Vienna +10: Speak Out
E-Consultation Survey

Please note that this is an informal and unscientific survey. Responses are from those familiar with women's human rights and that chose to respond to the email invitation sent to them from the Center for Women's Global Leadership.

To view the survey questionnaire click here (Microsoft Word).

Introduction

In September of 2003 the Center for Women's Global Leadership embarked on a process of strategic consultations to mark the 10th anniversary of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. Our goal was to examine both progress and obstacles faced in advancing women's human rights. Recognizing that it would be impossible to speak face to face with all those who have been involved in the work of women's human rights in recent years, the Global Center developed an e-consultation survey to make it possible for women from around the world to have a chance to register their opinion and help shape the future of women's human rights.

The Global Center is pleased to announce that the survey process has been completed. Thank you to all those who participated. Findings from the survey are available on the Global Center website. Women from 146 organizations representing all regions of the world responded on the worldwide web, by email and fax.

Here are some basic facts about those who responded:

• 77% of respondents worked on issues of violence against women, while more than 50% worked on socio-economic rights, health and reproductive rights and development
• Africa, Asia and Western Europe responded in almost equal numbers, while North America topped all respondents

Some Reflections on the Survey Responses

The survey had three parts: (1) about respondents; (2) the women's human rights movement in general; and (3) violence against women. We have not tried to tabulate all of the responses because it seemed that the responses were more interesting in their individuality than in their aggregate. The following are some general comments on the responses overall. If you click on the titles in bold you will be able to read the responses to particular questions in more detail.

(1) Basic Information on the Respondents

(2) The Women's Human Rights Movement
The survey responses proved to be most interesting as a source of understanding both how women from many parts of the world are facing some of the same issues and what are the basic issues of the struggle since 1993: the public recognition of women's rights as human rights and the development of laws and government accountability remain the central issues. Also strongly articulated from every region is the impact of backlash and especially of fundamentalist forces (religious, cultural and political) on women's human rights activism.

• The advances and breakthroughs identified at both the international and national levels focused on legal mechanisms like new laws and the creation of the International Criminal Court and the achievement of public recognition and visibility through the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against women and the expansion of women in appointed and elected political positions.
• Fundamentalism/conservatism and government accountability were the most frequent problems identified as major challenges facing the women's human rights movement. Most interesting was the way in which the two factors were seen as interconnected. For example how conservative and fundamentalist influenced governments are presenting new challenges for gaining accountability or how conservative backlash against women's organizations hampers their efforts to engage in public campaigns for accountability.
• The next steps responses return to the same issues: instituting and strengthening government implementation mechanisms and legal remedies. At the same time there is a call for strategies to challenge the fundamentalist forces. Education and organizing remain central strategies.

(3) Violence Against Women
The respondents demonstrated that there are many different forms of violence against women and that there are other intersectionalities: from violence against low wage workers by employers, to femicide, to rape, to media portrayals, trafficking, forced motherhood, to violent impacts of trade and poverty, etc.

Almost all those responding commented that they use the concept of human rights in their violence against women work, many using it for teaching, and training as well as advocacy purposes. A number commented on how the concept of human rights affected their work by deepening it and giving it additional credibility by making the connections to many different but interrelated kinds of rights.

Linking human rights to violence against women is generally useful, but has some drawbacks. While most reported that the connection was essential and strengthened their work, some identified issues of rights in conflict and complained that human rights is a hegemonic western concept. There was also some concern that human rights can be used too narrowly and should not be limited only to violence against women.

Just as with the forms of violence, intersectional discrimination has many shapes and can be seen in many situations: from poor elderly and disabled women victims of violence, refugee and illegal immigrant women seeking asylum, single parents seeking employment or fighting the courts for custody of their children, racial/ethnic women, with HIV, trafficked women seeking legal aid, etc.
The most frequent suggestion for next steps to address violence against women continues to be in the area of education and awareness raising including use of the media. The respondents called for education of policy makers, children, women, civil society, teenagers, state officials, family and friends and many others about human rights, gender awareness and violence against women in particular.. They call for both more media campaigns by the movement and a changed public media that gives more visibility to the problems. They call for new and improved laws and increased political participation in order to bring about political changes.

We hope that you will find the survey results helpful and that they can contribute to your own discussions on these vital issues. We would be happy to hear about the results of your own discussions and ways in which you have used or plan to use the survey. You can email us at: cwgl@igc.org.