SAFE BlogArchive

From the desk of Lee Newman, Executive Director: SAFE International
Announcement: October 27, 2006
SAFE International and SAFE-NH take a stand along with numerous National and International organizations by signing this UN Resolution in response to the UN Secretary General’s biased study on “Violence Against Women”.

More organizations are signing daily!

If your organization wishes to add your name, please contact:
Lee Newman directly with your request at lee@safe4all.org and we will forward your info. to the appropriate contacts.

Please read the Press Release from 10/23/06 & the UN Resolution below.

2 Internationally respected “experts” who are part of our “team”
at SAFE speak out along with SAFE's Executive Director.
Dr. Murray Straus- Member of SAFE-NH’s Advisory Board
Professor Donald Dutton-Member of the SAFE International Speaker’s Bureau


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2006
Contact: David Usher: 314-452-2297; info@mediaradar.org


UN Violence Report Criticized as Deliberately Biased

Rockville, MD – Leading family violence researchers around the world are disputing the partner violence conclusions of the recent United Nations report, Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Women. The UN study probes the issue of violence directed against women and recommends strategies to combat abuse.

But leading scientists say the report’s approach to partner abuse is fundamentally flawed, and its recommended solutions will not solve the problem of partner aggression.


Lee Newman, Executive Director, SAFE International
and the Director of SAFE-New Hampshire makes note that,
"The UN’s Report ignores the plight and pain of the majority of victims who ask us for assistance every day. In effect this report “sanctions” male victims and ignores the terrorism in their lives simply because they are men. SAFE is a human rights organization that provides outreach, education, crisis level intervention and support for ALL victims of Intimate Partner Violence and Domestic Abuse. In order to live up to our name and our mission we must speak out against the content of this UN Report!"

Dr. Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, notes, “The UN report’s discussion on domestic violence is biased because it deliberately ignores half the problem – female perpetrators. Ending violence against women by male partners is not going to be achieved until women also desist.”
(SAFE-NH Advisory Board member)

Felicity Goodyear-Smith, a physician-researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, believes men and women alike are ill-served by the report: “Studies consistently show that throughout the Western world, men and women initiate physical violence at about equal rates, and frequently partner violence is reciprocal. Portraying inter-partner violence as though it only involves male perpetrators and female victims does both men and women a disservice.”

Donald Dutton, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia believes many studies of intimate partner abuse do not meet even minimum standards of scientific validity: “Much domestic violence research conducted in North America has been so biased that it might be called ‘junk science.’ It has used selective data and interpreted results in a way that depicts all males as real or potential perpetrators, while downplaying female violence.”
(SAFE Speaker’s Bureau member)

Nicola Graham-Kevan, PhD, senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in England, believes that following the report’s recommendations will only allow the problem of spousal abuse to persist: “Research on intimate partner violence consistently finds that men and women use similar types of aggression. By ignoring the mutual nature of much partner violence, the UN ensures that both women and men will continue to be victimised in this way.”


Nearly 200 studies around the world show that men and women are equally likely to engage in partner aggression: www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm . Psychologist John Archer has reported that 38% of persons injured by domestic violence are male.


RADAR – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to assure that the problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner: www.mediaradar.org



RESOLUTION

Regarding the UN Study on Violence Against Women

1. Whereas, the World Health Organization has reported that twice as many men die from violence-related causes as women,
2. Whereas, men are more than three-times more likely than women to die from injuries sustained from armed conflict,1
3. Whereas, 3.5 times as many men commit suicide worldwide as women, 1
4. Whereas, in almost every country around the world, men have shorter life expectancies than women, reaching a 13-year disparity in the Russian Federation,
5. Whereas, a compilation of 195 scientific studies of partner violence concludes, “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with spouses or male partners,”
6. Whereas, according to a Statistics Canada report, 7% of women and 6% of men report violence by a current or previous partner in the previous five years.
7. Whereas, according to a recent international study of severe violence among dating couples, 55% was mutual violence, 16% was male-only, and 29% of violence was female-only.
8. Whereas, the president of the American Psychological Association has recently noted that “Several studies of domestic violence have suggested that males and females in relationships have an equal likelihood of acting out physical aggression,”
9. Whereas, reports from Africa reveal that domestic violence against men is widespread, but men are reluctant to report the abuses, ,

