HEALTH: Latin American Women to Benefit from Violence Prevention Plan

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Jul 25 2000 (IPS) - Women in Latin America will stand to benefit from a novel scheme underway in this region aimed at reducing the spate of domestic violence, says a regional health expert.

According to Dr. Alberto Concha-Eastman, the regional advisor on Prevention of Violence at the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), the scheme will create “networks of care, prevention and rehabilitation” to help women who have been subject to psychological and physical violence perpetrated by their partners.

Such networks, adds Dr. Concha-Eastman, will include, on the one hand, home visits by nurses or social workers to those who are at risk or already suffer violence and, on the other, methods to detect cases of violence and the “integral treatment the victims must receive.”

This scheme, backed by five international organisations such as the PAHO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has arisen out of the need to stem the high levels of violence and victimisation that prevails in this region.

The Americas, in fact, have a painful reputation to bear in this regard, states the PAHO – “The highest rates of homicide and criminal victimisation in the world, several times that of the rates in Asia, Europe and Oceania.”

Annually, it points out, around 300,000 people, mostly young men, die each year in the region due to homicides, suicides and vehicle accidents. “Studies show that between 30 and 75 percent of women in the region are subject to osychological violence and between 10 and 30 percent suffer physical violence at the hands of their partner every year.”

And one particular survey conducted last year by the PAHO in select communities in six Latin American countries revealed that Brazil had the highest numbers. In one city, Salvador de Bahia, close to 61 percent of the women questioned said they had been abused by their partners during the 12-month period before the survey. That was followed by the admissions of women in Rio de Janeiro, where 57 percent had been abused.

In three other cities – Cali, Columbia; Santiago, Chile; and Caracas, Venezuela – over 50 percent of the women queried admitted to being on the receiving end of domestic violence. Often, added the PAHO, the abuse ranged from hitting and slapping to verbal insults.

According to Dr. Pamela Hartigan, the acting director at the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Department for Violence and Non- Intentional Injury Prevention, violence against women has serious consequences for their physical and mental health.

“Abused women are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, eating problems and sexual dysfunction,” says Dr. Hartigan.

What is more, she adds, violence against women also present a burden on the health system. “Studies from the United States, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua indicate that women who have been physically or sexually assaulted use health services more than women with no history of violence, thus increasing health care costs.”

In addition, the economic consequences of abused women are also debilitating. Research done by the WHO has revealed, for instance, that in one city in Nicaragua, “abused women earned 46 percent less than women who did not suffer abuse, even after controlling for other factors that affect earning.”

For the WHO, violence against women and girls has become a major health and human rights concern. Women often experience physical and mental abuse throughout their lifecycle, the Geneva-based health body states.

“In every country where reliable, large-scale studies have been conducted, results indicate that between 10 percent and 50 percent of women report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime,” the WHO adds.

Furthermore, it points out, population-based studies reveal that between 12 and 25 percent of women have “experienced attempted or completed forced sex by an intimate partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives.”

As a result, it observes, by 1998 interpersonal violence had become the tenth leading cause of death for women between the ages 15 and 44.

And in the main, violence against women has arisen from “a combination of individual biological and psychological characteristics as well as social, economic and political factors.”

What is more, declares the WHO, the perpetrators of such violence “are almost exclusively men.” In fact, the Latin American initiative, being worked out under the Inter-American Coalition for the Prevention of Violence, has identified this aggressive streak of male behaviour as a priority area in need of a remedy.

“Violence is learned behaviour, but it can be unlearned through health and educational approaches,” says PAHO Director Dr. George Alleyne.

And among the interventions this coalition has in mind to quell male rage is “anger management,” which will be done through public health services in hospitals and clinics.

Violence prevention seminars and workshops on community-level violence will also be conducted by drawing on the strengths of local organisations and institutions.

“What we are aiming for is to get people to react peacefully,” adds Andrew Morrison, a social development specialist at the IDB. “As we start improving this programme, the number of participants will increase, consequently benefiting women in the long term.”