About four years ago, foreign media
warned that Sri Lanka is not a safe place to visit due to the armed conflict.
Now that the armed conflict is over they seem to have found a new reason to
continue discouraging foreigners from visiting Sri Lanka. This they do by
emphasizing that Sri Lanka is a place ‘too dangerous’ to visit. On May 6, 2013,
the US State Department’s travel advisory warned that foreign women should
‘exercise vigilance’ when visiting Sri Lanka, due to an upswing in sexual
attacks against female visitors. Just a few days after the US State Department,
the UK also issued a travel advisory asking the visitors to be mindful of
organized and armed gangs known to operate in the country who have been
responsible for targeted kidnappings and violence.
However a recent United Nations
study involving multiple countries affirmed that more than one in ten men in
Sri Lanka had admitted to having committed rape at least once. The study
queries , ‘Why do some men use violence against women and how can we prevent
it?’, it is based on a population based quantitative survey component of the
study, which was conducted from 2010 to 2013 with more than 10,000 men and
3,000 women in nine sites across Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Sri
Lanka and Papua New Guinea. The report also mentions that they received the
lowest responses from Sri Lanka.
The report produced from the study
points out that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence
against women globally. Twenty-one percent of the Sri Lankan participants
reported that they’d experiencing at least one act of physical violence and 30
percent of female participants of Sri Lanka reported experiencing at least one
emotionally abusive act by a male intimate partner in their life time where 41
percent reported using at least one emotionally abusive act against their
intimate partner. According to the survey most of the violence in Sri Lanka
occurs between married people and according to the survey this was particularly
true for marital rape, which is known to be the most common form of rape.
However, under Sri Lankan law,
marital rape is not a crime unless a judge has ordered a spousal separation.
“This is spoken under the penal code of 363 section (a). Penal code 363 states,
‘A man is said to commit ‘rape’, when he has sexual intercourse with a woman
under circumstances falling under any of the following descriptions - (a)
Without her consent even were such a woman is his wife and she is judicially
separated from the man.” Therefore if a woman needs relief she should be
judicially separated from the man,” said Justice of the Peace and Unofficial
Magistrate Ranjith Kumara Caldera.
Commenting on the Domestic Violence
Act of 2005, Caldera said that as a lawyer he does not think that it needs any
immediate amendments. “It is still in the process of being implemented. So we
have to wait and see whether it is effective enough,” he explained. “But the
amendment of penal code 363 section (a) should be considered since it does not
provide relief to a woman experiencing marital rape. But then again the rights
of a husband is challenged if that section is to be amended since it is
considered a right of the husband to have sexual intercourse,” Calder
explained.
It appears that economical abuse is
also an important element of intimate partner violence. Economic abuse is a
form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s
access to economic resources. Economic abuse may involve preventing a spouse
from resource acquisition, limiting the amount of resources the victim has
access to, or by exploiting economic resources of the victim. This includes
such acts as the denial of funds, refusal to contribute financially, denial of
food and basic needs and controlling access to heath care and employment.
According to the report, in most sites including Sri Lanka, what was most
commonly reported was a man prohibiting his partner from working or earning an
income or withholding earnings from a partner for household expenses.
The main topic of the study was
rape. The study claims that the questionnaire did not contain the word ‘rape’,
because of the researcher’s belief that most men do not think they have raped
when they force women to have sex. Instead, participants were asked questions
like whether they ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at
the time to have sex,” if they ever “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged
to indicate whether she wanted it” or forced a partner, when she did not want
to. Out of 10,000 men 2,418 who participated in the study has admitted that
they had committed rape. According to the study alcohol and drug abuse appears
to have a serious relationship with sexual violence in some countries including
Sri Lanka.
Emma Fulu, Research Specialist and Partners for Prevention and coordinator for the study in an exclusive email interview with The Nation that the men who admitted of raping had a correlation with physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their childhood. “We did find that men who had experienced or witnessed abuse as children were significantly more likely to use violence later in life. For example, more than 65 percent of men in Bougainville, PNG and the site in China reported experiencing emotional abuse or neglect as children and these men were at least twice as likely to use violence against a female partner,” she said.
