Governments' Role in Addressing Femicide/Gender-Based Violence:
Hello everyone, welcome back, and hello to those of you who have just subscribed, my name is Simi Olajide. I am an upcoming final year student at Birmingham City University studying Law LLB, I love to write, and I decided to launch Justipedia in October 2022 to use my voice and platform to educate people on human rights and human rights issues as an aspiring barrister, and I am a foodie (a little random), but I just wanted to share some facts about myself before I get into today's blog. Today's blog is Part 1 of a two-part series exploring gender-based violence against women and how important it is for the government to respond to this specific type of violence. Part 2 will concentrate on breaking down the concept of black femicide, the origins of the phrase and how black femicide affects communities around the world.
So what are all these phrases “gender violence”, “femicide”, “black femicide” and what do they mean? Well, Gender-based violence and black femicide have similar meanings and can be characterised as violence targeted directly towards an individual or group of individuals because of their gender, however black femicide places an emphasis on a specific community, in this case, Black women.
According to the UN women and femicide census, it is estimated that 81,000 women and girls will be killed globally in21, with around 45,000 (56%) dying at the hands of an intimate partner or family member. Furthermore, 137 women and girls were murdered by a family member or intimate partner every day around the world. These statistics are frightening and to my knowledge, I don't see any countries actively striving to prevent and safeguard women around the world. Having said that, the public appears to be taking matters into its own hands, particularly in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Mexico, by organising protests and demonstrations in order to get not only media but also government attention.
So, why is it important for governments to address this issue of female violence and are they doing enough to protect women?
Trust in government- as citizens, hope and trust are established knowing that we can approach them with specific issues that may affect one person or a community and see them actively working to make a change. I believe this will even help with the electoral system, as when election season comes around, people will feel more inclined to vote because they know we have a government and a working system that is in our favour.
Women are the backbone of our society - This is something that many people may not want to acknowledge, but women are what keep society functioning both economically and biologically. Women have made the largest contributions to society and, despite patriarchy's influence on the establishment of some systems, women are ultimately responsible for society's smooth operation. It would be wrong not to have measures in place to safeguard and defend women because they are what keep society going.
It’s their job - The purpose of the governance system is to ensure that no citizens concerns or issues are disregarded, and that every issue is addressed with active action to make society a better place. If a certain group of individuals has a problem that affects the safety and well-being of themselves or others and it is not addressed with active work to improve things, the job is not being done correctly.
When preparing to write this post, I obviously had to do research, and based on my research of different countries across the world and their reactions to Femicide (which will be discussed in part 2), and me being from the UK, I can definitely say that not enough is being done. I don't believe the UK government prioritises social concerns, especially when they affect large groups of people, which is unfortunate because this should be a big focus. I had to go deep for and find major news articles in the UK where females were killed, specifically black women, through online census because they were not breaking news on TV. Gender-based homicides are a violation of human rights. Gender-based murders are a violation of human rights. It's a violation of safety, a violation of protection, and it goes against what human rights stand for, so the government needs to do a lot better. That being said, I'm going to give a few examples of recent femicide articles and link to them below for you guys to read further.
57 year old Maryan Ismail, a school cleaner of Somali origin, who lived in Edmonton, North London was brutally killed by her husband and suffered from a total of 68 injuries, 30 year old Esther Egbon, a healthcare assistant was killed by her ex-partner and her body was discovered in a bin chute & lastly, 31 year old Johanita Kossiwa Dogbey was stabbed to death in broad daylight in Brixton, South London where she was on her way to a family birthday.
In part 2, I'm going to discuss a very specific aspect of Femicide, which is black Femicide, and I'm going to break down what it is, where the phrase comes from, and what the government can do to make society a safer place for women under the umbrella of Femicide.
Thank you for taking the time to read or listen to today's blog post. If you enjoyed it, please like and comment, and please share with anyone else who might be interested in this topic :)
Related sources:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-bus-driver-wife-killed-coronavirus-b1797491.html
https://www.femicidecensus.org