GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

Today there have already been many arguments to state why it is necessary to have an agenda which eradicates gender-based violence in society. The primary argument being that, if some members of society are the targets and victims of violence this will impact on their potential to flourish as a human being in the fullest sense of the word. We must make violence in society abhorrent, but gender-based violence even more so. Why?

Firstly, gender-based violence sits on the intersection between what we know to be public lives and personal lives. Laws are usually made when an offence is considered to be of public interest. The realm of the household where most gender-based violence is committed is considered “private” and therefore should not be regulated, so goes some dominant opinions.