Emma Fulu, Research Specialist and Partners for Prevention and coordinator for the study in an exclusive email interview with The Nation that the men who admitted of raping had a correlation with physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their childhood. “We did find that men who had experienced or witnessed abuse as children were significantly more likely to use violence later in life. For example, more than 65 percent of men in Bougainville, PNG and the site in China reported experiencing emotional abuse or neglect as children and these men were at least twice as likely to use violence against a female partner,” she said.
Parenting programs needed
In particular, the study found that men who experienced childhood emotional abuse and neglect as children were more likely to perpetrate physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner. Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse were more likely to report perpetration of non-partner rape. “This tells us that we need to address child abuse and promote healthy families, for example through parenting programmes, comprehensive child protection systems and policies to end corporal punishment,” she pointed out.
In particular, the study found that men who experienced childhood emotional abuse and neglect as children were more likely to perpetrate physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner. Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse were more likely to report perpetration of non-partner rape. “This tells us that we need to address child abuse and promote healthy families, for example through parenting programmes, comprehensive child protection systems and policies to end corporal punishment,” she pointed out.
According to Emma Fulu, the study
has also found a link between men’s perpetration of rape and men’s use of
transactional sex or sex with a sex worker. “Men who reported engaging in
transactional sex or sex with a sex worker were more likely to perpetrate rape
against a woman. This correlation is not just about men seeking sex, but rather
reflects broader notions of ‘what it means to be a man’ that emphasize men’s
heterosexual performance and dominance over women,” she said.
“To prevent violence against women, those notions need to shift, to promote non-violent and caring ways to be a man, for example through sustained school-based or sports-based education programmes,” she added.
“To prevent violence against women, those notions need to shift, to promote non-violent and caring ways to be a man, for example through sustained school-based or sports-based education programmes,” she added.
Focus on Asia
Though the study claims to cover the
Asia and Pacific regions, India, one of the most important countries was not
included in it. “The research sites were selected to reflect the diversity of
the region, with sites from South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and the
Pacific, including two post-conflict sites. India was not included because a similar
study, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) had been
recently conducted. We aimed to include study areas where little research had
been conducted on men’s perpetration of violence. But we of course encourage
and welcome further research on this,” Emma Fulu added.
Prof Neloufer de Mel of University
of Colombo, Pradeep Peiris of Social Scientists’ Association, independent
consultant Shyamala Gomez, Social Indicator team members and Kamani Jinadasa of
CARE Sri Lanka were named in the report as the Sri Lankan country study team of
the survey.
When contacted Pradeep Peiris of the
Social Scientists’ Association refused to comment on the study report and asked
to contact Prof Neloufer de Mel for the relevant information. Neloufer de Mel
was not contactable. United Nations Population Fund, Communication Analyst,
Lankani Sikurajapathy said that this survey was not done in country level, but
in regional level and therefore she was not able to comment on the process
through which the participants for the survey were selected. “CARE Sri Lanka is
the institution in Sri Lanka who could comment on the process,” Sikurajapathy
said.
When Fine contacted CARE Sri Lanka,
the institute informed that Kamani Jinadasa no longer worked there. Ashika
Gunasena of CARE Sri Lanka who returned the call on behalf of Kamani Jinadasa
also refused to answer the questioned asked about CARE Sri Lanka funding a UN
survey. Gunasena said that she could not make comments without the permission
of directors.
Although the Ministry of Child
Development and Women’s Empowerment is aware of the survey, the minister said
they cannot count on the survey results. “We cannot trust the accuracy of the
survey results as there were incidents in which certain reports published
inaccurate facts and figures,” Minister Tissa Karaliyadda said. “But if the
figures are reliable it is true we must be vigilant about it. I don’t think
this can be solved by just imposing laws and educating people,” he reiterated.
He further said he cannot think of a reason why foreign organizations would want to highlight Sri Lanka in such cases. “There are countries in this region which are much worse than Sri Lanka. I do not know why they discriminate Sri Lanka like this,” Minister Karaliyadda lamented.
He further said he cannot think of a reason why foreign organizations would want to highlight Sri Lanka in such cases. “There are countries in this region which are much worse than Sri Lanka. I do not know why they discriminate Sri Lanka like this,” Minister Karaliyadda lamented.
