstream gender concerns in development policy and practice, gender
inequalities that disadvantage girls and women persist in South and
Central Asia, including unequal access to education, health care and
income. Violence against women and girls - and violence, in general, is an
issue, which almost all parts of the region have been forced to confront.
We know that violence, as a phenomenon is endemic to social structures
that are based on a hierarchy of power. Violence is one way in which
unequal power structures get articulated, or, if we are to talk in strictly
gender terms, violence is the language in which genders communicate,
with mostly men having the right to speak.
It has been suggested that gender based violence is unleashed to
perpetuate gender inequalities and keep in place gendered orders. It is
rooted in rigid discourses of what constitutes the masculine and the
feminine and the power relationships between men and women – boys
and girls as well as other men. For this reason, in the past two decades,
most efforts for building a more gender equitable world has focused on
violence against women and girls as a fundamental area of concern and
activism.
There is urgent need to broaden this enquiry and activism to include boys
and men if we want to promote gender equality and justice. The narrow
path of traditional masculinities might provide young boys with a sense of
entitlement to power but it also chips away the possibilities of building
healthy and equitable relationships with girls/women as well as other
boys/men and traps them into a web of trauma and inadequacies.
However, on the positive side, the fact that not all boys are violent gives
us hope for changing the world we live in. All young boys are socialised in
ways that promote gender inequality and violence but not all boys adopt
these gendered behaviour patterns and most do not act out these roles all
the time. This experience could be the resource for building interventions
and partnerships with young people on gender based violence.
While some individuals and groups have sought this understanding, they
have often worked in relative isolation from each other. There has not
been a concerted effort or opportunity for an exchange between such
groups of individuals to map successes and failures, or discuss strategies
and methodologies for working with men and boys. We don't know what
works and what doesn't, when working with men and boys especially in
the area of building a partnership towards addressing violence against
girls, boys, women and men and for promoting gender equality in South
Asia.
It is in this context that UNIFEM and Save the Children Sweden-Denmark
have made a commitment to address gender discrimination and violence
against girls, boys, women and men by working with men and boys to
challenge unequal gender and power relations and hegemonic forms of
masculinities. The two agencies are also committed to link various forms of
discrimination and address it holistically from a rights based perspective
where addressing the root causes of rights violation, such as conventional
forms of masculinities is a key challenge. It is therefore necessary that
organisation in South Asia, initiate relevant and effective processes for
working with men and boys to address violence against girls, boys, women
and other men backed with appropriate tools.Owner: UNIFEM South Asia Office and Save the Children Sweden-Denmark Regional office for South and Central Asia