“Young person, 23, dies at hands of boyfriend” titles a recent article in El Tiempo. Two short sentences – that’s it -  saying the woman was murdered because of what seems to be infidelity. The article is a perfect example of the way the media portrays domestic violence that ends in death: an individual tragedy, an isolated case, a simple, horrible homicide.

Although it is indeed a tragedy, it isn’t isolated. According to a recent study by Casa de la Mujer, a Colombian women’s organization, between 1,200 and 1,500 women are killed every year in Colombia – three a day – and only 16% of these murders can be attributed to “armed groups”. Many of them were committed by men who said “they loved them”.

Sculpture of Woman by Caleño Artist

Last Thursday, I met with family lawyers at Asopropaz (Asocación de Profesionales por la Paz), an organization that encourages peaceful resolution of conflicts and works with domestic violence cases. They were surprised by the “armed” side of the Disarming Domestic Violence campaign and didn’t seem convinced that firearms are an issue in Cali. “In Colombia, it’s not like in Canada or in the United States, where there’s a gun in every home”, they said. They argued that only delinquents, gang members and the rich own arms in Cali – and never use them in their own homes. To them, most people in the poorest neighborhoods can’t afford guns and are more likely to use knives when they become violent.

Yet today again, the headlines of El Pais, Cali’s main newspaper, affirm that there are about 200,000 firearms in Cali, which is equivalent to one for 10 people! Contrary to what the lawyers at Asopropaz said about the importance of knives, statistics from the Social Observatory of Cali demonstrate that 90% of murders are committed by firearms, which people can acquire by a variety of means, including stealing and making them themselves.

The Disarming Domestic Violence campaign aims to make the link between the presence of firearms in the home and violence against women, which is not obvious to everyone. Many women choose to live with men who own guns because it makes them feel safer or because it gives them a sense of increased influence and status. In reality, statistics show that a woman is three times more likely to die at the hands of her partner if there’s a gun around. It may seem surprising that someone would use a gun against someone they love or live with. My professor Nancy Workman commented on my first post, “all families fight, and they all tend to fight about the same issues”: in the heat of passion, jealousy, anger, everyone acts in ways they later regret. If there’s alcohol or drugs involved, the situation gets worse. If there’s a gun around, well, you already know the statistics. Even more common than murder, a gun can do a lot of psychological damage and bolster other forms of domestic violence, as I’ve written in another post.

Sculpture of Woman by Caleño Artist

Collecting data in Cali on armed domestic violence will prove to be very challenging. “When a woman is killed by her partner, the crime is officially registered as a ‘homicide’ and not ‘domestic violence’”, explained a psychologist from Asopropaz. Both guns and domestic violence are complex issues with deep psychological ramifications. Domestic violence involves bounds of affection and obligation. As for guns, studies show that, in addition to wanting a firearm for self-defense, men who feel socially marginalized and disempowered are attracted to the power and influence associated with owning a gun.

This campaign is not an easy one. The disparity between the lawyers’ perspective and the statistics is disconcerting. Who is right? Could the lawyers simply not be aware of the reality in the neighborhoods? Or are the statistics in El Pais skewed? Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I will be able to answer these questions. Most likely, I will find truth in both. In the meantime, Asopropaz has agreed to support the campaign and help in data collection, and tomorrow I hope to discuss with them the articles in El Pais.

I just arrived in Cali yesterday and I cannot think of a more exciting time to work on gun-related issues in Colombia. In the past few weeks, municipal governments have been implementing a variety of ambitious disarmament campaigns, whose media coverage, which includes leading newspapers and magazines from left to right, is remarkable.

Bogotá and Cali’s municipalities have been particularly active in the past few weeks. Bogotá’s campaign, “Amar es desarmarte” (To love is to disarm) includes pedagogical work in neighborhoods, artistic performances and a program to swap weapons for vouchers of up to 300,000 pesos (150$US). The District Administration of Bogotá also banned the carrying of arms in the capital, including for those who have gun licenses, for 10 days until July 3rd. The authorities aim to reduce violent deaths by up to 13%. In May, Cali launched “El Plan Desarme” which prohibited the bearing of arms for a month. According to the police, 128 firearms were confiscated during that period.

