UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) — The United Nations (UN) has called on the U.S. Government to better protect women from domestic violence, saying there are ‘systemic failures’ which require investigation.
An independent UN human rights expert said U.S. officials should reassess existing mechanisms to protect women after a regional body found it wanting in defending a battered woman and her three murdered children from her ex-husband.
Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, called on the U.S. Government to also reassess its ways of protecting victims and punishing offenders, as well as establish meaningful standards for enforcement of protection orders and impose consequences for a failure to enforce them.
Jessica Lenahan, a victim of domestic violence along with her daughters Leslie, 7, Katheryn, 8, and Rebecca Gonzales, 10, obtained a restraining order against her ex-husband Simon Gonzalez from the Colorado state courts in 1999.
On June 22 and 23, 1999, Lenahan contacted the Castle Rock Police Department eight times as she did not know where her daughters were. Later that morning, Simon Gonzales drove his pick-up truck to the Police Department and opened fired through the window. Police returned fire, and in an exchange of gunfire, he was killed. The dead bodies of the three girls were found in his truck.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACR), the fragmented police response did not respect the terms of the restraining order, and that Colorado state did not duly investigate Lenahan’s complaints. It also called on the U.S. to conduct a full investigation into these systemic failures and reinforce through legislation the mandatory character of protection orders.
“In my discussions with Government officials, victims, survivors, and advocates, including Jessica Lenahan, I found a lack of substantive protective legislation for domestic violence victims in the United States, as well as inadequate implementation of certain laws, policies and programs,” Manjoo stated after her fact-finding mission earlier this year.
Manjoo noted that the U.S. has landmark legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act to address the high incidence of violence against women. However, “there is little in terms of legally binding federal provisions which provide substantive protection or prevention for acts of domestic violence against women,” she said.
Justice and truth, he does make a valid point, there are many countries in the world that what happened with that woman and her children, it happens, as a matter of fact, some of it happens in our region too, the woman calls the police, since the man is harassing her, she calls the police, they say they are investigating, and a few nights later, he storms in, and stabs her in her abdomen, and assaults her boyfriend. The sad fact in that case was that her unborn child died during the assault, so this should be brought up whenever it happens, I’m surprised it took 12 years after it happened for the UN to speak about it.
Some of those so-called educated people and know how’s could get me angry.
There are times I do feel that those people who want rules and regulations and who dictate to governments of the world, what they should do and not do and who lord it over them and want to set the rules are themselves stupid. They appear not to possess basic common sense and do not think. With all their credentials and so-called expertise, they are not more intelligent than you and I.
Some of them cannot control what is in their very own homes and their lives yet they set rules for others to follow. Some of them are also godless.
Let us face it. How can the government and even the police protect women from violence? Adults are responsible for themselves. Women of all need to protect themselves.
We reside in a society with all sorts of people. I have always stated that women must be careful whom they associate with. If they are aware that a man is abusive, even only once, then they should do something about it and not allow it to continue.
In bygone years some women accepted it and lived it with. It may be that in those days they had no choice then. Today, women have too many opportunities that they should run away from it. If the abuse continues, they should get away from that environment.
If they choose to associate with men who are abusive and violent, then they asked for it.
Some of them are sent to homes for abusive women only to return to and associate with abusive men.
They should not blame society, governments and police for their lack of responsibility towards themselves.
Men in general need to be counseled. Counseling commences with parents and schools. If those children are not counseled some of them may grow up to be abusive. Furthermore, it is what they observed in the home.
My father never abused my mother. Not once did he hit her. He bore his responsibility as a husband and father. I have brothers as well who are not abusive.
As for me, if I see/experience trouble of whatever nature, I run away from it, be it a consistent argumentative person and one who lacks peace. These people are vexatious to the spirit. How can anyone live happily and peacefully under those circumstances?
Consider this, parents and government – schools, train the children well and they may very well grow up to be loving people and husbands/wives.
There are also women who are abusive towards their husbands. They also need to be counseled.
Most importantly, if the Spirit of God does not prevail in the home and hearts, consider what the result will be.
I have noted the adverse and critical statements of some people who comment on this Website and the language which they use. This tells me a lot about them even though I do not know them. I often wonder what type of adults they are.
What comes out of our mouths which are imbedded in our thoughts, heart, mind and statements tell a lot about us.
There are some people of the world who do need to be transformed into loving people. Education and counseling are necessary for each and every one and if we want a better, loving and respectable society, this is coupled with recognizing and worshipping God and performing acts of love. One does not go without the other.
This is what I would like to inform those UN authorities and others who think they can change the world merely by words and dictatorship to governments.
I reiterate that many of them are godless and do not recognize God. They try to be politically correct by not mentioning God, taking Him away from the schools, from the heart of children, from the home and in society. How can they ever achieve anything and to be successful, fools that they are and little do they know that they deprive others of the grace of God, the same God whom they will be judged by on that day.
This includes all governments of the world.
Holy Scriptures: Fools say in their heart there is no God.