"Break the Silence"We can't stop our voice - Appeal of the National Campaign Against Rape and Gender-Based Violence

The fact that 47 women have been killed daily due to 7 rapes, murders after the rape, and sexual violence during captivity has shown that the situation of violence against women and girls is alarming in our society. The data of Nepal Police for the last six months (March 2076 to September 2077) shows that the number of rapes is 1221. The latest figures show that some children and women have lodged complaints with the police, even when access to judicial bodies and service providers was not possible. Many incidents have been made public through social media and media but the complaints have not been processed or allowed to go, according to recent media reports.

Also, out of 319 rape cases recorded in WOREC from 2077 BS to August, 75 percent of the affected girls are under 2 to 18 years of age. About 90 percent of rape cases have been committed by acquaintances at home, in the neighborhood, and in one's own community. Both the home and the community are not safe for women and adolescents, according to data provided by WOREC and state bodies in recent years, as well as the experience of women and girls.

Many women and girls like Samjhana Vik, Sangeeta Mandal, Kanchan Panjiar, Aakriti Rai, Nirmala Pant, Purnima Moktan, Sarmila Danuwar lost their lives in rape. Even in such cases of a heinous crime, the culture of silence, the tendency to favor the perpetrator, and the tendency of the victim group to make the victim more victim under pressure and influence is further aggravated by a heinous crime like rape.

We have drawn serious attention to the statement made by thousands of women and adolescents that even though the statistics of rape are made public by the state, even the responsible bodies of the state and high-ranking officials do not view rape as a sensitive issue. . Violence against women, such as rape and subsequent murder, has been fueled by the existing social structure and thinking of making the affected people the participants in the whole incident. The state still seems to have failed to analyze the physical, mental, social, and domestic violence and discrimination suffered by the raped women and adolescents after the incident. 

Some of the recent steps taken by the government, including changes in the law, the speedy justice system, the decision to extend the term, decided to celebrate the year against violence against women are positive. But why are rape cases on the rise in our society? Why is there no comfortable environment for victims to get justice? It is important for the government and concerned bodies to pay immediate attention to this issue. Discriminatory attitudes towards women in individual, family, society and policy and national politics and control over women's body and sexuality are fueling such incidents of violence. The silence of society in such cases reinforces the discriminatory social structural system, reinforcing the idea that women's bodies can be used in any way.

Therefore, rape and any kind of discrimination against women and girls cannot end unless the following conditions are changed.

1. As long as there is no change in the unequal power relations between the family and the society due to gender, age, caste, and class, the exploitation, oppression, and violence in the name of power will continue.

2. End the impunity by fully implementing the law by ending the situation where the morale of the offender is high and the victim is always a victim by covering up the crime and protecting the offender.

3. The affected have been deprived of access to justice due to the cumbersome justice system that they have to deal with to register cases and get justice. Therefore, effective implementation of a speedy justice system should be done by giving high priority to heinous crimes like rape and incidents of sexual violence.

4. As the interpretation of the existing law limits the perpetrator to action only, justice should be interpreted on the basis of the concept of social justice in order to create an environment in which the victims can experience justice with the assurance of their right to live with self-respect.

5. Harmful thinking of looking at women's bodies only as a question of family and society's dignity has perpetuated the culture of social silence in all forms of violence against women. To this end, zero-tolerance against violence should be ensured through various social structural transformations.

6. Making the incident of a heinous crime like rape a matter of honor and dignity, reconciling the victim/victim, insulting, intimidating, threatening, forcing them to leave the place of residence, in some cases reluctant to lodge a complaint, political pressure on the victim and family, protection of the perpetrator. Develop a safe, sensitive, long-term, and accessible support mechanism for those affected by criminalizing such actions.

In this context, a national campaign against rape and gender-based violence will be launched in collaboration with various organizations in collaboration with WOREC to create an environment of public awareness about rape and gender-based violence, non-violence, social justice, and legal justice for the affected. The campaign will start on October 2, International Day of Non-Violence, and will run till December 10, Human Rights Day. During the campaign, sit-ins, political parties, and government bodies will be alerted, community-level awareness programs, consultation seminars, and debates will be conducted.

On the first day of the campaign, which started today, human rights activists from Lalitpur, Rukum, Kailali, Dang, Morang, Sunsari, Udaipur, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bardia, and Sindhuli came with placards at 11 a.m. on World Non-Violence Day. They have demanded justice with self-respect.