‘Violence against women different from gender-based violence’

By OGIA MIAMEL
GENDER-based violence and violence against women have different meanings which must be understood and used properly, an official says.
United Nations Gender Desk team coordinator Danielle Winfrey told The National that gender-based violence became an umbrella term for any harm perpetrated against a person’s will because of power inequalities based on gender roles.
“Thus, is it experienced by women, men, girls and boys and people of diverse sexuality or gender constructs such as homosexuals, transgender, lesbians etc,” she said.
“However, around the world, gender-based violence almost always has a greater negative impact on women and girls.”
She said women experience such violence, therefore, it was often interchangeably used with the term “violence against women” which was “any form of violence caused against women and girls”.
“There is a distinction. In Papua New Guinea, we would like to keep the distinctions very clear as we want to make the business of violence, whether it is gender-based violence or violence against women, everyone’s business to take action on,” she said.
“We want to make it an inclusive process where everyone takes action against it regardless of whether they are women or men, girls or boys.”