'Dignity and justice for all of us’ is the theme of this year’s Human Rights Day. The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) joins the global community in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by calling attention to violations of dignity and justice through media representations that negate the worth of women as human beings.

Living a life free of all forms of violence is a human right. Yet millions of women and girls around the world face rape, domestic abuse, mutilation and other forms of gender-based violence. Violence against women is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) one in three women in the world will suffer some form of violence in her lifetime.

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), a WACC-coordinated study of gender in the news media in 76 countries around the world, found  in 2005 ‘that gender-based violence (rape, trafficking, harassment) amount to just over 1% of the total. Innumerable events and incidents of gender-based violence occur daily but news values and news priorities apparently decree that these are not newsworthy’.  Their scale and magnitude is thus hidden from the public’. Frequently  the language and images used in news stories about violent acts against women present them as crimes of passion or as minor or domestic crimes rather than as serious crimes that violate women’s human rights.

All forms of discrimination against women contribute to an environment in which abuses can be perpetrated with impunity and on many occasions with a degree of social sanctions. Media content reinforcing discriminatory social attitudes that deny women’s human rights contributes to the environment of impunity and indifference.

WACC urges journalists, editors and other media professionals to use language that does not reinforce stereotypes of women as victims and to avoid coverage of violence against women that fails to recognise it as a violation of women’s human rights.  WACC commends journalists, editors and other media professionals who ensure that their coverage of acts of violence against women does not add psychological trauma to the physical violence already inflicted. 

WACC welcomes initiatives that support appropriate reporting on violence against women.  Among others, these include a Spanish style-guide on news treatment of gender-based violence produced by Agencia Servimedia http://www.servimedia.es/ and the guidelines in English for reporting on violence against women produced by the International Federation of Journalists www.ifj.org/assets/docs/185/063/c3093b9-8c8e63f.pdf

On Human Rights Day 2008 WACC calls for recognition that upholding ‘dignity and justice for all of us’ demands respect for women’s communication rights as well as their human rights. 

--------------
The Rev. Randy Naylor
General Secretary, WACC

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Networking websites