PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS

DR. UMAIR ASHRAF
GROUP # 06
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE………
Group Members:
 Zainab Shakeel # 02
 Noor Fatima # 15
 Bisma Batool # 30
 Sharmeen Riaz # 27
 Shanzay Fiaz # 22
 Rimsha Naeem # 53
 Mobeen Sajjad # 46
 Farwa Shahbaz # 19
OUTLINE:
 Introduction of Domestic Violence and Intimate
Partner Violence
 Background of Domestic Violence and Intimate
Partner Violence
 Forms of Domestic and Intimate Violence
 Physical
 Sexual
 Psychological
 Emotional
 Economical
 Causes of Domestic and Intimate partner
Violence
 Consequences of Domestic and Intimate Partner
Violence
 Human Rights and Domestic Violence
 Domestic Violence Act Pakistan 2013
 Domestic Violence Act Global 2005
 Role of United Nations in Domestic Violence
 Prominent cases of Domestic and Intimate
partner Violence in Pakistan
 Rate of Domestic Violence and Intimate partner
Violence in Pakistan
Rate of Domestic and Intimate partner Violence
Globally
 Eradication of Domestic and Intimate partner
Violence from society
 Conclusion
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence also called as intimate partner violence can be defined as a
pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power
and control over an intimate partner.
This includes any behavior that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, hurt,
blame, injured, or wound someone.
Victims of Intimate Partner Violence:
It can occur within a range of relationships including couples who are married,
living together or dating.
Victims of Domestic Violence:
Victims of domestic abuse may also include a child or other relative, or any
other household member.
Background of Domestic and Intimate partner Violence:
Domestic violence is not a new phenomenon. Unfortunately, violence within
families and households, especially directed toward women and children, has
existed since the beginning of recorded history. Still more troubling is the fact that
laws throughout history have often ignored, or even supported, this kind of
violence.
Domestic violence, also called intimate partner violence, “involves the physical,
sexual, financial, and emotional abuse of one person by another in order to
intimidate, humiliate or frighten” and thereby maintain power and control. In
modern times, we have become far less tolerant of domestic violence, in our laws
as well as in our attitudes. However, as a society, we are still burdened by
hundreds of years of negative precedence. Some cultural and belief systems in
contemporary American culture still harbor troubling attitudes about family
relations and domestic violence. Even more alarming are the statistics. The
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that 1 in 3 women and 1 in
4 men have been the victims of violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.
18th century:
The oldest written law that we have in existence is the Code of Hammurabi, a
collection of 282 rules that the ancient king Hammurabi used to govern Babylon
during the years 1792 to 1750 B.C.E. The focus of most of Hammurabi‟s laws was
retribution, phrased in a series of if/then statements. ("If someone does this…then
that may happen to him.") The punishments in Hammurabi's Code were harsh and
violent, often out of proportion to the crime.
Under this code, women and children were regarded as property. They had no
rights under the law, and in fact, some of the laws in Hammurabi's Code explicitly
mandated that men use violence against their wives and children in certain
situations. If a woman was caught committing adultery, her husband was allowed
to tie her up and drown her. A wife could also legally be drowned if she left her
husband without being able to prove his cruelty to her. And if a son struck his
father, his hands could be cut off.
What we know of Hammurabi's Code shows that domestic violence wasn't just
allowed in ancient civilizations but encouraged in the name of patriarchal
dominance. This attitude was the result of proprietorial attitudes towards women
and children, as well as the acceptance of violence as a way of life and law.
The Roman Empire
The ancient Romans are remembered for the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”), a
period of sustained stability and growth in civilization, approximately 27 B.C.E to
180 C.E. However, the Roman Empire maintained its authority through a regime of
violence. Those at the top often abused their power and tyrannized over those
beneath them.
According to the Roman code of law, a man was, as “pater familias” (“father of the
family”), the unquestioned head of his household. The power given to Roman men
over their wives and children was supreme and absolute. They were allowed to sell
their family members into slavery, abuse them, or kill them. Wives could be beaten
or disowned if they offended their husbands in any way. Roman law stated that
husbands could kill their wives not only for adultery, but even for walking around
outside with insufficiently modest clothing. Only the male head of the household
could decide whether a newborn baby would be raised and cared for as part of the
family or abandoned to die.
Although in some ways more civilized than Hammurabi‟s Code, the laws of the
Roman Empire codified the same violent and proprietorial attitudes towards
women and children, making domestic violence a simple and a legal fact of life.