These campaigns, which have been going on since 1996, have not, however, been sufficient to address the devastating impact of weapons, as figures of the National Institute of Legal Medicine show. The murder rate in Bogotá, one of the highest in the world with 21 per 100,000 inhabitants, is still below other Colombian cities like Cali, with a rate of 67 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

Andres Restrepo, Assistant Secretary of the municipal government of Bogotá, emphasized to Semana that these campaigns are part of “an effort to ‘remove’ from the collective consciousness …that through the use of arms one can resolve conflicts.” Restrepo noted that there is an estimated three to four million firearms in Colombia, of which only one million are legal; he also added that there is no precise data about the illegal market.

Clara Lopez, Secretary of the municipal government of Bogotá, reported to El Espectador that “in over 16 citizen disarmament campaigns, there have been delivered 6369 guns, 91,111 rounds of ammunition and 651 explosive devices.”

“Disarmament is a public necessity, because the more weapons are held by the public, whether legal or illegal, the more insecurity there is, and the more likely crime, homicide, robbery and personal injury will occur. Arms are used as a form of domination over others; they rule out dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts. Disarmament is a national imperative”, she added.

Guns are even becoming an electoral issue, though a minor one. The Liberal presidential hopeful and former Chief Prosecutor Alfonso Gómez Mendez told El Tiempo that if elected President, he would impose general disarmament in the country. Although he is only a minor candidate and not the favorite of the party, his strong position on the issue is still noteworthy. <

This is an approximate translation of his speech to El Tiempo: “Not a day goes by without us hearing on the radio, seeing on television or reading in the newspapers that citizens, innocent citizens, are victims of what we have come to call the ‘stray bullets.’ This is a result of the fact that many people own arms in this country. If I become president, I will implement a policy of general disarmament. The only people who can use weapons are members of the police, the army and State security forces, but citizens have no reason to be armed. I will regain the State’s monopoly of the use of arms. We citizens must trust them and cease to bear arms.”

Stay tuned for the next blog post about how women are being killed by those who love them most because of the presence of guns in their homes!

Global Week of Action Picnic

Despite the challenge of planning an event in the rush of finishing the semester, the difficulty of bringing Parisians to the “banlieue” and several downpours throughout the day, friends, fellow students and I had great discussions about the issues. Everyone contributed to the campaign either financially or by signing up to become new “e-mentors” and read my blog. Most participants are now proud owners of the key chains, stickers and bracelets that IANSA had sent me. Thank you to everyone who showed their support!

Discovering the issues

Signing up to be e-mentors

Our discussion often took turns that I had not expected. Having seen Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine”, many people raised the issue of armed domestic violence in the US. I had not given it much thought before, but it’s obviously a problem there. Connie Culp, the first U.S. recipient of a face transplant, had lost her nose, eyelids, many other facial features and the ability to breathe on her own or eat solid food when she was shot by her husband in 2004.

In France, although arms aren’t considered a huge issue because few people own them or use them, the statistics show that approximately 6 women are killed by their partners every month. Although most of these deaths are not by firearms, guns are becoming an issue here as well, as the recent death of a teenager in the Paris suburbs shows. Last Sunday, he died after having been shot in the head during in a gang fight. Two other teenagers were hit but survived.  These stories only show the necessity of starting a global campaign against armed domestic violence, as both guns and domestic violence are a problem everywhere.

