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Gender Equality and SGBV Shalom Humanitarian Development Association (SHDA)
Gender Equality and SGBV Shalom Humanitarian Development Association (SHDA)
Presented by: Mr. Feyera Abera, Human Rights Activist and Development Consultant
June 2019
Salalle University
Gender equality
Gender equality is achieved when women and men, girls and boys,
have equal rights, life prospects and opportunities, and the power to
shape their own lives and contribute to society. It focuses mainly on
five aspects of the gender equality agenda:
• • Women’s political participation and influence
• • Women’s economic empowerment and working conditions
• • Sexual and reproductive health and rights
• • Girl’s and women’s education
• • Women’s security, including combating all forms of gender-based
violence, which is the main focus of this presentation
Sexual and Gender Based Violence
• Violence against women is described in the Beijing
Declaration as “any act of gender-based violence that
results in, or is likely to, result in physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women, including
threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty in public or private”. It encompasses acts that
range from verbal harassment to forced penetration, and
an array of types of coercion, from social pressure and
intimidation to physical force.
Cont
This includes rape within marriage or dating relationships,
rape by strangers or acquaintances, unwanted sexual
advances or sexual harassment (at school, work etc.),
conflict-related sexual violence (to rape, sexual slavery,
forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion,
enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form
of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated
against women), sexual abuse/molestation at institutions
and workplaces
Cont
intimate partner violence (slapping, hitting, kicking and
beating, as insults, belittling, constant humiliation,
intimidation (e.g. destroying things), threats of harm,
threats to take away children, isolating a person from
family and friends; monitoring their movements; and
restricting access to financial resources, employment,
education or medical care), stalking violence, dating
violence, concubines, polygamous marriage, and more
Cont
One of the main violations that women and girls
experience in Ethiopia is rape.
Women/female students experience sexual
harassment and abuse on the way to and from
school, as well as on school and university
premises, including classrooms, lavatories, and
dormitories, by peers and by teachers, police
members, and juvenile gangs
Legal foundations
Sexual and gender based violence is among the leading
predicament which militates gender equality. There is
historical patriarchal culture with entrenched andro-centric
attitude even justified by proverbs like ‘Set ena aheya dula
yewodale’, which translates into English as ‘Women and
donkeys love being battered’.