The Early Catholic Church:

In the year 313 C.E., the Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status in the Roman
Empire, and in 380 C.E., it became the official religion of Rome.
The rise of Christianity is a critical point in history because its dominance in
Western cultures codified principles that remain widespread within legal codes
today, though of course these principles are shared by many faith traditions. As
Christianity spread throughout Europe, so did Biblical principles that bound wives
even more closely to their husbands.
In the 15th century, the Catholic Church established its "Rules of Marriage," which
proclaimed a husband was judge over his wife and recommended beating her as an
accepted form of discipline that would benefit her soul. These beliefs about the
spiritual benefits of wife beating became an established part of culture and law
throughout the Christian world at the time, and the subjugation of women, both
within and outside of faith traditions, has persisted for centuries.
Forms of Domestic Violence:
There are 5 forms of domestic violence:
1. Physical
This form includes inflicting or attempting to inflict physical injury.
Examples are: grabbing, pinching, shoving, slapping, hitting, biting, arm-twisting,
kicking, punching, hitting with blunt objects, stabbing, shooting
2. Sexual:
This form includes coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact without
consent.
Examples are: marital rape, acquaintance rape, forced sex after physical beating,
attacks on the sexual parts of the body, forced prostitution, fondling, sodomy, sex
with others.
Example: treating him/her in a sexually derogatory manner, criticizing sexual
performance and desirability.
3. Psychological
This form includes hurting the integrity and dignity of another person.
Examples are: controlling or restricting someone‟s movements, threatening
another person, verbally this respecting and degrading another person.
4. Emotional
This form includes undermining or attempting to undermine victim‟s sense of
worth.
Examples are: constant criticism, name calling, insults, put-down, manipulating
victim‟s feelings and emotions to induce guilt.
5. Economic
This form includes making or attempting to make the victim financially dependent.
Examples are: maintaining total control over financial resources including
victim‟s earned income or resources received through public assistance or social
security, withholding money and/or access to money, forbidding attendance at
school, forbidding employment.
Causes of domestic violence:
Some causes of domestic violence are:
1. The sociological and behavioral factors include:
 Anger issues
 Poverty
 Low socio economic status
 Dominating nature or controlling nature
 Psychological instability
 Difference in status
 Lack of trust over the partner
 Bipolarism
 Depression
 Stress
2. The cultural factors leading to domestic violence include:
 The desired for a male child.
 Male superiority
3. Dowry
4. Low self-esteem
5. Low academic achievement
6. Desire for power and control
7. Mental illness
Consequences of Domestic Violence:
The consequences of domestic violence can include:
 Minor injuries or serious conditions. They can include bruises, cuts, broken
bones, or injuries to organs and other parts inside the body.
 The long emotional and verbal abuse might affect the women‟s mood and
children's mood in their day to day activities and might also reduce the
efficiency.
  Long term health problems. Long term mental health effects of domestic
violence can include post traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety
 Families losing their homes as a result of intimate partner violence.
 Homicide.
 Emotional problems
 Children at having higher risk of emotional problems
 Substance abuse
 Drug addiction
Human Rights and Domestic Violence:
It includes
 Domestic Violence act in Pakistan (2020)
 Domestic violence act globally (2005)
Domestic Violence Act Pakistan 2013:
The bill for domestic violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2013 has been
introduced in the national assembly by ministry of Human Rights on 8th of July
2013 with the aim to establish and effective system of protection, release and
rehabilitation of women, children, elders and any vulnerable persons against
domestic violence.
The bill defines domestic violence as all acts of physical, emotional,
psychological, sexual and economic abuse committed by a respondent against
women, children and vulnerable persons in a domestic relationship that causes
fear, physical or psychological harm to the aggrieved person.
Further ammendments in this bill were made in 2020 by:
 Chaudhary Fawad Hussain (Minister for science and technology)
 Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar (state minister for interior/special assistant
to PM)
 Faroogh Naseem (minister for law and justice to finalize the bill).
 Shireen Mazari
Domestic Violence act 2005 Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Parliament adopted the first protection against Domestic Violence
Act on 16th March 2005. The law entered into force on first April 2005. With this
law, the state recognizes the importance of the problem of domestic violence in the
Bulgarian society and conference that domestic violence is no longer a private
matter but rather is a public concern. It included:
 Programmes for prevention and protection against domestic violence
 Programmes Ford provision of existence to persons who have suffered from
domestic violence
 Programmes for recuperation of victims
 Specialized programmes for persons who are perpetrators of Domestic
violence
Role of United Nations in Domestic Violence
Topline: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has urged “peace at home” and
called for governments to prioritise safeguards against domestic violence in their
COVID-19 response plans, as he warned that calls to support services have surged
in some countries.
UN chief calls for domestic violence „ceasefire‟ amid „horrifying global surge.
The U.N. has urged governments around the world to prioritise the safety of
women during the pandemic, by adding a series of measures to their coronavirus
response plans.