- See more at:
http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/20892-sri-lanka-highlighted-for-upswing-in-sexual-attacks.html#sthash.MNdHRZfF.dpuf
About four years ago, foreign media warned that Sri
Lanka is not a safe place to visit due to the armed conflict. Now that
the armed conflict is over they seem to have found a new reason to
continue discouraging foreigners from visiting Sri Lanka. This they do
by emphasizing that Sri Lanka is a place ‘too dangerous’ to visit. On
May 6, 2013, the US State Department’s travel advisory warned that
foreign women should ‘exercise vigilance’ when visiting Sri Lanka, due
to an upswing in sexual attacks against female visitors. Just a few days
after the US State Department, the UK also issued a travel advisory
asking the visitors to be mindful of organized and armed gangs known to
operate in the country who have been responsible for targeted
kidnappings and violence.
However a recent United Nations study involving multiple countries affirmed that more than one in ten men in Sri Lanka had admitted to having committed rape at least once. The study queries , ‘Why do some men use violence against women and how can we prevent it?’, it is based on a population based quantitative survey component of the study, which was conducted from 2010 to 2013 with more than 10,000 men and 3,000 women in nine sites across Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. The report also mentions that they received the lowest responses from Sri Lanka.
The report produced from the study points out that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women globally. Twenty-one percent of the Sri Lankan participants reported that they’d experiencing at least one act of physical violence and 30 percent of female participants of Sri Lanka reported experiencing at least one emotionally abusive act by a male intimate partner in their life time where 41 percent reported using at least one emotionally abusive act against their intimate partner. According to the survey most of the violence in Sri Lanka occurs between married people and according to the survey this was particularly true for marital rape, which is known to be the most common form of rape.
However, under Sri Lankan law, marital rape is not a crime unless a judge has ordered a spousal separation. “This is spoken under the penal code of 363 section (a). Penal code 363 states, ‘A man is said to commit ‘rape’, when he has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the following descriptions - (a) Without her consent even were such a woman is his wife and she is judicially separated from the man.” Therefore if a woman needs relief she should be judicially separated from the man,” said Justice of the Peace and Unofficial Magistrate Ranjith Kumara Caldera.
Commenting on the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, Caldera said that as a lawyer he does not think that it needs any immediate amendments. “It is still in the process of being implemented. So we have to wait and see whether it is effective enough,” he explained. “But the amendment of penal code 363 section (a) should be considered since it does not provide relief to a woman experiencing marital rape. But then again the rights of a husband is challenged if that section is to be amended since it is considered a right of the husband to have sexual intercourse,” Calder explained.
It appears that economical abuse is also an important element of intimate partner violence. Economic abuse is a form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources. Economic abuse may involve preventing a spouse from resource acquisition, limiting the amount of resources the victim has access to, or by exploiting economic resources of the victim. This includes such acts as the denial of funds, refusal to contribute financially, denial of food and basic needs and controlling access to heath care and employment. According to the report, in most sites including Sri Lanka, what was most commonly reported was a man prohibiting his partner from working or earning an income or withholding earnings from a partner for household expenses.
The main topic of the study was rape. The study claims that the questionnaire did not contain the word ‘rape’, because of the researcher’s belief that most men do not think they have raped when they force women to have sex. Instead, participants were asked questions like whether they ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex,” if they ever “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it” or forced a partner, when she did not want to. Out of 10,000 men 2,418 who participated in the study has admitted that they had committed rape. According to the study alcohol and drug abuse appears to have a serious relationship with sexual violence in some countries including Sri Lanka.
Emma Fulu, Research Specialist and Partners for Prevention and coordinator for the study in an exclusive email interview with The Nation that the men who admitted of raping had a correlation with physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their childhood. “We did find that men who had experienced or witnessed abuse as children were significantly more likely to use violence later in life. For example, more than 65 percent of men in Bougainville, PNG and the site in China reported experiencing emotional abuse or neglect as children and these men were at least twice as likely to use violence against a female partner,” she said.
Parenting programs needed
In particular, the study found that men who experienced childhood emotional abuse and neglect as children were more likely to perpetrate physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner. Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse were more likely to report perpetration of non-partner rape. “This tells us that we need to address child abuse and promote healthy families, for example through parenting programmes, comprehensive child protection systems and policies to end corporal punishment,” she pointed out.
According to Emma Fulu, the study has also found a link between men’s perpetration of rape and men’s use of transactional sex or sex with a sex worker. “Men who reported engaging in transactional sex or sex with a sex worker were more likely to perpetrate rape against a woman. This correlation is not just about men seeking sex, but rather reflects broader notions of ‘what it means to be a man’ that emphasize men’s heterosexual performance and dominance over women,” she said.
