As the term of Yakin Erturk as Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women comes to an end in June 2009, various feminists and women's groups are campaigning for Charlotte Bunch for the post, which women lobbied for during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. Bunch is the founder and long-time executive director of the Rutger's University-based Centre for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) which has been critical in the formation of the International Coalition of Women Human Rights Defenders and the development of the now global campaign, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Against Women.

Although many feminists have become quite modest in their expectations from the United Nations (UN), Bunch remains committed to using this contested public space for raising awareness on gender issues and holding governments accountable. Recalling the controversy implicating UN peacekeeping forces, she pointed out, “Some parts of the [UN's] campaign should look inward at the UN system and the UN’s own policies and practices...There is more that the UN should do to reduce sexual assault and harassment by its civilian personnel, and to improve its policies with regard to the treatment of spouses of UN employees and of diplomats, who are often left vulnerable to VAW.”

CWGL is among the nearly 300 organisations which comprise the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign directed at the UN. In a statement during the 53rd session of the Commission on Status of Women last March 2009 in New York, United States, the Campaign asserted, “The UN still lacks a strong driver for women’s rights at the leadership level, both at Headquarters and in country...The UN has several small under-resourced agencies focused exclusively on women’s issues. Other larger agencies make critical contributions to women’s human rights and gender equality, but this is usually a small part of their mandate.”

Aside from advocating changes within the UN, Bunch cited five other factors to make the current UN campaign on VAW effective: emphasis on implementation and enforcement of national laws on VAW; prevention of VAW by advancing women’s empowerment and encouraging the deeper involvement of men and boys; changing community attitudes which foster cultures of violence; accurate data gathering on VAW; and allotment of adequate resources to this work.

However, Bunch clarified that while it is important to have men and boys contribute to the solution, women must still take the leadership in dealing with VAW. “The goal is figuring out everyone’s role in ending VAW, including that of men and boys, but it is critical that men respect women’s leadership and voices in defining this issue,” she said.

Bunch lauded the multi-media “Bell Badjao” campaign of the international organisation Breakthrough, with the attempt to curb incidents of VAW in India. “Bell Badjao” encourages people to buzz their neighbours and the police as soon as they hear screams from women who are being beaten by their husbands. According to India's National Family Survey III, 51 per cent of 75,000 men believe that hitting their wives is acceptable while 55 per cent of women think that spousal abuse is warranted.

Bunch also emphasised that VAW is an issue in every country, that its more grotesque forms must not be attributed just to the South. She explained: It is important that we re-examine the ways in which culture often gets discussed in relation to gender-based violence, and stop singling out and separating so-called 'traditional cultural practices' from other forms of violence, which are supported by contemporary cultural attitudes. This distinction often reinforces North/South divides and feeds divisive and patronising attitudes about 'the other' as more violent toward women.”

Sources:
APWW. (14 April 2009). “Call to Nominate Charlotte Bunch .” 
Bunch, Charlotte. (2009). “A Feminist Civil Society Response to the UN Secretary General’s Campaign to End Violence against Women ."
GEAR Campaign. (5 March 2009). “Building a United Nations that Really Works for All Women .” 
Times of India. (8 February 2009). “Ring the bell, stop domestic violence .”