This includes measures such as: setting up „emergency warning systems‟ in

pharmacies, declare shelters as essential services, avoid releasing prisoners whose
convictions are linked to violence against women and girls, and increase public
awareness campaigns.
“Violence is not confined to the battlefield,” Guterres warned, as he pointed out
that lockdowns imposed across the world to contain the spread of COVID-19,
has left some women and girls trapped with abusive partners at home.”
UN domestic violence reduction recommendations

• Increase investment in online services and civil society

organizations,
• Make sure judicial systems continue to prosecute abusers,
• Set up emergency warning systems in pharmacies and groceries,
• Declare shelters as essential services,
• Create safe ways for women to seek support, without alerting their
abusers,
• Avoid releasing prisoners convicted of violence against women in
any form,
• Scale up public awareness campaigns, particularly those targeted at
men and boys.
2021 Theme: Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women will mark
the launch of the unite to End Violence against Women campaign (Nov 25- Dec
10) — an initiative of 16 days of activism concluding on the day that
commemorates the International Human Rights Day (10 December).
This campaign, led by the UN Secretary-General and UN Women since 2008, aims
to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls around the world,
calling for global action to increase awareness, promote advocacy and create
Among its activities, there is a UN official event that will take place on November
24 (10.00-11.30am ET.)
,

• General Assembly Resolution (1985)

• Expert Group Meeting on Violence in the Family (1986)
• Publication on Violence against Women in the Family (1989)
Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG: 5)
The 5th sustainable development goal by United Nations is to achieve Gender
Equality and empower all women and girls.
According to this goal, Women and girls, everywhere, must have equal rights and
opportunity, and be able to live free of violence and discrimination.
Targets of SDG5:
 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and
private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of
exploitation.
 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and
female genital mutilation.
 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision
of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the
promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as
nationally appropriate.
 Ensure women‟s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for
leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public
life.

Prominent cases of Domestic Violence in Pakistan:

o Irum Saeed (victim of Acid Attack)
o Najaf Sultana (burnt by her father)
o Noor Muqaddam (brutally tortured and beheaded)
o Samia Sarwar (murdered by her family members)
o Shehnaz Usman (victim of Acid attack by a relative)
Rate of Domestic Violence in Pakistan:

A research was made by Hamida Khatri from Harrisburg University of Science and
Technology. It was a mixed method approach. It includes the Domestic violence
rate in Pakistan from 1990-2020.
Figure shows that there has been an increase in domestic violence from 2008 to
2019, which is 7,733 in 2008 and 12,312 in 2019 in Pakistan. With the recent
reports from Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News (June 2020), the number of reported
cases of domestic violence in the first five months of 2020 (January-May) has been
13,478 in Pakistan. As seen in the figure, there was a bump in 2015 and 2017 and a
drop in 2016 and 2018. There has been an astronomical increase from 2008 to
2019, which is calculated to be 97%. There might be a need to study the reasons
for the increase especially with regards to COVID-19 in 2020.
Rate of Domestic Violence Globally:
Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3(30%) of women
worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner
violence
Increase in DV globally in 2020:
According to American Journal of Emergency Medicine, DV cases increased by
25-30% globally in 2020
Prevention of Domestic Violence:
 Conduction of Educational Programs
 Secure employment of women in political parties
 Conduction of Awareness programs Directly and indirectly
 Demonstrating religious definitions of women‟s basic rights
 Ban on Weighty Dowry Systems
 Ban on alcohol production, transport and it‟s drinking
Conclusion:
Domestic violence is prevalent in Pakistan at an alarming rate. Women are the
sufferers and are subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse in their
home by partners, in-laws and in some circumstances by their brothers and parents.
Support and help for women to rebuild and recover their lives after violence,
should be a part of the intervention strategy, including counseling, relocation,
credit support and employment. In order to prevent women from domestic violence
and provide them medical as well as judicial and legal support, new plans and
interventional maps should be made in the societies in collaboration with health
team members, religious and societal leaders, NGOs, police department and people
from other similar groups. This strategy implementation should be enforced.