Activity 2
• Group participants into 3 groups and provide each group with a flash card with the same
definition of gender based violence.
• Ask each group to spend 15 minutes analyzing and discussing each definition.
Flash card with definition of gender based violence
Gender based violence is violence faced by a person/people due to the subordinate position in
society created by interpretations of what it means to be a particular sex . Gender based violence can
be experienced by both men and women but is largely experienced by women.
Because gender based violence is experienced more by women due to their subordinate position in
society and the family, gender based violence often speaks about violence against women.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW) defined gender
based violence as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in,
physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such
acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private
life. It includes but is not limited to physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in
the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowryrelated violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices
harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; physical,
sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape,
sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and
elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution and physical, sexual and
psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs”.
•
Make a detailed presentation with the slide below on the definition with examples from
Sri Lanka.
Slide
Sri Lanka recognises the definition of GBV set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
(DEVAW) as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring
in public or in private life”. It also accepts that violence against women encompasses but is not limited to “physical,
sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the
household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to
women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring
within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational
institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution and physical, sexual and psychological violence
perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs”
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