State Responses to Domestic Violence:
Current Status and Needed Improvements

Margaret Schuler, Gladys Acosta Vargas, Michelle Beasley, Sheila Gymiah, Sakuntala Rajasingham, Rebecca Sewall, Arati Vasan
Women Law and Development International
1996
State Responses to Domestic Violence: Current Status and Needed Improvements addresses three major questions: what laws exist to address domestic violence?; have they been effective in eradicating domestic violence?; and what can be done to improve the legal treatment of domestic violence? Using a dual research strategy involving a review of laws and a survey of women’s rights advocates, this study provides a global overview of current legal responses to domestic violence. State Responses also offers comprehensive recommendations for states and suggests strategies for NGOs to advocate for change.
Voices of Women Worldwide
Women Law and Development International
1996
- ASIN: B000M08Z0K
State Responses to Domestic Violence: Current Status and Needed Improvements addresses three major questions: what laws exist to address domestic violence?; have they been effective in eradicating domestic violence?; and what can be done to improve the legal treatment of domestic violence? Using a dual research strategy involving a review of laws and a survey of women’s rights advocates, this study provides a global overview of current legal responses to domestic violence. State Responses also offers comprehensive recommendations for states and suggests strategies for NGOs to advocate for change.
Voices of Women Worldwide
- “Existing legislation remains insufficient, inefficacious, [and] neutral. [It] does not contemplate the aspect of inequality between boys and girls... [and does not] contemplate the causes of domestic violence.” -Argentina
- “One of the biggest obstacles [to ending domestic violence] is the belief that family matters are private even when people are being hurt.” -Canada
- I was battered by ex-husband many times seriously to the point of losing six teeth. Every time I took him to the police station, the next day he was out a free man.”
- -Tanzania
- “However violent the marriage, most religions teach that one must endure, not get out.”
- -Uganda
- “In large measures, those called upon to respond to domesi$t»‘ violence are males who all too often hold beliefs similar to those of the perpetrators of domestic violence .”
- -United States of America
- I am not afraid of war. I have been living in a war zone for 20 years.” Yugoslavia