Expert Group Meeting on Violence Against Women in Politics
New York, 8-9 March 2018
Remarks by Marina Schuster
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Dear Dr. Simonovic, Dear Ms. Sen, Dear Mr. Gilmour, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First and foremost I would like to thank you and all the organizers for convening the Expert Group Meeting. I would also like to thank Liberal International for giving me the opportunity of supporting this event. As mentioned before, violence against women in politics (VAW-P) has been a largely hidden phenomenon, but it is a real and grave concern for all those dedicated to strengthening democracies around the world, and it cannot be allowed to continue.
I am therefore delighted and deeply honored to take part in this important meeting in order to stop violence against women in politics. As former Member of Parliament and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I am strongly supporting the Istanbul Convention and the #NOTTHECOST campaign launched by the National Democratic Institute.
On International Women’s Day, we must call attention to this problem. There is a need to raise awareness about this violence, create new norms and standards against it, construct processes to register and respond to complaints, provide services for women who are victims and punish the perpetrators of violence.
Let me start with the first point:
1.Awareness starts with women themselves
Female candidates or activists may not even recognize what has happened to them as a specific form of violence. Those incidents have not even had a name yet.
Women seeking to participate or who are already engaged in politics may even deny the problem altogether in an effort to deflect charges that they are “not coping” with the demands of the job. So what many women actually do is choosing to remain silent about the incidents – instead of reporting it to the police.
But the situation is even worse. When a former colleague of mine noticed sexually suggestive comments from a male colleague, she came to me when we were at the restroom and said: I was not even wearing a skirt today. This highlights the phenomenon that there is still a tendency in our mindsets that any form of violence has something to do with our appearance, the way we dress ourselves, the way we act or campaign in politics. This has to change.
What I have learned when I interviewed other politicians and did some research about incidents in Germany is that, candidates or politicians do not want to be perceived as victims; you want to be seen as a strong candidate when you run for a seat in a city council or parliament – not as a victim.
So I come to the conclusion, that there is a fear of being marked a “victim”; to be declared a victim – as it means a clear obstacle in any political career. Actually being accused of “playing the victim” could be seen as a very mean instrument to even stop the political career.
If those women speak up, they run the risk of appearing to be a liability, rather than an asset to party leaders. Even worse, they can sometimes subject themselves to further harassment and discrimination. In a vicious cycle, such attacks dampen the political aspirations of other women and girls.
In my eyes, raising awareness must be the first priority.
2.The political arena is already a “tough” one
As candidates or activists we are told that the political arena is a tough one. We are told that we should not complain, especially during campaigns. If we want to get elected we need to go through this “battle”. And even afterwards, many political debates and “battles” are waiting for us. And yes, it is true: It is no secret that politics is rough and intrigues are forged – even by women.
And yet it is not okay for a young politician to be called “sweet mouse” by the regional party leader, as we have seen in Berlin and which has been reported in newspapers.[1] Where power and power divide come into play, those remarks that are harmless in private life, are quickly tasteless and pejorative. With the “sweet mouse” then the woman is meant, which is not taken seriously and judged by her appearance. And it is not okay to get caught up in rumors of sexual intercourse as soon as a woman makes an unusually fast political career. In men, in such cases, an extraordinary assertiveness is suspected, in women, it is allegedly sexual inclinations. Unfortunately, such stereotypes are still in many minds. These stereotypes have to stop.
3.Social Media
As politicians or candidates, we all observe the increasingly threatening, sexist language in Internet forums and Social Media Networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
I am really shocked by the number and scale of harassments we all can witness. In 2014, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported and quoted some of the worst insults and defamations women in all parliamentary groups have to endure.[2]
We cannot tolerate those forms of cyber-bullying, harassment or defamation. We cannot allow that the World Wide Web appears as a legal vacuum where no rules or laws apply or are enforced.
In Germany, there was a long discussion about those threats and finally, the Grand Coalition introduced a new law in 2017. It has become applicable since the beginning of this year, and is called the “Network Enforcing Act” (“Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz”[3]), which could be described as Anti-Hate-Speech-Law. It was highly criticized by the EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova[4], the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech, David Kaye[5], and by different parties in the German Bundestag like the Greens, the FDP, the Left and other institutions.
The bill mandates that after receiving a user complaint, “social networks” must assess whether the content is a violation of German law, and delete or block the “violating content” within 7 days of receiving the complaint, or delete and block the “violating content” within 24 hours when the content is in “clear violation” of the law. It also requires that the “violating content” has to be stored in Germany for ten weeks.
The bill defines the “violating content” very broadly, for example, as content under Sections 86 (dissemination of propaganda material of unconstitutional organizations), 111 (public incitement to crime), 130 (incitement to hatred), 131 (dissemination of depictions of violence), 140 (rewarding and approving of offences), 166 (defamation of religions, religious and ideological associations), 184b (distribution, acquisition, and possession of child pornography), 184d (distribution of pornographic performances by broadcasting, media services, or telecommunications services), 185 to 187 (insult and defamation) of the German Criminal Code. (Just to name some of them.)
Many concerns aroused.[6] It is clear, that the State has a legitimate interest and responsibility to protect against terrorism, child pornography, and hate speech that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. The question that arises relates to the way in which the bill seeks to achieve legitimate objectives, in particular the responsibilities it places upon private companies to regulate the exercise of freedom of expression, and whether the measures proposed by the bill would be lawful under international human rights law.
4.What can be done?
