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Domestic Violence: Honduras fights back
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Around the world, as many as one in three women have been beaten at the hands of someone they know. This according to the UN Population Fund. But one country is fighting back.
Around the world, as many as one in three women have been beaten at the hands of someone that they know.
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This, according to the United Nations Population Fund. But one country is fighting back.
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A day like any other.
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A scene of domestic violence that could be taking place anytime, anywhere.
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Here in Honduras, it's said that a woman is killed at the hands of her partner every 20 days.
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Officials estimate that one out of seven women are victims of physical abuse.
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And many more cases go unreported.
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Maria Amalia Reyes was barely 20 years old when she married her first husband.
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He was a policeman. He was part of a notorious group here in the capital, Cobras.
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This was a man who was trained to be extremely tough. And what he learned at work, he would practice on me.
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The beatings continued year after year, often in front of her young children.
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He drank too much. He drank liquor. He beat me savagely.
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He would put his gun inside my mouth and he would tell me,
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if you yell, I'll kill you and I'll leave your brain splattered on the walls.
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At that point, there was little protection for Maria Amalia.
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Domestic violence was not prosecuted in the country until a law aimed at protecting women was finally passed in 1998.
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But having a law is one thing. Enforcing it is another, says former Minister for Security Oscar Alvarez.
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In Latin America, the man has always been the dominant figure.
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We had to change the situation because the police, when a woman comes to ask for help,
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many times officers don't understand. And many times they even say,
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she must have done something to deserve the beating.
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So just how do you change such entrenched attitudes?
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By training the police to think differently, with years of classroom training on gender discrimination.
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And by learning how to handle victims of domestic violence, as well as aggressors.
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Today, police academies of Honduras graduate 1,400 officers each year, and many are women.
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Doris Cortes is the country's first police officer with a master's degree in gender and education.
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It's essential, she says, that victims like Maria Amalia trust their complaints will be handled quickly.
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Now we are available on immediate notice to anyone who calls.
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A new telephone hotline now allows for anonymous reports of domestic abuse to be referred immediately to the police dispatcher.
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Also essential, she says, is that law enforcement and victims themselves
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understand that domestic violence is not only about beatings.
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Psychological violence, which is yelling, humiliations,
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when the woman is degraded until she is drained of her independence,
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of her ability to make decisions for herself, instead of having the man make all the decisions for her.
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All of these changes, in the system and in attitudes,
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made it easier for Maria Amalia to ask for help the second time around.
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Later, I got married again, the same.
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He deals with me as if I were an animal. He says terrible things to me.
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He tells me I'm useless, I'm a piece of trash.
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He tells me so many things I can't even tell you.
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So I decided to report him to the police.
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But while reporting and response have become easier and quicker, says Cortes,
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there's another kind of abuse that for many women remains taboo.
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Sexual violence, that's when the woman doesn't want to have relations,
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but is forced to, normally by the husband.
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That is considered a type of violence.
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It's a kind of humiliation that this woman, Tirza Hernandez,
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a devoted mother, knows only too well.
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The violence against me lasted about 40 years.
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If I didn't please him in some way, it would take away economic support.
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It's embarrassing to say, but also sexually.
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It was a daily obligation. There was no pleasure, no mutual consent.
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If I didn't please him, the problems would start over again.
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For Tirza, it's not just about money.
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For Tirza, going to the authorities to get a restraining order was not enough.
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Separated from her abusive husband, she lost her income, her home,
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and her two sons, who now live in a shelter.
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Her case, argues Cortes, shows how victims often need even more
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than effective policing and injunctions from the court.
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They need a safety net.
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In a society where violence among family members has left deep scars,
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Maria Amalia is trying to take control of her own destiny
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and to guarantee a better future for her pregnant daughter
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by building a self-help group for women.
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I can say that the situation for women in Honduras is difficult,
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extremely difficult.
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Because of the poverty we live in, we just don't have many opportunities.
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Our history is based in the macho culture of the men
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and the sacrifice of us, women.
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Our struggle is about all just for survival in this country, Honduras.
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The work she is doing, and programs like police training, are only a small start.
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But to change this painful history, you have to begin somewhere.
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Some months ago, the new government of Honduras outlawed not only
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domestic violence, but all forms of violence against women.
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- Idioma/s:
- Niveles educativos:
- ▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
- Nivel Intermedio
- Autor/es:
- United Nations (Naciones Unidas)
- Subido por:
- EducaMadrid
- Licencia:
- Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
- Visualizaciones:
- 751
- Fecha:
- 26 de junio de 2007 - 16:20
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Enlace Relacionado:
- 21st Century Television Series
- Duración:
- 07′ 06″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
- Resolución:
- 320x240 píxeles
- Tamaño:
- 41.06 MBytes