And
10. Whereas, the United Nations recently released the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Women,
11. Whereas, the report ignores the fact that half of all partner violence is mutual, and glosses over the problem of male victimization altogether,
12. Whereas, the report uses misandrous and inflammatory language such as “patriarchal” in falsely stereotyping men,
13. Whereas, leading family violence researchers around the world have criticized the report’s portrayal of domestic violence as being “biased” and ensuring “that both women and men will continue to be victimised in this way,”

And
14. Whereas, programs similar to those proposed by the Secretary-General’s report have caused undesirable outcomes for women,
15. Whereas, the report fails to require persons who allege domestic violence to provide objective evidence of abuse, and false allegations are known to result in harm to children,
16. Whereas, the report also calls for stronger law enforcement and prosecution efforts, which have been shown to result in widespread violations of due process protections,
17. Whereas, the result of such domestic violence programs has been to weaken families, bias divorce proceedings, and deprive children of contact from their fathers.

Therefore, the undersigned organizations urgently call on the Third Committee to:

1. Simply “Note” (but not “Welcome”) the recent Secretary-General’s report.
2. Discourage implementation of the recommendations of the Study on Violence Against Women until its effects on families and children are analyzed and understood.
3. Request incoming UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to undertake a counterpart Study on Violence against Men.


Mark Rosenthal
RADAR: Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting




International
Lee Newman
SAFE International
(Stop Abuse for Everyone)

Australia:
Tony Miller
Dads in Distress

Barry Williams
Lone Fathers’ Association

Micheal Woods
Men’s Health Information & Resource Centre

Sue Price
Men’s Rights Agency

Edward Dabrowski
Shared Parenting Council of Australia

Canada:
Earl Silverman
Family of Men Support Society

Kris Titus
Fathers for Justice – Canada

Brian Johnson
Regina Shared Parenting Network

Ireland:
Nora Bennis
Mothers At Home

Roger Eldridge
National Men's Council of Ireland

Netherlands:
Peter A.N. Tromp
Familyrights4Europe

New Zealand:
Jim Bailey
HandsOnEqualParent Trust

United Kingdom:
Stephen Fitzgerald
The ManKind Initiative

United States of America
Mike McCormick
American Coalition for Fathers and Children

David Usher
American Coalition for Fathers and Children – Missouri

Tom Smith
American Union for Men

Harry Crouch
California Men’s Center, San Diego


Sally Jacobs
Center for Children’s Justice - Carolinas Chapter

James Hays
Coalition of Fathers and Families, NY

Mark Charalambous
CPF/The Fatherhood Coalition

Paul Clements
DADD-NH

Bruce Eden
Dads Against Discrimination (DADS)--New Jersey

James Semerad
DADS and MOMS of Michigan

Michael Burns
Dialogue on Sustainable Community

George Gilliland
Domestic Rights Coalition

Charles Corry, PhD
Equal Justice Foundation

Angela Pedersen
“Father:” A Child’s Right

Mike East
F.A.T.H.E.R.S.

Jeff Golden
Fathers' and Children's Equality (FACE)

Dan Hogan
Fathers and Families

Alan Rusmisel
Fathers 4 Justice

Carl Steppling
Florida Coalition for Families and Children

Don Mathis
The Fourteen Percenter


Alan Millard
Men and Fathers for Justice

Tom Golden
Men’s Equality Conference

Michael G. Rother
National Coalition of Free Men
Deborah Watkins
National Coalition of Free Men-- Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter

Marc Angelucci
National Coalition of Free Men—
Los Angeles Chapter

Judith Brumbaugh
Restoration of the Family

Debra Roy/Joanie Comeau
SAFE (Stop Abuse for Everyone)-NH

Pastor Kenneth Deemer
Shattered Men

Teri Stoddard
Shared Parenting Works

Lisa Scott
TABS: Taking Action against Bias in the System

Terri Lynn Tersak
True Equality Network

Pete Kerr
Walk for Children