Apart form raising awareness, I would like to propose the following steps:
We should undertake efforts supporting networking among female politicians and civil society organizations interested in tackling this issue, whether on a formal or informal basis, by providing opportunities to connect during organizational or regional gatherings. We must create possibilities where women can entrust each other with their experiences.
Regardless of the format of the forum, special care must be taken to ensure that the women participating are protected from any breach of confidentiality.
Many city councils, regional or federal parliaments offer a wide range of trainings, seminars and online courses. For example trainings take place to foster diversity and to stop any form of discrimination. In my eyes those trainings, e.g. offered to staff members or interns in parliaments, should include awareness of VAW-P and how to respond to it. Those trainings should include women and men, as we must tackle the problem on a general basis.
Additionally, it is important to provide training for women on how to respond to and mitigate acts of violence against women in politics, including how to decrease vulnerability and respond effectively to both in-person and online attacks. As we probably experienced in general, the tone on Facebook and Twitter is getting rougher. Former colleagues of mine even had online death threats. In this case we would also need well-trained policemen and judges in order to react promptly and to punish the perpetrators. To do so, all relevant stakeholders must commit to act together to confront VAW-P, which will contribute to strengthening democratic culture and practice, and achieving prosperous and resilient societies.
When I googled “VAW-P” on the German Google website, only a few articles were to be found, the first one was about female politicians in Iraq. This shows, that besides of the #metoo campaign – it is not on the screen yet. We had death threats and violent attacks on politicians, like the Mayor of Cologne (Henriette Reker), but it was not the starting point for a broad debate on VAW-P. I am much in favor of a cross-party hearing in the national parliaments. This shows that the phenomenon is not restricted to one specific political party or parliamentary group, it shows that there are joint efforts needed to tackle the problem and to stop any form of violence.
Overall, in many political parties we still see reluctance to tackle the problem. Parties fear negative PR. The impression that if one party is outspoken on this issue must be because it is a virulent problem in their rows, is a big obstacle in raising awareness.
The first step of a party and its leadership is to support the #NotTheCost campaign of NDI. And I really think to have men on your side to be outspoken on VAW-P is also very crucial for the success of any campaign und training.
Parties should think about how they want to respond to VWA-P. One possibility could be, to establish an ombudsperson in your party structures.
Much of the work that must be done now centers on data collection and research: to improve existing efforts, or to begin collecting information on the phenomenon in the first place.
For an issue like VAW-P that has been consistently overlooked and underreported, collecting data at any level, from local to global, can be a programmatic goal for practitioners in and of itself: it is an essential part of beginning to raise awareness and identifying solutions. So I would like to thank NDI once again for all the efforts to do so.
Parties have an important role to play. How do we move political parties from being gate-keepers for the status quo to becoming liberating and supportive springboards for women’s empowerment? As liberals our message has always been clear: all violence against women must stop.
Liberal International wholeheartedly joined the #NotTheCost campaign and sees it as a natural extension of our own campaign to extend the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women beyond the borders of Europe. Gathering liberal Members of Parliament representing 13 countries during the 135th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), parliamentarians from LI member parties united in a call for action on the issue of stopping violence against women in politics.
Hosted in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute, the meeting featured a presentation on NDI’s #NotTheCost campaign along with a workshop where MPs were encouraged to share their own personal experiences with the issue in an effort to comprise a long-term liberal strategy for fighting back.
It is very important to follow a strategic approach, because many parties are still putting a blind eye on VAW-P.
We should invite more and more party leaderships to join the #NotTheCost campaign.
One key element is, that we need to build coalitions. We need all institutions together to call for a change, e.g. intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and parliaments.
We will hear from other panelists and speakers what they have done already, e.g. drafting separate regional declarations, modifying existing accords or establishing a code of conduct.
A few countries have introduced legislation to criminalize acts of violence against women in politics. Germany has not introduced a specific VAW-P legislation yet. But Article 36 of the Istanbul Convention was a starting point for a long discussion to amend the existing Criminal Code.
In Germany, the parliament decided in November 2016 to change the Criminal Law. The new law assumes a “no-means-no”-model (Sect. 177 StGB), while the old law required coercion as a necessary feature of rape and other forms of sexual assaults. In addition, two new offense descriptions were introduced: sexual harassment (Sect. 184i StGB) and offenses out of groups (Sect. 184j StGB). It involves a genuine shift of paradigms because it departs from the traditional coercion model that deemed it a necessary condition that offenders coerce victims with violence or similar pressure. Under the new law, sexual acts cross the threshold towards criminal conduct if the other person has expressed rejection. Sect. 177 StGB now acknowledges that “no” means no. Coercion was downgraded from a necessary condition to an aggravating circumstance.[7]
I am well aware, that it is not a specific term concerning VAW-P, but it was an important step forward.
Legislation, however, is not the solution everywhere: We need to bring other strategies to bear.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls is now preparing an new report concerning VAW-P. And once again I would like to thank the National Democratic Institute. Madeleine Albright often said that success without democracy is improbable, and democracy without women is impossible. If we fail to act on behalf of the current and future female leaders in our world, the cost to our democracies will be too high. When a woman participates in politics, she should be putting her hopes and dreams for the future on the line, not her dignity and not her life. It is time to put an end to the scourge of violence against women in politics. It is on us to make a change.
Thank you very much.
LI Human Rights Committee member, Marina Schuster, addresses the Expert Group Meeting on Violence Against Women in Politics
