Hands Off Women > Chart of intents > Introduction

Introduction

1. Given that

  • physical, psychological, sexual and economic discrimination phenomenon suffered by women is a social emergency at international level;
  • Hands off Women Association – HOW is born to eliminate all forms of violence and coercion suffered by the female gender, whether physical or psychological violence, that could even restrict the inviolable rights of the person, including freedom of expression;
  • the Association purpose is the promotion and protection of human and civil rights of women, children and adolescents.

2. Considered the following international measures 

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10th, 1948 (ARTICLE 3 reads that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment “);
  • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted on December 18th, 1979 by the UN;
  • Declaration of the Council on December 19th, 1991 about the implementation of the Commission Recommendation on the protection of women and men dignity in the labor market, including the Code of Conduct on measures to be taken in the struggle against sexual harassment;
  • United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted in 1993;
  • Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, United Nations General Assembly resolution 48/104 on February 23th, 1994;
  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly on June 10th, 1999 and entered into force on December 10th, 1999;
  • N.54/134 UN Resolution on December 17th, 1999 declaring on November 25th like International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the day commemorating the massacre of the Mirabal Dominican sisters by the police of dictator Trujillo, which occurred in 1960;

and the following Resolutions and Recommendations to struggle violence against women adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:

  • Recommendation 1450 (2000) about violence against women in Europe;
  • Resolution 1212 (2000) about rape during armed conflicts;
  • Resolution 1247 (2001) about female genital mutilations;
  • Recommendation 1582 (2002) about domestic violence against women;
  • Resolution 1327 (2003) about so-called “honor crimes”;
  • Recommendation 1663 (2004) about domestic slavery “;
  • Recommendation 1681 (2004) about the Campaign to struggle domestic violence against women;
  • Recommendation 1723 (2005) about forced and minority marriages;
  • Recommendation Rec (2002) 5 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States about the protection of women against violence adopted on April 30th, 2002 as the first international instrument to propose a comprehensive strategy to prevent violence and protect victims and still is one of the fundamental legislative measures at the European level in this field, to struggle violence against women. The Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Council of Europe have recognized the importance of struggling violence against women at the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government, held on May 16th and 17th, 2005 in Warsaw have therefore decided to launch a campaign to struggle violence against women, including domestic violence, whose technical project was approved by the Committee of Ministers on June 21th, 2006 and the launching conference which took place on November 27th, 2006 in Madrid;
  • in 2006 was also set up the Council of Europe Task Force to struggle Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence, which has the task of assessing the progress achieved at national level during the implementation of this Campaign;
  • Vienna Declaration on April 30th, 2008 “Stop to domestic violence”;
  • European Parliament Resolution on April 5th, 2011 about priorities and definition of a new EU policy on struggling violence against women;

and that subscribers subjects share the need to:

  • eliminate all forms of violence and coercion suffered by the female gender, whether physical or psychological violence, that could even restrict the inviolable rights of the person, including freedom of expression;
  • to include in the concept of violence every discrimination and inequality suffered because of sex, age, social status, disability, ethnicity, religious and philosophical conviction, sexual orientation;
  • to create an international cooperation having as main purpose setting an international network  between different associations established, institutionalized organizations or even spontaneous and under private formations, that have as their common aim to thwart the problem of violence against women in the world;
  • to ensure and implement a network between local areas and the Centers of reception and assistance in the whole belonging national territory able to move in a logic of integration to making them available to the international network;
  • to promote and implement a network between the associations established, institutionalized organizations or even spontaneous and under private formations, on an international level by putting them in conjunction with each other in order to create integration and cooperation in a spirit of solidarity;
  • to ensure the development of all the professionals that come into contact with the issues of violence in order to spread more and more about the culture of human rights and in particular women;
  • to calculate a structured collection of data and information of the phenomenon of violence against women in the world, to understand it better and thwart its spread;
  • to create an information and popular network for good practices to be able to recall and apply at the international level;
  • to promote initiatives aimed at strengthening the role of women and their specific individuality, especially in territories where the principle of equal opportunities is not rooted and where the number of physical and psychological violence is growing;
  • to give assistance and protection to women victims of violence by working with any kind of help and assistance even with long distance adoptions;
  • to promote and pursue education to the interaction between the different cultures of the peoples; to promote the different cultural, social and historical exhibitions and to preserve the cultural variety as a treasure of Humanity;

Agree as follows:

1. It consists of the International Informal Network “HOW” represented by all the subscribers of the Chart  of Intents.

The network will develop coordinated actions with the aim of promoting and implementing initiatives to struggle violence against women of all ages around the world;

The subscribers of the International Informal Network “HOW” commit themselves to carry out any useful activities for the pursuit of shared aims and in particular:

  • taking any action from time to time be deemed necessary and with the last aim to intervene in behalf of women victims of violence in the world;
  • promoting and support awareness campaigns aimed at gathering of capital for the purposes of the international network and for the undertaken purposes;
  • publishing, writing, printing, issuing and circulating any document, magazine, book, newspaper, broadcast, film, poster and using any other means of information for the achievement of its aims;
  • providing training for specialized operators  through the organization of courses, seminars, meetings and conferences;

2. Hands Off Women HOW Association promotes, for the achievement of shared aims, the provision of scholarship finalized to the realization of social communication on human and civil rights of women and children. It also promotes trainings and initiatives to support female entrepreneurship.

3. The subscribers commit themselves to share the work done and inspired by the principles laid down in mind, and in section 1 of the act.