Draft first regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

<strong>Draft</strong> <strong>first</strong> <strong>regional</strong> <strong>report</strong> on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development
Chapter III
Chile’s national <strong>report</strong> presents a long list of laws that incorporate issues of gender, sexuality and sexual
orientation into syllabuses, and Brazil’s <strong>report</strong> states that, while gender equity is not mentioned in the 2014
National Education Plan, action is being taken on this. 105
(c) The situation regarding physical autonomy and gender violence
Violence is an issue meriting a great deal of attention in a number of the region’s countries, and gender
violence in particular is a major social problem, for while the data available are inadequate and incomplete, they
reveal a situation that imperils the physical autonomy of women and girls, and indeed boys, in all segments of
society. Gender violence tends to present in multiple forms that are generally cumulative over the life cycle,
including psychological, physical and sexual violence. As well as being among the severest violations of people’s
rights in itself, such violence sets up a vicious circle of inequality when it takes place in a context of poverty.
Violence arises in all kinds of situations (within the family, at work and in public spaces), which brings an
extra level of complexity to the actions needed to eliminate it. The <strong>regional</strong> monitoring indicator for this area is
the proportion of women aged 15 and over who have suffered physical, sexual or psychological violence in the
previous 12 months, broken down by the type of violence and by age, and by whether the perpetrator of the
violence was a current or former partner or not. In the absence of estimates for this indicator, a different and
more restrictive one is currently used for domestic violence of two types: physical or sexual violence perpetrated
against women aged 15 to 49 by their current or a former partner, as established by SDG indicator 5.2.1, for which
there are currently survey data on nine countries from times close to the Montevideo Consensus on Population
and Development. 106 For recent dates, this indicator reveals how serious the problem is in the nine countries
with data available, since between 10% and 35% of women stated in the surveys that they had been subjected
to physical or sexual violence by their partners in the 12 months prior to the interview (see figure III.22). Physical
or sexual violence is also found to be most serious among younger women, with the exception of Colombia,
which presents high levels of physical and sexual violence, according to this indicator, for all age groups.
Figure III.22
Latin America (9 countries): women and girls aged 15 to 49 suffering physical or sexual violence from their current
or a former husband or partner in the 12 months prior to the survey, 2007-2016, latest data available
(Percentages)
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Ages 15 to 19 Ages 20 to 24 Ages 25 to 29 Ages 30 to 34 Ages 35 to 39 Ages 40 to 44 Ages 45 to 49
Colombia 2010
Haiti 2012
Bolivia (Plur. State of) 2008
Dominican Rep. 2013
Peru 2012
Honduras 2012
Nicaragua 2007
Guatemala 2015
El Salvador 2008
Source: United Nations, SDG Indicators Global Database [online] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/ [reference date: 20 February 2018].
105
The government mentions in its <strong>report</strong> that it is looking for other initiatives to increase inclusiveness in the discussion of gender relations at schools, for example
by including gender perspectives in public education policies and by emphasizing the participation of women in the sciences and in academic courses with greater
barriers to female participation.
106
It is important to note that these estimates are only available for a few countries and even then not for the two or more points in time needed to observe trends over
the period and, most importantly, to be able to monitor the indicator for the period of implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development.
121