Código: OP 12

Millions of women in the Americas and around the globe suffer the effects of physical, sexual, and emotional violence in their own homes every day. Their pain is too often silent and invisible to the rest of the world. Yet as many as one out of every three women are victims of gender-based violence, one of the most widespread human rights and public health problems in the world today.

Gender-based violence—and how communities can put an end to it—is the focus of a recently released book by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Violence against Women: The Health Sector Responds is the fruit of nearly a decade of field experiences by PAHO and its partners—at the community, national, and international levels—in 10 Latin American countries. The book's production, a collaborative effort with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), shares the findings of PAHO's early research into the health situation of women, what they revealed about the extent of gender-based violence, and the launching in 1995 of a pilot project in Central America to address this issue. Using an integrated community approach involving the health sector, along with the legal, juridical, educational, religious and NGO sectors, buttressed by the development of national policies and laws, the PAHO strategy has helped create more than 150 local anti-violence networks throughout Latin America.

The second part of Violence against Women: The Health Sector Responds highlights the results of the project's recent evaluation and includes numerous insights by health workers, schoolteachers, police and court officials, women's advocates, and other community leaders regarding the effectiveness of the project's approach. Most revealing of all, however, is the voices of the women themselves, as they describe living with violence and the community's response to their needs.

The book's final chapter presents a global perspective on how the lessons learned in Central America and PAHO's integrated strategy may be applied in other communities around the world. As world human rights activist and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela notes in the chapter's closing, "Violence can be prevented. In my own country and around the world, we have shining examples of how violence has been countered. Governments, communities, and individuals can make a difference."

Reseñas

Autor: Nigerian Journal of Clinical and Counselling Psychology
“The work presented in this excellent book would find immediate applicationin other countries where it could be really adapted to the local, cultural, and national conditions. PAHO needs to be congratulated for providing cogent answers and leads that yield practical results for addressing GBV.”

Autor: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
“This book is an important information resource for public health professionals involved in tackling gender based violence (GBV) because it offers a summary of the main strategies developed by PAHO in Latin America. The strength of this information resource is the human perspective of GBV that makes visible women and professional voices. […]. It is also interesting for other professionals because it breaks with the health sector’s absence in actions for tackling GBV.”

Autor: Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 2005
“This is a mustread for service providers, academicians, and individuals interested in shedding light on the pandemic of gender-based violence. […] this book makes readers aware than ending violence is (and should be) a complex, multilayered, multilevel initiative.”

Autor: Australian Health Review, Journal of the Australian Health Care Association. Vol. 28, No. 3
“This excellent report complements and extends World Health Organization efforts to emphasize the importance of health sector reform to combat gender-based violence. […] For Australian readers interested in Australian health care reform, the value of this report lies both in the proposed model and processes used to drive the reform and the excellent resources and bibliography.”
“The flexible, participatory and respectful approach which the authors of this blueprint for health system reform have outlined, and the resources they document of the final pages, are recommended not only for urban-focused policymakers, but will be of particular interest to those involved in and concerned for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence and health system reform”.

Autor: Affilia Journal of Women and Social Work
“[… Readers of this book will find that PAHO’s experiences, from initial data gathering to final recommendations, may suggest modifications in the ways in which violence against women is addressed in the United States. The book is well-written, well-documented, and comprehensive yet concise. Readers who are interested in the prevention and treatment of violence, as well as those who are interested in the process of social change, will find this book to be well worth the two or three hours it takes to read.”

Autor: Australian Institute of Family
“Although based in Latin America, the stories told and the lessons learnt are unsurprisingly all too familiar to workers in the field in Australia. The appeal of this book rests not only in its richness, through quotes and stories, but also in the simplicity of the ideas that it conveys about the ways in which we as a community can address gender based violence.”

Autor: Joan Serra Hoffman, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Co
“Congratulations on the excellent book. … The national academic centers of excellence in youth violence … have shared it with their community partners, many of whom work with Latino populations. The book is very valuable and serves as an organizing tool, and meets a need for many communities here as well."

Autor: Choice
“Velzeboer and colleagues describe results of a ten-year effort to organize prevention, detection, and care for women living with violence in Central and South America. The hope is that PAHO’s “critical path” and “lessons learned” may be applied globally. Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals.”

Autor: Deborah R. Maiese, M.P.A., Director, Office of Women’s Health, Department of Health & Human Services of the United States
“Congratulations on the release of your latest publication on gender-based violence (GBV), Violence Against Women: The Health Sector Responds. … Lessons learned from Central American nations participating in the “Critical Path” initiative provide a useful starting point from which to assess the health sector response to GBV at state, local, and programmatic levels.”

Autor: Journal of The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health
“This incisive book deals with the central American situation. It is well researched and argued and adopts a critical path and systems-based approach. It provides copious quotations from those affected and providers, and indicates sound practice and resources. One can but hope that this excellent compact publication will make the impact it deserves.”

Autor: Chilean writer Isabel Allende
“Listen to the voices of these women and girls telling their stories. They are asking us to hear them and do something about gender-based violence, the most pervasive form of abuse in the world.”

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Authors and Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Section I. The Health Sector Responds to Gender-Based Violence

Chapter One. Gender-Based Violence: a Public Health and Human Rights Problem
Chapter Two. The “Critical Path” Studies: From Research to Action
Chapter Three. Joining Forces to Address Gender-Based Violence in the Americas

Section II. Lessons Learned from Central America

Chapter four. Policy and Legal Reforms on Gender-Based Violence
Chapter five. The Health Sector: Building an Integrated Approach
Chapter six. What Happen at the Clinic?
Chapter seven. Beyond the Clinic: Violence Prevention with Other Community Partner
Chapter eight. Global Implications: The PAHO Approach to Gender-Based Violence

GBV Resources Section
Bibliography and References

Violence against Women: The Health Sector Responds. Available in Electronic Format