“To prevent violence against women, those notions need to shift, to promote non-violent and caring ways to be a man, for example through sustained school-based or sports-based education programmes,” she added.
Focus on Asia
Though the study claims to cover the Asia and Pacific regions, India, one of the most important countries was not included in it. “The research sites were selected to reflect the diversity of the region, with sites from South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, including two post-conflict sites. India was not included because a similar study, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) had been recently conducted. We aimed to include study areas where little research had been conducted on men’s perpetration of violence. But we of course encourage and welcome further research on this,” Emma Fulu added.
Prof Neloufer de Mel of University of Colombo, Pradeep Peiris of Social Scientists’ Association, independent consultant Shyamala Gomez, Social Indicator team members and Kamani Jinadasa of CARE Sri Lanka were named in the report as the Sri Lankan country study team of the survey.
When contacted Pradeep Peiris of the Social Scientists’ Association refused to comment on the study report and asked to contact Prof Neloufer de Mel for the relevant information. Neloufer de Mel was not contactable. United Nations Population Fund, Communication Analyst, Lankani Sikurajapathy said that this survey was not done in country level, but in regional level and therefore she was not able to comment on the process through which the participants for the survey were selected. “CARE Sri Lanka is the institution in Sri Lanka who could comment on the process,” Sikurajapathy said.
When Fine contacted CARE Sri Lanka, the institute informed that Kamani Jinadasa no longer worked there. Ashika Gunasena of CARE Sri Lanka who returned the call on behalf of Kamani Jinadasa also refused to answer the questioned asked about CARE Sri Lanka funding a UN survey. Gunasena said that she could not make comments without the permission of directors.
Although the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment is aware of the survey, the minister said they cannot count on the survey results. “We cannot trust the accuracy of the survey results as there were incidents in which certain reports published inaccurate facts and figures,” Minister Tissa Karaliyadda said. “But if the figures are reliable it is true we must be vigilant about it. I don’t think this can be solved by just imposing laws and educating people,” he reiterated.
He further said he cannot think of a reason why foreign organizations would want to highlight Sri Lanka in such cases. “There are countries in this region which are much worse than Sri Lanka. I do not know why they discriminate Sri Lanka like this,” Minister Karaliyadda lamented.
- See more at:
http://www.nation.lk/edition/fine/item/20892-sri-lanka-highlighted-for-upswing-in-sexual-attacks.html#sthash.MNdHRZfF.dpufHowever a recent United Nations study involving multiple countries affirmed that more than one in ten men in Sri Lanka had admitted to having committed rape at least once. The study queries , ‘Why do some men use violence against women and how can we prevent it?’, it is based on a population based quantitative survey component of the study, which was conducted from 2010 to 2013 with more than 10,000 men and 3,000 women in nine sites across Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. The report also mentions that they received the lowest responses from Sri Lanka.
The report produced from the study points out that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women globally. Twenty-one percent of the Sri Lankan participants reported that they’d experiencing at least one act of physical violence and 30 percent of female participants of Sri Lanka reported experiencing at least one emotionally abusive act by a male intimate partner in their life time where 41 percent reported using at least one emotionally abusive act against their intimate partner. According to the survey most of the violence in Sri Lanka occurs between married people and according to the survey this was particularly true for marital rape, which is known to be the most common form of rape.
However, under Sri Lankan law, marital rape is not a crime unless a judge has ordered a spousal separation. “This is spoken under the penal code of 363 section (a). Penal code 363 states, ‘A man is said to commit ‘rape’, when he has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the following descriptions - (a) Without her consent even were such a woman is his wife and she is judicially separated from the man.” Therefore if a woman needs relief she should be judicially separated from the man,” said Justice of the Peace and Unofficial Magistrate Ranjith Kumara Caldera.
Commenting on the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, Caldera said that as a lawyer he does not think that it needs any immediate amendments. “It is still in the process of being implemented. So we have to wait and see whether it is effective enough,” he explained. “But the amendment of penal code 363 section (a) should be considered since it does not provide relief to a woman experiencing marital rape. But then again the rights of a husband is challenged if that section is to be amended since it is considered a right of the husband to have sexual intercourse,” Calder explained.
