Where battery begins at home.

• Author: Mehrotra, Aparna
• Position: Includes related article on UN campaign activities - Domestic violence in Latin America and the Caribbean

The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State

- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16(3)

When development is perceived and examined as enlarging choices, violence against women emerges as one of the most disturbing and prevalent obstacles to the exercise of choice - chipping away at the process of self-affirmation needed to make independent decisions affecting women's lives. It emerges as a serious violation of human rights that abrogates the women's right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well being. Moreover, violence is not only a manifestation of unequal, disempowering and unjust power relations, but is also a costly economic phenomenon resulting in significant losses of productive potential. Fully cognizant of this morally unacceptable reality, the United Nations system has joined together in this special year for human rights in an inter-agency campaign on violence against women and girls, which focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean, an area which registers a striking trend of increasing incidences of violence against women and girls. Studies indicate high incidences of violence within families, and in some countries such violence is cited as the leading cause of hospitalization of women.

Anywhere from 25 to more than 50 per cent of Latin American and Caribbean women, depending on the country in which they live, are victims of some kind of domestic violence. The phenomenon has powerful implications for women and for society, generating problems that often start as early as birth and continue throughout the life cycle of females. Another problem associated with violence is that it is most often transmitted inter-generationally through children who have either been witnesses to, or subjects of, abuse.

Like their parents, they grow to be both abusers and victims, perpetuating the cycle of violence through generations. In many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the legal standards and implementation of justice continue to remain discriminatory against women, especially with respect to both family-related issues, such as marriage, divorce, property rights, violence and labour issues such as differential salary scales, unequal work conditions, and hiring and firing practices.

In Guatemala for example, Article 114 of the Civil Code grants a husband the right to prohibit his wife from working outside the home, which...