Explaining the link

Campaign sticker

Before leaving, I have enjoyed helping to raise my friends and fellow students’ awareness, but what is really exciting and encouraging are all the great outreach contacts I’ve been making. Patrice Bouveret, president of the Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Paix et les Conflits, offered to help AP fellow Fanny Grandchamp and I organize an event in the fall to present our work. Patricio Scaff and Frédéric Louault from OPALC, a political observatory on Latin America connected to Sciences Po, agreed to put a link to my blog on the OPALC website and asked me to prepare a “dossier thématique”, a thematic study analyzing the issue of armed domestic violence in Colombia from two or three key angles. They are also interested in helping me organize a colloquium at Sciences Po when I return.

Amnesty France, who organized a T-shirt design contest for the Global Week of Action, is really enthusiastic about the DDV campaign. Benoit Muracciole, who’s in charge of the Control Arms campaign and Moïra Sauvage, from the Women’s Commission, believe that this is a great opportunity to start getting involved with IANSA’s Women’s Network. Moïra will be telling the Women’s Commission about us and hopefully some of them will be reading our blogs this summer.

All my phone and in-person conversations about the campaign and field work have been very inspiring and motivating. I can’t wait to start working in the field next week.

Finally, here’s my introduction video: <

“An adaptor. All I need is an adaptor.” It’s getting dark, my body is aching, I’m feeling weak from hunger and fatigue and I’m making a racket with my suitcase rattling behind me on the metal footbridge at Canary Wharf, in London. People are giving me looks. I’m just hoping a shop with adaptors will magically appear in front of me, or perhaps more likely, an internet café, but everything is closed already. I look at my cell phone and realize that it’s already 8:34 and I’m supposed to meet Meijinder, who I’m staying with, in a half an hour. I had planned to sit in a café and write my first blog post for the fellowship training that starts tomorrow morning. Except that my computer ran out of juice. And, because London is only two hours away from Paris, I forgot that the British always have to remind everyone that they’re an island, even with their own “special” power outlets.

This summer, I’m going to Cali, Colombia as an Advocacy Project Peace Fellow to work with Colectivo Dignidad Humana, a member of the Women’s Network of IANSA, an international network of about 1000 civil society organizations working to reduce gun violence. A couple hours before my little hustle trying to find an adaptor, I am discovering the warm, friendly and busy IANSA headquarters in London a day before training starts. I have the privilege of sitting down for a quick briefing with the IANSA director, Rebecca Peters, who just travelled to Colombia a few weeks ago, and the Advocacy Project director Iain Guest.

Because NGOs in Colombia have been fixed on the war and opposition to Uribe, Colombia’s president, guns are only just becoming worth discussing in their own right, explains Rebecca. Many people don’t realize that the main cause of death in Colombia is not the war, but the use of guns in crime, including domestic violence. Statistics on the number of guns in Colombia and registered gun users are very hard to find, especially because the government considers guns a “military issue” deserving secrecy. As for domestic violence, there isn’t much reliable data either. Most victims don’t report it, for various reasons: they’re afraid, they don’t trust the police, they don’t know who to talk to or they think it’s a normal part of life. The general attitude is to treat domestic violence as a “private matter”.

IANSA headquarters

IANSA headquarters in London

I’m one of nine AP fellows helping IANSA launch a new campaign called “Disarming Domestic Violence”. My job will be to collect information, stories and anecdotes, make video-interviews, take pictures and publish press releases on armed domestic violence in Colombia, which is currently not very well documented. This blog is a central part of my fellowship and one of the key ways in which I will help disseminate the story of Colectivo Dignidad Humana.

Why is it important to start a campaign on armed domestic violence specifically? In the home, guns not only increase the chances that a woman will die, but they are used to subjugate, intimidate, threaten and sexually abuse women. Guns also make it much harder for a third person to intervene and for a woman to escape. “A woman can run away from a fist or a knife, but not a gunshot”, explains Sarah Masters, IANSA’s Women Network coordinator.

It’s now Thursday night. I never managed to find an adaptor, but I was able to write this post on Meijinder’s computer this morning just before training started. After a very full day of training, I’m exhausted again, but very happy and excited to work with such a great team of people at IANSA and AP.