It appears that economical abuse is also an important element of intimate partner violence. Economic abuse is a form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources. Economic abuse may involve preventing a spouse from resource acquisition, limiting the amount of resources the victim has access to, or by exploiting economic resources of the victim. This includes such acts as the denial of funds, refusal to contribute financially, denial of food and basic needs and controlling access to heath care and employment. According to the report, in most sites including Sri Lanka, what was most commonly reported was a man prohibiting his partner from working or earning an income or withholding earnings from a partner for household expenses.
The main topic of the study was rape. The study claims that the questionnaire did not contain the word ‘rape’, because of the researcher’s belief that most men do not think they have raped when they force women to have sex. Instead, participants were asked questions like whether they ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex,” if they ever “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it” or forced a partner, when she did not want to. Out of 10,000 men 2,418 who participated in the study has admitted that they had committed rape. According to the study alcohol and drug abuse appears to have a serious relationship with sexual violence in some countries including Sri Lanka.
Emma Fulu, Research Specialist and Partners for Prevention and coordinator for the study in an exclusive email interview with The Nation that the men who admitted of raping had a correlation with physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their childhood. “We did find that men who had experienced or witnessed abuse as children were significantly more likely to use violence later in life. For example, more than 65 percent of men in Bougainville, PNG and the site in China reported experiencing emotional abuse or neglect as children and these men were at least twice as likely to use violence against a female partner,” she said.
Parenting programs needed
In particular, the study found that men who experienced childhood emotional abuse and neglect as children were more likely to perpetrate physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner. Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse were more likely to report perpetration of non-partner rape. “This tells us that we need to address child abuse and promote healthy families, for example through parenting programmes, comprehensive child protection systems and policies to end corporal punishment,” she pointed out.
According to Emma Fulu, the study has also found a link between men’s perpetration of rape and men’s use of transactional sex or sex with a sex worker. “Men who reported engaging in transactional sex or sex with a sex worker were more likely to perpetrate rape against a woman. This correlation is not just about men seeking sex, but rather reflects broader notions of ‘what it means to be a man’ that emphasize men’s heterosexual performance and dominance over women,” she said.
“To prevent violence against women, those notions need to shift, to promote non-violent and caring ways to be a man, for example through sustained school-based or sports-based education programmes,” she added.
Focus on Asia
Though the study claims to cover the Asia and Pacific regions, India, one of the most important countries was not included in it. “The research sites were selected to reflect the diversity of the region, with sites from South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, including two post-conflict sites. India was not included because a similar study, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) had been recently conducted. We aimed to include study areas where little research had been conducted on men’s perpetration of violence. But we of course encourage and welcome further research on this,” Emma Fulu added.
Prof Neloufer de Mel of University of Colombo, Pradeep Peiris of Social Scientists’ Association, independent consultant Shyamala Gomez, Social Indicator team members and Kamani Jinadasa of CARE Sri Lanka were named in the report as the Sri Lankan country study team of the survey.
When contacted Pradeep Peiris of the Social Scientists’ Association refused to comment on the study report and asked to contact Prof Neloufer de Mel for the relevant information. Neloufer de Mel was not contactable. United Nations Population Fund, Communication Analyst, Lankani Sikurajapathy said that this survey was not done in country level, but in regional level and therefore she was not able to comment on the process through which the participants for the survey were selected. “CARE Sri Lanka is the institution in Sri Lanka who could comment on the process,” Sikurajapathy said.
When Fine contacted CARE Sri Lanka, the institute informed that Kamani Jinadasa no longer worked there. Ashika Gunasena of CARE Sri Lanka who returned the call on behalf of Kamani Jinadasa also refused to answer the questioned asked about CARE Sri Lanka funding a UN survey. Gunasena said that she could not make comments without the permission of directors.
Although the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment is aware of the survey, the minister said they cannot count on the survey results. “We cannot trust the accuracy of the survey results as there were incidents in which certain reports published inaccurate facts and figures,” Minister Tissa Karaliyadda said. “But if the figures are reliable it is true we must be vigilant about it. I don’t think this can be solved by just imposing laws and educating people,” he reiterated.
He further said he cannot think of a reason why foreign organizations would want to highlight Sri Lanka in such cases. “There are countries in this region which are much worse than Sri Lanka. I do not know why they discriminate Sri Lanka like this,” Minister Karaliyadda lamented.
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